London Track Cycling World Cup - The EXPERIENCE

**This blog is about the experience of attending a track cycling meet, for a blog about the sporting aspect, please see my Grupetto blog post **

Waking up at 6:30am for a 7:07 track to take me to Stratford International for the final day of the 2012 UCI Track Cycling world cup in London. Upon arrival I walked over to the Olympic Park gates, showed my ticket and walked on in. Then the busses came, and a little morning bus tour of the park, which is looking AMAZING!
The velodrome, largely called the "pringle" due to its outside is by far the most impressive building in the park.





Upon entering the velodrome, the heat suddenly hits you leaving a cold winters day to a sort of tropical heat created in the name of speed. Time to sit down, sit back and enjoy the days racing, and what a day of racing it was, Chris Hoy, Victoria Pendleton, Jason Kenny, Jess Varnish and Laura Trott and Matt Crampton, and they were just the Brits. On the international front there were huge names such as Anna Mears, Maximilian "thigh" Levy and Gregory Bauge.
Prices in the velodrome were sort of high, a bag of crisps and coke set me back almost £4, which is quite expensive but a great day was had and I cannot wait for the London Olympics to roll round. BRING ON AUGUST.

Bienvenue chez les ch'tis

Whilst over in France last summer, I bought Rien à déclarer, I then saw on the back after the success of Bienvenue chez les ch'tis. I decided to hunt down the film, I did and below is a few thoughts on the film and why it is wonderful.

It's a simple film that clearly plays of stereotypes that southerners have of those living in the north (although perhaps slightly exagerated for comic effect). Phillipe Abrams (Kad Merad) cheats his way to a transfer to the south, having being found out, he gets a disciplinary transfer up to the "belle ville de Bergues". Whilst there he discovers the Ch'ti language and that the stereotypes are indeed false and that the Nord pas-de-calais is actually a very nice region. However his wife believes otherwise and thinks he is having a horrible time and so comes to visit with a hillarious set of events following this.

The film is the brain child of Dany Boon, who loves his region of the Nord Pas-de-Calais, this comes through in the film to many extents, not least the magnificent shots of the town and the coastal region. The film never fails to make me smile, even having seen it 3-4 times. (I think after the first time I even had a tear in my eye when he left the town at the end). The subtitles are very cleverly done, the translator understands the jokes and whilst in translation they are changed, the essence of the language barrier of French and Ch'ti is maintained (Sien/Chien.  Office/Fish).

The film performed very well in France breaking all the records including the ones set by James Cameron's Titanic to become France's most sucessfull film of all time.

Bravo Dany!    (Rien à déclarer is also must see).

SOPA - Internet blackout day

Today has been the day of the Internet blackout, sites such as Wikipedia have gone totally offline to protest against the new piracy laws in the United States. An infringement of privacy? Or of freedom?  That is for you to decide, however the video above explains the law, I felt it important to feature it here.

200 days until the Olympic Games in London

The 27th July 2012 is 200 days away, it's a significant date as it is the date of the 2012 Olympic Games opening ceremony in London opening 2 weeks of the biggest show in the world, and it's on our doorstep and we should celebrate that. I know that come July the country will have Olympic fever and it's something I'm really looking forward to.
In this blog, I will discuss Olympic pins. Pins are the number one collectible at the games, one of the only things that remains a constant really between summer and winter games. London 2012 are releasing 2012 individual pins to celebrate the games celebrating many things including the games themselves, British culture and London. Come games time the number one spectator sport will swing into action with pin traders spread out across the capital hoping to trade pins and make new friends. This is facilitated by Coca-Cola setting up official pin trading centres.

This (to the left) is most of my current pin collection, although I hope this to expand rapidly during the year ahead collecting venue pins, and the olympic day by day pins. I was first aware of collecting after the Beijing games, and got the 4 years to go pin and one of the Beijing handover pins. From there I got the 3 year to go pin. My father then went to Calgary, Canada and I asked him to buy a selection of Vancouver 2010 pins, and he did. To me these are some of the more "special" pins in my collection, the pins themselves are not rare but I like them and are some of my favourites. I have the two London 2012 issued Vancouver-London handover pins, a 2 year to go pin and two sport pictogram pins (which again I hope to expand with the sport pictograms of all the sports I am going to see at the least). I have a theatre one and two london landmark pins. A nature pin which I quite like. Then two 500 days to go pins as I decided it was a large enough milestone to get the two. The mirrored effect 2012 logo pin was one I bought at my Gamesmaker interview. I adore the two mascot pins I have with the grenadier guard and the beefeater guard. After the Royal wedding I bought a Westminster london borough pin. As I visit the London 2012 shop a lot, I decided to buy the shop pin which is actually quite a rare pin, just 2012 of them exist. The bottom london 2012 union flag logo was given to volunteers at the London-Surrey cycle classic. Finally the ticketing pin is as I managed to get tickets to the London 2012 Olympic games.

My pin wishlist for 2012 is simple: Venue pins, More pictogram pins, countdown pins, torch relay pins and olympic and paralympic day by day pins. I'd also love to buy more culture pins as well.

Pin collecting, once you get one (non logo pin) then you are really hooked.

Winter Wonderland - Hyde Park

It's January, perfect timing for a blog with a Christmas theme then!
This December I came across something called the "Winter Wonderland" in Hyde Park, London. I had never heard of it, but it sounded good enough. A £14.50 day travelcard was purchased and off I went to take a look, and I am glad I did.

I had just finished the first term of University; plenty of assignments and exams handed in the week before, I was not in the Christmas spirit quite yet. Then, I walked through the gates of the Winter Wonderland.
Firstly let me explain exactly what it is. Winter Wonderland is a park full of everything you associate with Christmas (commercially that is), and a fairground. The moment you walk in, you are greeted with this Christmas market. Not one of these fashionable "German markets" (though there is one). Just a market selling the little novelty things that make everyone smile. What on earth would you do with a wooden tie? Nevertheless you could buy one and people crowded round to take a look. (Honestly, they are quite good actually).

Next is the food section, whatever you fancy is there, hog roast, fish and chips, Creps, Bratwurst sausages. Moving on even more to the Bavarian Village. This was my favourite bit. There was everything German located right here. Bratwurst stands, German bars and even fairground rides imported straight from Germany including the biggest funhouse I have ever seen. We stopped off for lunch at a bar. I had a standard Bratwurst hot dog, my sister had a Currywurst. It was comfy, warm and delicious.
The rides were (as expected), overpriced. £6 for a go on the Ferris wheel. There was something for everyone. I will certainly be going next year and I will take more cash along too and make sure I go on a ride or two, and maybe that funhouse.