Tag: Olympics

Down Memory Lane – SW to SE London

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Yesterday, I went on a small trip down memory lane going to the South West of London and then onto the South East of London… It was a very smooth journery!

So what’s in the South West? There’s Clapham Junction, Wimbledon, Richmond etc, etc… but no, I didn’t go to any of those places! I went to my old university. Back then my university was called Roehampton University and was part of the University of Guildford, now they have changed their name to University of Roehampton and not part of Guildford anymore… 

Roehampton University now University of Roehampton


The main campus hasn’t changed much, except there’s a new big building (where the campus’ bus stop used to be) around Digby Stuart College. 

Southlands College

Digby Stuart – new building

Froebel College

Froebel College

Student Union


Whitelands College also moved to around the main campus but I was too lazy to find it! It was originally in Southfields (which is close to Wimbledon)…

So moving on, I took a bus 265 to Putney Bridge… I still love Putney! It’s so beautiful!

View from Putney Bridge

Towards Putney High Street


From Putney station I went back to Waterloo on South West Trains, and then took another train from Waterloo East using South Eastern Trains… See how easy it is to travel from the South West to the South East!! ^_^ (Well it can be ok sometimes – just not during peak hours).

I got off at Woolwich Arsenal (a friend of mine used to live there) and took a few snaps…

Woolwich Arsenal 

Woolwich Arsenal


I didn’t expect the whole of Woolwich Common to be taken over by one of the Olympic arenas!

Royal Artillery Barracks

Royal Artillery Barracks


Finally I got a bus and then a train to Greenwich…

Greenwich Market

Greenwich


I wanted to go into the park, but it felt like it was barricaded by security (it’s not normally like that!), so I chickened out and went back home…

Entrance into Greenwich Park


…and bought this cheesecake from Tesco… ^_^

Rasberry Cheesecake – YUMMY!


The Mascot Moment

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1 day to go!!!

I know I have said in a previous post that the Olympic Mascots Mandeville and Wenlock are ugly (and they still are), but I just couldn’t resist taking pictures (using my phone camera) of these ones along the River Thames. I walked along the river between Tower Bridge to Westminster Bridge within an hour stopping several times to take pictures. I am a fast walker when I have the energy (but my friend can walk twice as fast than me!). 

One or two of them were cute in their different costumes… but they are still ugly with their one eye. Children surrounded these little monsters before I could take a shot. I guess they are used to seeing them by now since they are all over the place in London ^_^ …

Wenlock

Pirate Wenlock

Wenlock again!

Mandeville

What’s with Wenlock – there are so many Wenlock’s!!

This one is my favourite version of Wenlock!!!!

Argh! Wenlock again!! 😛

And finally here’s another Mandeville!


Well the adults can’t win everything on designs and whatnots! 
Go and see them before the Olympics and Paralympics end!!

My Pre-Olympic Fever Moment

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Argh! 4 days to go and I think I’m suffering from pre-Olympic fever. There’s so much excitement going around (and some unexcited people as well). But because I got to see the Olympic torch on Saturday I think pre-Olympic fever has struck!

I went out on Sunday just to capture Tower Bridge with the Olympic rings as well as to capture that moment in time and also picture the mascots along the Thames, which you will see in a later post…

Tower Bridge – close up

Tower Bridge


Unfortunately my camera’s battery decided to end its life on me after the Tower Bridge shots, and I forgot to take my spare battery, but luckily I had my phone on me to take this next picture – just for the fun of it!

Ducks sitting around near the London Eye ^_^ – they weren’t afraid of us humans!!


A Pre-Olympic Moment in Stratford

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It’s 6 days until the London Olympics start and so my mother and I decided to go and check out Stratford before it got busy next week. Thankfully it wasn’t a stressful journey AND it didn’t rain…! We got the Jubilee Line from London Bridge. Stopped off at Canary Wharf. Then took the Dockland’s Light Rail (DLR) towards Stratford…

DLR from Canary Wharf – not our train

Window cleaners on top of Canary Wharf DLR Station

2 minutes to go! – Platform 3 is the one to go to the Olympic Park…


Please don’t forget to swipe your Oyster card (if you are using a pay-as-you-go one)… I couldn’t find the machine on the platform so had to go back downstairs and I found it by the staircase! These little machines are VERY HARD to spot…

Don’t forget to swipe your card at the bottom of the stairs!!!!
And then swipe again at the station you get off!!!!


When we were on the DLR, we saw the stadium! And thankfully we took pictures as when we got to the village, it was blocked off by security…

The Olympic Stadium – DLR view

Don’t know what this is… But it looks funny

Back of a building – don’t know which arena this is

At Stratford Station


We had to take another DLR train to Stratford International… I had to swipe my Oyster card again (that’s an extra fee!), so I advise if you are going to Stratford International and you haven’t exited Stratford Station yet, don’t swipe your card just yet!!!! Here’s the Olympic Village entrance at Stratford International which is heavily secured. Only those with a badge hanging around their necks can enter!

Team GB’s Flats in the Olympic Village?

Olympic Village Entrance – No Entry to the public…


So back to Stratford Station we go… We got off and went into the Stratford Centre to get to the bus stop going back to Central London…

Stratford Centre

Stratford Station

Westfield Shopping Centre

Love the painting on the side of the building – even if it is a commercial for Gillette!


But suddenly, (I think my mother and I were very, very lucky) we both got the chance to see the Olympic Torch flame being exhanged!!! :-O It was a moment of awe….! Wow! We really didn’t know that this was going to happen – it was all by chance!!

Police on bikes securing the torch

Truck with the photographers and camera crew towed at the back

Exchange of the Olympic Torch flame!! – Sorry don’t know who 
the torchbearers 68 & 69 are… :-S

The photographers and crowd snapping away!


Finally we got on a bus 25 towards Oxford Circus, and I spotted the ugly mascot in old English style clothing near St Paul’s Cathedral… ^_^

The mascot near St Paul’s Cathedral


If you decide to go to Stratford – plan it well, and maybe get there early! It was a wonderful day today! (^_^)v

Mascot Chocolate

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I’ve just tweeted about this Mascot chocolate. It tastes quite yummy actually… Just like a Wispa bar.

If you do come to London and you like chocolate, go ahead and try this, it’s only 40p (and even if you don’t like the look of the mascots these do taste good… ^_^ heheheh).

So how many more days to go from today…?
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19 days!!

The Olympics and its downfalls

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With the Olympics coming up (and I’m really gung-ho about it but…) there’s been a lot of controversy over the spending, the ticketing system, the logos and the mascots! There’s been more controversy over what will happen with public transport too and how people will get to work etc. I have a few friends that travel via the tube and trains to work. One in fact has to use the tube a few times a day just to get to her clients. And another needs to travel across from South London to either the West or Central London. Such a menace! I think a lot of Londoners are going to take those couple of weeks off work just to avoid rush hour!
The ticketing system to me was a disaster, why couldn’t they use Ticketmaster to sell their tickets? Why did we all have to have a Barclays Visa card? And why on Earth are they still selling tickets when they said they were sold out! Such ridicule to the ticketing system! And so expensive too – that’s just to cover the costs of building the Olympic stadium I bet.

Don’t get me started on the logo! Oh my god!! What on Earth was the designer thinking? It cost £400,000 to make this thing? I remembered at the time it was unveiled a lot of people were in disgust and people started pouring in their own designs to the media to show what the logo could’ve been. I think I could’ve made a better design as well to represent London! Oh well.

Taken a while back, when there were 185 days left! 

I’m not even sure about the mascots too… 

I know they were designed by school children but what on Earth were they thinking?! The one-eyed mascot that is to represent a camera lens… Hmmmmmmmmmm… It just looks like a one-eyed monster to me. But if children like it then… Oh well. Maybe Millwall’s Lion mascot would’ve been a better choice (a redesigned version of course!), an animated Big Ben, the Beefeaters, a football, the red buses and even pigeons!! These things all represent London!

Found these in John Lewis – Ugly London Olympic Mascots 

Oh well, I guess London has to go with the flow as we always do… 

What does the rest of the world think? Could the organisers have spent less and saved a few pounds on the Olympics?

Update 10-06-2012
So I went into Argos (a catalogue shop for the UK) on the weekend and spotted more mascots being sold! 

Mascot in the Union Jack
Wendlock and Mandeville London 2012 mascots

However, this mascot Pride the Lion seems like the designer took thought into this one…

I’m afraid there’s no more time for improvement… How sad…  


Update 29/07/2012
Didn’t I say the ticketing system was rubbish!… http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-19034245