Wednesday 1 August 2012

Olympic balls and the worst day of my husband's life

Many moons ago, my husband and I entered the ballot for tickets to the 2012 London Olympic Games (yes, LOCOG I'm daring to use this phrase but you can't throw me in jail because it's part of an editorial article. I have read your branding guidelines - ha!).  Lo and behold, we were lucky enough to acquire a handful.

I thought at the time that it would be wonderful to take the children and involve them in this very special event taking place in our country which would only happen once in our lifetime.  So, my husband dutifully booked tickets for the children to one or two events.  Our tickets came and, looking amongst them, it turned out we were to have a full day of Olympic action on 31st July (yep, that's the Tuesday just gone).

As Tuesday crept ever closer, my husband became increasingly worried about taking Dexter to see the events.  He was sure it would be a disaster with an easily bored one-year-old who would undoubtedly want to toddle off and explore.  My husband even had sleepless nights over it.  I eventually relented and we called in reinforcements (my sister-in-law) to babysit.

Tuesday came and we were excited.  The agenda for the day?  Indoor volleyball in the morning followed by an afternoon at Wimbledon to watch some tennis.  The weather forecast?  The coldest day of the week and rain!

We got to the train station in good time and waited for our train.  And waited.  And waited. 


Finally it came, my husband stressing all the while that we were going to be late.  We got onto the carriage and claimed our seats.  Four stops later I heard,

"Mum, I need a wee!"

Oh dear.

Thankfully the next platform had some very easily accessible public toilets so that little visit was quickly taken care of.  The train was still at the station when we returned to the platform, there being a problem with its doors, but it pulled away fairly soon afterwards, commuters filling the carriages.  

The platform was beginning to get busier too and my husband was moaning about no longer getting a seat on the train, his short fuse perilously close to blowing.  He decided that the only thing to do was to get the next train going back to our original station, jump out at a previous stop and then catch another train, this time going in the right direction, so that we could all sit for the 1 hour plus journey that it would take to get to Earl's Court.  So, that's what we did.  My husband wasn't happy but Sophia was having a ball!



I won't bore you with the details of the day, needless to say we watched a bit of volleyball; Sophia got bored quite quickly; the husband got stressed; I spent most of the morning running around Earl's Court with Sophia to keep her busy; my husband stressed about it; we went to Wimbledon; it rained; my husband stressed; the rain cleared up a little; it rained again; it stopped just long enough so that we actually got to watch some tennis; my husband stressed when Sophia made a few noises during a tennis match and worried that we were about to be kicked out; we came home.






Overall verdict?  Sophia and I generally had a blast.  We may not have seen much action but we were doing something new and can say we were there...after all, it's the taking part that counts, right?  My husband on the other hand?  Worst day of his life apparently.  Grumpy sod!

20 comments:

  1. Genius! I'm glad you and Sophia had a good time! She looks identical to you x

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  2. WestLondonMum.co.uk1 August 2012 at 22:32

    Poor you! but at least you got a good story out of it ;-)

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  3. Thanks. I can definitely see the resemblance as she gets older but she is much more stunning than I am

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  4. 'Tis true. Every cloud and all that... ;-)

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  5. Well done you for trying to make the most of a challenging day!
    Karin @ Cafe Bebe

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  6. Thank you. It was a shame it rained but then again what would a sporting event be like in this country if the typical British weather didn't play a part?!

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  7. My husband took our three year old to watch the athletics today, very brave of you to manage two events! It's an amazing experience for little ones and Sophia will be old enough to remember it, unfortunately sometimes when you do things with little ones you have to make sacrifices! I enjoyed reading your account!

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  8. Mumofthreeworld4 August 2012 at 14:44

    Oh dear, wasn't really a bad day, was it? Sounds like a fairly typical day with a small child, but Daddies often don't realise what it's like to spend a whole day with them and how demanding they can be! You ate very lucky you got to go to the Olympics. I hope you husband has recovered now! ;)

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  9. Your husband sounds very like mine, I can just imagine we would all be fairly chilled and Daddy would be a stress head. Good for you making the most of it and involving your gorgeous little girl in such a monumental event.

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  10. Bavarian Sojourn4 August 2012 at 19:38

    At least you made the effort!!  Pics are fab too, she will be so pleased you went, one day at least!.. 

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  11. I do believe that most men seem to be modelled on Victor Meldrew and Basil Fawlty. You could have been writing about my husband.  Glad you enjoyed the day yourself.

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  12. Oh dear.  I'm the stress-head in our house, but I definitely think you had the right attitude.  Because we live reasonably locally we've just been to some of the road events, cycling and marathon, which has been fun. 

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  13. Thanks for taking the time to read and comment. The idea was that we'd watch a little bit of volleyball in the morning but spend most of the day at Wimbledon, sitting on the hill watching the action on Centre Court and letting Sophia run around. Just a shame then that it rained practically all day, completely ruining our plan and making things just that little bit more challenging!

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  14. It wasn't really a bad day, my husband just stresses a lot about what other people think. Since having children I'm completely over that. No, I don't want to be a nuisance, but children are going to be children and there's no way a 3-year-old will be seen and not heard for an entire day

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  15. Thanks. I think it'll be nice for her to look back on when she's older and she that she was part of it. I hope it inspires her to take an interest in sport. She has already said she wants to be a swimmer when she grows up!

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  16. I hope so. Thanks for reading x

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  17. Teehee! My husband's definitely getting grumpier as he gets older :-P

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  18. I would have loved to have been along the route of the road race but it was too far away too travel. I bet it was great to see

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  19. RollercoasterMum6 August 2012 at 17:53

    Mine's usually quite grumpy but we had quite a good day when we all went to London and he took eldest to the  beach volleyball and afterwards we lined up on Constitution Hill to watch the cycling. We're going again to the athletics on Thursday for a very long session so we are prepared for the kids to get bored. I anticipate much wandering around Olympic Park and so far OH is unusually chilled about it all!

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  20. Oooh, my husband and I are now off to the athletics on Thursday too so maybe see you there x

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