This one goes to Eleven

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Beach Volleyball – story by Elliott Almond – pix by me

Women’s Water Polo – story by Elliott Almond – pix by me

Laundry this morning, finally.  In the building next door the laundry machines are free!  (Normally you have to pay – but I guess for the Olympics they set them as free) – didn’t take too long either:

I got to the train stop one minute before the train was supposed to leave and I was all excited because it said it was the Stratford International train, which never happens, that meant I wouldn’t have to transfer anywhere!  But about four stops from the Stratford International they all of the sudden “terminated” the line… so everyone had to get off and change trains.  oh well, I tried to take a picture the “Stratford International” sign but didn’t show up:

After the DLR went to the MPC because I wanted to get some more cough medicine.  This morning was bad, has a relapse.  Since 2000, I’ve only called in sick, I think, 5-6 times.  Today I would have called in sick for sure.   I swear I’m allergic to something in my room.  I was able to get some more medicine but didn’t have enough time to run to the doctor as I ran out of antibiotics.  Will try and do that tomorrow morning.  I went back to the MPC hoping to get some of that beef stew but they didn’t have it.  But next to McDonald’s there is a “Grill” place – and I had a nice steak.  Was running a little behind so finished up and went to the bus to get to the Water Polo venue.

Ran into one of our former columnists – Ann Killion – it was good to see her, we chatted for a little bit – then she had to do a live thingy with KFOG – that was cool.  So the swim venue is about 50 feet away from the water polo venue… but we aren’t allowed to walk between venues (at least the short way – we can walk up to the Olympic Stadium and then back down – that’s a haul).  For some reason the bus doesn’t drop off in front of the media center – it drops off about 1,000 feet from it?  sigh.  As we were getting off the bus John was on the lower level.

USA Women were playing Australia – we could only stay for the first half because we had to book over to Women’s Beach Volleyball – for Kerri Walsh.  So we shot the first half and then packed up.  It was a little bit of a disaster – John and I walked with Elliott – he said he had a great route – which it probably was if there hadn’t been a gillion people around.  The mall was just completely insane.  We kinda bailed on him and walked over from the Stratford Station to the Stratford International Station and ended up taking the Javelin down… the Javelin is super cool – it goes about 140 mph and reaches downtown in about 10 minutes with no other stops, and it has a bathroom and nice seats:

The Javelin terminates at the Kings Cross station – apparently this is the station to get to Hogwarts – Harry Potter!  John said there is a platform named 9 1/2 – didn’t have time to see it though!:

We took a few Tube lines – Victoria to Northern (but went south) to the media entrance, well it was the media entrance that has been working for the past week.  Today all of the sudden we are told that we can no longer use that entrance, that we have to walk around.  “Around” is a 20 minute walk.  Considering the media center was one minute away from where we were we were quite pissed.  It made no sense because fans could still go through that entrance as well.  The kicker is that Paul arrived about an hour later and they let him through there.  Typically as the days go by things at the Olympics (logistical things) get easier – here they are getting more difficult.

Luckily the rain held off and Kerri Walsh Jennings and Misty May-Treanor were able to defeat the Chinese team – they barely did but it was a fun match.

Afterwards John and Paul and I went to the Chinese restaurant Elliott and I had eaten at a few days ago – Super Star Chinese Restaurant.  We walked in the rain but it was worth it, since I wasn’t feeling too well had three bowls of soup and a small appetizer.  Elliott was able to join us and we took the Northern Line to the Central Line to the DLR back to the dorms.  Hoping I feel better tomorrow…

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