Bye bye to the Commonwealth Games.
I’m not normally that enthused by sport, but going to see the athletics at the MCG enthused me somewhat. I also saw the big fish thingies on the Yarra on Friday night, and enjoyed wandering amongst the big crowds. I watched some of the TV coverage, and noted that there were possibly only two sports that I could not even attempt without risking immediate and serious injury to myself: gymnastics and diving.
Two thirds of the team from Sierra Leone have gone missing, presumably wanting to stay in Australia. Anyone would think they didn’t want to go back to their war-ravaged poverty-stricken country.
Anything to escape the sight of 1000 Dame Ednas, I suppose. Jeez, gimme a break.
Ah well, the Games have finished now.
For just ten days there were heaps of people roaming the streets with huge Games ID tags with undecipherable acronyms written on them.
For just ten days you could catch a train after 7pm without waiting for half an hour, and a bus home from the station in the evening. Barely a single cancellation in that time, yet this morning the old familiar beep beep of an SMS train cancellation alert was back.
For just ten days, some of the world’s best athletes were wandering around town. Some of the Canadian team on Friday were intrigued enough to explore the esoteric and exotic realm of TieRack in Collins Street. Earlier I observed one of the Botswanan team chomp down a burger. (Hopefully it was after his event.)
For just ten days, you could blame anything that went wrong on The Games.
For just ten days, no matter how crowded the streets were, or how long it took to get anywhere, everyone seemed to be in a good mood.
Now it’s all over. I think I’ll miss it.
6 replies on “Bye bye Games”
Awww, yeah, I’d bet. It’ll be like a let-down for the first few days, then life will settle down. It was like Melbourne was under this huge world spot-light for the last 10 days. Everywhere I looked I saw “Melbourne” mentioned, being in Canada. Our free-to-air station was showing events daily. Time-delayed of course. One other interesting fact was that you all haven’t gained your hour back yet! I gather from a friend many of the computers did the change anyhow! LOL That’s hilarious. So, another reason to thank or begrudge the games: No time change this last weekend.
I went to the last athletics session on Saturday night and it was wonderful. Have kinda lost my voice screaming along with the other 82,999 people for the Aussies to come home with the gold in the relays. It was very exciting. I found the whole public transport to work fine considering the number of people travelling to and from the G. My worst mistake was following my sister’s advice and getting off at Southern Cross to catch a Broadmeadows train then finding it very difficult to locate a platform. Having the printed destination signs hidden in the darkness didn’t help matters much but the walk from one end to the other got rid of some of the calories consumed during the course of the evening. As it turned out we missed the first train and then had to go through Flinders Street and the loop again. I thought the whole food/drink selection at the G was atrocious. “Chicken Planks”!!! WTF are they? I enjoyed watching most of the sports though and who would have thought that lawn bowls could be exciting lol.
I’ll miss the extended transport services, and the general livelyness in the CBD, but not much else.
You stalking me mate? Same day at Melbourne Central to see a movie, the day you caught a non air con Hitachi in the heat and now again same night at Yarra bank to see fish! Actually, both ABC radio’s John Faine and ABC radio’s ex Elaine Canty were there too. They did not see each other, I did not see them and nor did I see you. Big city.
Re your comments about Sierra Leone – most of the team disappeared after the 2002 Games in Manchester.
Yaah. They were really exciting!!!
I liked the synchrnomized swimming and apparatus final.
Samresh Jung of India was superb. The chap did the great job!!
Let us look forward to Delhi 2010!!