My London 2012 Olympic diary: Day 9

Day 9: How to make it rain indoors?

The second to last day of the London 2012 Olympics did not start as we originally planned it. Exhausted by our Olympic efforts all week long, we decided to give our Saturday morning event a miss and replace it by a deserved rest. We should have wake up when the sun rises and have a long commute towards Windsor castle and the lake where canoe events were happening.

We took the option of staying in bed instead of travelling and watched the event on television while having breakfast. The canoe sprint is one of these events where anybody in the world can register. With the exception of running and swimming, this might actually be the most practised sport in the world outside of any regulation. Everywhere you find a river, a lake or the sea; you’ll find people rowing in the sometimes very unsteady boats.

We could feel this fact while reading the starting lists for these races: Cook Island, Ecuador, Angola, Samoa, Azerbaijan, Iran or Singapore where amongst the countries represented. In true Olympic spirit, these people deserved all my admiration despite most of the time finishing their races in almost twice the world record timing, or even looking very close to capsize their boat...

Once this session completed as well as our preparation for the rest of the day, we took off, walking along Wimbledon Park towards the other Italo-Colombian house we knew in London. Indeed, Erika was in charge of babysitting Andrew while we enjoyed the show I offered to Alexia on the previous day. As it was the first time we left him to somebody outside our parents, Erika and Matteo had the chance to listen to all our advices put together.

Only then we left for the West End. We grabbed a Pret-à-manger meal on our way and entered the beautifully carved Palace theatre was currently staging the world famous “Singing in the rain” musical. Before I met Alexia, I never attended any musical show. Since then I saw a dozen of them in London including a few I volunteered for by purchasing the tickets myself. And of course I began to like it, as long as there was some sort of comedy in it.

This one was fitting in the description, we sung along but we although laughed a lot. The original Gene Kelly movie was already 70 years old but the staging we witnessed made it look like a fresh new show, modern and dynamic. The special effect director required here managed to make it rain on the stage. Twice. Luckily (or not)we were on the balcony and did not have the chance to get splashed as the first ranks did when the main comedian came tap dancing on the edge of a drenched stage...

The next stop was a shop in Leicester square. Why this one? Because it was not here when we left London and because it’s full of blue M&M’s!!! This huge shop opened shortly after our departure from the UK and offered me the chance to make my own bag of sweets containing only the finest of their range, the blue balls. We left the place with a bag full of blue dots and decided it was time to relieve a Colombian girl from her babysitting duty.

Andrew was very happy to see us back even if he had a great time in the park with his nanny. We then enjoyed some delicious Italian pasta before taking the bumpy road back leading to our bed. One day remaining...