Memories

Has the Olympics sparked any memories for you?
One of the events I love in the summer Olympics (and I don't like many as I love the winter Olympics much more) is the equestrian events.
The show jumping and the cross country in the 3-day event is enough to have me glued to the tv for the entire event.

They actually do a 3-day event in Auckland at the beginning of December. Steve and I have been once or twice, think we may have to go again one year and take the boys. It is such fun.

Anyhow, back to my memories......the equestrian events make me think of an amazing film that I loved as a child, must have been a child as it was made in 1978.

 International Velvet

That wonderful sequel to National Velvet

I was never into National Velvet, although when you look at it today and see the wonderful cast involved, I am amazed at who was in it Elizabeth Taylor, Mickey Rooney, Angela Landsbury all as young children.

However I loved the sequel International Velvet. The story of a young girl Sarah, who is orphaned by a car accident and goes to live with her aunt, Velvet Brown (yes a now grown up). She still has her famous horse Pi and when a foal is born of Pi's Sarah falls in love with the foal and names him Arizona Pi and what follows is her story of horse riding and eventually attending the Olympics for the British Team.

It contains some amazing actors:
Nanette Newman plays the aunt, Velvet Brown

Her partner in the movie is non other than a young Christopher Plumber

The other main character is Captain Johnson, the horse riding coach who is played by the wonderful Anthony Hopkins, a very young Hopkins I might add

The young niece, Sarah is played by Tatum O'Neal and she does a great job, seeing as the whole movie is based around her.

Now you do have to remember, if you ever get the chance to watch this movie, that it was made in England in 1978, it is old and will show in the style of movie and the acting. However it is a lovely story and will sadly be one that you require a box of tissues for, because even though there are sad parts the happy parts will have you reaching for a tissue just as fast. It is heart warming.

Brain Welfare

The child welfare people may not be happy with us over the next 2 weeks as we are encouraging a hell of a  lot of television watching. This as we all know, goes well against everything that is ever told about how much we should be encouraging our children to watch and also what is good for their welfare and development.
BUT the Olympics only comes around ever 2 years (with the fact that they have now separated the summer and winter to different years) and we are loving how much the boys are wanting to know about different sports that up until now they have never watched.

Ok it only started 3-4 days ago but we have seen some awesome stuff in that time.
We have cheered at the Judo, encouraged the rowers, watched in awe at the diving and consoled with the cyclists as they all crashed in the first 4 mins.
We have had amazing fun watching high level judo whilst watching them do such basic moves that the boys can see how important it is to know the basics.

We have watched the dressage, of course not something to have been seen before and judged the synchronised diving to see how in time together they really are?

The opening ceremony was not the greatest, I can honestly say I have seen better over the years, it is my favourite part after all. But it had some great moments in it. The boys just loved Mr Bean aka Rowan Atkinson playing the keyboard, very well done.

So like the rest of the world, the world has stopped for 2 weeks. Many people I know have already confessed to having had some very late nights, as the time difference means that it is all on during the night here if you want to watch it live! 1 friend also said that church was very empty on Sunday morning, obviously as everyone was just getting their sleep ready for another hard day of tv watching!

For us, we are just glad that New Zealand has been so kind as to show a lot of judo (especially as there is no one from NZ in that sport this year) as the boys are enjoying it as much as Steve is.

For me, I love the cross country and show jumping.

So I wish you all well, hope you find a sport you love to watch and get to enjoy all it has to offer.
I look forward to catching up with you in a few weeks time if you happen to go missing at any stage during the next few weeks!

Game Time

Yes it has finally arrived, the much waited for Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver, Canada.

I love the Winter Olympics

I just love everything about it, the thrill of the down hill skiing, ice skating, luging, curling just everything.
I would, if possible, take 2 weeks of work, resign from the human race and veg for the whole time watching it. Even if this meant I had to live nights and sleep during the day to capture the coverage with the time differences!
Which given we are always in the midst of our summertime when ever the Winter Games are on, is pretty much, all the time!

So, having just enjoyed the intense Women's Moguls, and it was thrilling, USA Gold and Bronze, Cananda Silver, and I so wanted the young 18 yr old Canadian to get a medal, unfortunately she came 5th, I have some very busy evenings ahead of me catching up on the days events that I will be missing whilst at work

For Christmas, Steve brought me a new game for the Wii, 'Mario and Sonic at the Winter Olympics'.
The boys have loved playing this game and have grasped some idea of downhill skiing, iceskating etc so I am loving being able to show them real people doing real games, although they do keep asking when Mario and Sonic will be competing!

But now my computer is back up and running, I will sadly have no time to get on it because I will be glued to the tv every evening.
So I am back, but just got way laid on the way for the Olympics.

Enjoy the games!

Olypmics

So the 2008 Olympic Games has come to a close.

204 Countries competed

192 were UN recognised Countries, only Brunei was not represented as they failed to have any athletes attend.

302 Gold medals were awarded

3 Gold medals went to New Zealand

19 Countries won just 1 Gold Medal - places like Iran, Latvia, Bulgaria, Slovenia and Azerbaijan

The next Olympics will be held in London, Great Britain in 2012

The quest for the 2016 Games is now being fought out between Chicago, Madrid, Rio and Tokyo.

I am hoping for either Rio or Madrid

Ben would like to go to the Olympics to watch one time, wouldn't we all, so maybe we could have this as our family goal for 8 years time, to go to the Olympics wherever they get held. I could do Chicago, Madrid or Rio.

Hope you found something fun to watch over the last 16 days.

Only 2 years until the Winter Olympics, my favourite, to be held in Vancouver, Canada between Feb 12 - 28 2010

Olympics at Our House

As I am sure is the thing at your place all the tv channels seem to be taken up with the sport.

Now we don't mind this too much especially as the boys seem to be enjoying seeing something different everynow and then.

Although when they both have colds and are not feeling flash hot then this is their response to watching the Olympics with dad.....

They all looked so cute together.

My only grudge with the Olympics is some of the sports that are in it.....I mean why have tennis?

No one famous is in the matches, so how can it be the best person representing their country?

And what is the point of Beach Volleyball? As my friend's 16yr old said 'A sport just for the men to watch!'

Happy watching and hope the country you are supporting is winning some good medals.

Olympics Today

Last night we got to watch some Cross Country Horse Riding.
ben took a little bit to get into this, but after a while he liked watching them make the jumps and managing to not fall into the water!

He was later playing with Steve and actually playing horses with Steve.
So there's Steve crawling on the floor with Ben on his back, who promptly called to Steve and said.....

'Do the jumps daddy like the horses on the tv!'

Oh yes, the Olympics have definitely sunk in with Ben.

He also got to watch the Basketball, Volleyball and Archery. This is actually a great way to introduce him to some sports that he will never really see at other times because they are not regularly followed on the main channels throughout the year.
Let's see what he will be like with the Athletics....

Olympics

Yes the Olympics has started.

Now I am not a great fan of the summer Olympics, although after watching an hour of the Women's Road Race last night, Steve might argue this point!

I love the winter Olympics, skiing, skating, anything to do with the snow, it is all just magic and such fun to watch. I would take 2 weeks from life to just sit and watch the winter sports if I could.

Last night we caught our first shot of the Olympics on the tv, yes the Women's Road Race (cycling) Ben thought this was amazing.

He watched intently the women cycling along the road, having the support cars pull up beside them and give them muesli bars and water bottles.

He loved the fact that they had numbers on their backs. He just loved everything about it.

He sat there glued to it telling us that he was going to cycle like them, that mummy was going to be his support team and drive the car up along side him and hand him food and drink. That he was going to have to ride really fast and that he wanted a number '4' on the back of his shirt. He also wants a suit like the ladies were wearing whilst cycling.

He kept asking when it was going to finish and who was going to win.....so I tried to explain to him that it was a very long race and that these ladies were riding a very long way.

I tried to explain it in the context of where our caravan is from our house.

So there I am telling him

'you know it takes us a long time to drive to the caravan'

and

'it would take you a long time to ride your bike to the caravan'

and

'these ladies are riding their bikes to somewhere far away like the caravan'

This must have sunk in just a little too much because he had his shower, got out, stood in the living room in his towel and promptly asked....

'Are the ladies at the caravan yet?'

Think the Olympics will actually be quite fun with Ben around, have to see what is playing on the tv tonight that he can sit and watch.