Monthly Archives: October 2011

The silver lining gifts

Posted on by
Reply

On a regular basis, I get platitudes from well-meaning folks that can make me feel like I should be bothered about things that don’t bother me.

The increasingly common one is older people in church who randomly come up to me that they are praying for God to bring me a good husband. I have to try not to laugh when I’ve heard things like ‘Oh, yes, you know in a couple of years, you’ll be married and coming into church with your new baby…‘ It’s not that I’m against being married or being a mother. It’s just that I don’t think I need to be. I personally believe there are more important things to be talking to God about than begging him for a husband, car, children and white picket fence.

Anyway, I digress.

Let me be honest…there are times when I really struggle with how my life is now. My friend was in Edinburgh a couple of weeks ago, and commented on how shocking he found it that I didn’t own a smartphone when I’m pretty into social media. What I do own is a pretty old Nokia that is currently being held together by sellotape and now likes to randomly switch itself off. I would love a smartphone, just as I would like to afford to be able to go to visit friends in different parts of the world or go to conferences. Or live in the flat that I own instead of renting it out while I live in my Mum’s converted attic.

I don’t have these things because I chose a job I love that can only fund me for 18 hours per week, and sometimes doesn’t have the money to pay me on time.

Sometimes in church I feel really left out because I don’t get to do what I’d love to do – minister and encourage parents and families, be involved with the community at the local primary school like my friend Lynn is, or host a smallgroup. It can often feel that church is run by married couples, for married couples and their offspring. I love kids, and I’ve been told from about the age of 3 that I’d make a great mother. It killed me to learn when I was 21 that I probably wouldn’t be able to have children. And one thing I do get jealous of with my married friends is that they have someone to share the burden with (and yes, I know that it isn’t always that way, I have no rose tinted glasses when it comes to marriage). I do not like socialising on my own, and I do miss doing things with a partner. Any single person will tell you how awkward wedding celebrations can get at times!

That all being said: I’m very glad I’m not with a partner who is dragging me down. Being single is better than being in a toxic relationship.

It’s easy to get disheartened sometimes.

But there have been such great silver linings. Being single, not a parent and working part-time has given me some fabulous gifts that I hope others can benefit from – and that means a lot to me. And I would never want to change that.

Making the choices I have in the last 4-5 years I only had myself to think of. It meant I got to go to South Africa and Australia, it also means on a daily basis I only have to take care of me. I’m try to imagine shopping and cooking for other people every single day and having to factor that into my limited diet without limiting theirs. There’s a reason I don’t often eat at other people’s homes, I hate putting that stress on them!

Working part-time has enabled me to stay healthy. Especially in winter when I find it really tough to keep going.

It’s also meant that I can do lots of things I wouldn’t be able to do if I worked full-time, like be part of Powerpoint, volunteering with GirlGuiding, seeing my friends and doing all the extra stuff I do with the charities I work for. It also means that I have an opportunity to support my friends who are trying to work/study and parent full-time!

I’ll give you some examples: 2 weeks ago I was able to help friends by babysitting their son who had chicken pox while one parent worked and the other parent took their other son to a sports activity. This week I was able to help another friend by babysitting their 17 month old to give her the chance to study.

I love being able to do that. I feel honoured that my friends trust me to take care of their most treasured gifts. And I like being able to give something (I hope) back to them for all the encouragement and love they’ve given to me through challenging times and the celebrating times.

The people who offer the well-meaning platitudes? They don’t get it.

They only see the dark clouds and not the silver lining gifts.

Toffee Apple Cupcakes

Posted on by
5

One of the volunteers gave me some cooking apples this week, and tomorrow I’m hoping to try out a new apple cake recipe I’ve never done before. In the meantime, I thought I’d share with you a recipe for toffee apple cupcakes. I made these for our centre’s anniversary get together last year (along with my chocolate cranberry, nutella and lemon white choc chip cupcakes). Unfortunately, I never got a picture of all the cupcakes as they got eaten before I managed to get my camera out.

For the cakes

Ingredients
2 bramley cooking apples

1 tbsp lemon juice

9oz plain flour

2 tsp baking powder

1 1/2 tsp of ground cinnamon

3oz light muscovado sugar

2 oz unsalted butter

3 fl oz milk

3 fl oz apple juice

2 eggs

Method

Preheat oven to 150 °C

Core, peel and then coarsely grate one of the apples.

Cut the other apple into small slices to use for cake topping – place your apple slices in bowl and pour lemon juice on them.

Sieve your flour, cinnamon and baking powder into a mixing bowl, then stir in the muscavado sugar and grated apple.

Melt your butter in a small saucepan, then add to milk, apple juice and eggs and whisk together. Stir this into the mixing bowl with your flour, sugar & apple lightly. Do not beat too much otherwise your cakes will not come out as spongey.

Spoon your mixture equally between 12 muffin cases, and arrange 2 apple slices on top of each one, like a butterfly.

Bake in the oven for 20-25 mins.

Place on a cooling rack and leave to cool.

For the toffee sauce topping:

Ingredients

4 tbsp single cream

3 oz light muscovado sugar

1 oz unsalted butter

Method

Place the cream, butter and sugar into a small saucepan

Heat slowly, stirring until the sugar is dissolved (make sure it doesn’t burn!)

Once sugar is dissolved, Bring to boil rapidly and keep boiling for 2 minutes until the sauce is thickened and syrupy. 

Cool slightly then drizzle over cakes and leave to set.

I totally missed my calling…

Posted on by
4

Over the summer, City of Edinburgh council ticked me off x2. Firstly, they made a weird permit zone in the area where I parked my car so it would be in walking distance (or a very short bus ride) from my work. Making things like heading to a friend’s house, going to the supermarket or taking in various supplies pretty easy. Now you can’t park there between 10 a.m.-11.30 a.m. Secondly, the tramworks returned. Starting almost from scratch since the snow apocalyse apparently ruined the tram lines (anyone else thinking…’what happens when it snows again?!’) meaning that from Haymarket to the East End everything is diverted and traffic is clogged up, doubling the commute time. Oh joy.

There is one thing saving my sanity. The Airlink bus.

I live 5-10 minutes car journey from Edinburgh Airport, and the bus stop at the bottom of the brae where I live just happens to be one of the few stops the Airlink bus makes between the airport and Waverley Station (a 10 minute walk from my work). I like the airport bus for a few reasons.

1. It’s much cleaner than the other buses

2. They have leather seats rather than the carpet like seats (again, easier to clean)

3. The other passengers tend not to sneeze on you or play awful music at top volume

4. They sometimes can give you change if you don’t have the exact bus fare (yippee!)

5. It’s fun to overtake all the other buses en route that have to stop at every.single.stop. Mwa ha ha ha!

6. You rarely have to stand and wait for the bus on the way home, as the bus is already sitting outside waiting for passengers (this is something to be especially appreciated at night).

However, I’m beginning to realise I help more people on my way to work than I do when I’m at work. People at the centre are now used to hearing my tales of the airport bus. The people I overhear – like the 2 spiffy business chaps sitting behind me yesterday, one of whom was a Daniel Stewarts pupil and told his colleague that it takes 2 hours to get to St Andrew’s. (Yes. It might do. If you’re driving a tractor.) Or perhaps the American who asked me where I was from, and when I replied ‘I’m from Edinburgh‘ asked ‘Where’s that?‘ (true story). The German girls who were about to miss their train to Dundee one night.

Often I end up helping people by telling them where to get off the bus to get to where they are staying, or walk them to a place where it will be easier for them to find their way. I answer their questions about which tour bus is best, things they should see, places that are good to eat, pubs they should visit and often encourage them to walk through the Close where the Writers’ Museum resides so they can see the pavement slabs engraved with the words of famous Scottish writers and poets as the best way to get up to the Edinburgh Castle Esplanade. I advise them not to bother with umbrellas in the rain (too windy) and making sure they have good comfortable shoes as they walk up and down the hilly streets of the Old Town.

Some Edinburgers get irritated by the tourists in Edinburgh, but I rarely do. I enjoy showing them my city and telling them tales about it. I love to take people to some of the places you probably won’t here about in a Lonely Planet Guide or an article in an Airline magazine.

Perhaps it’s the geographer in me, or maybe it’s the Scottish pride instilled in me…I don’t know.

But as I talk the Australian guy sitting next to me through the sights that are passing us by outside the bus window, and explain to the elderly couple from London that if they ask the bus driver nicely they can probably stay on the bus on the way back since they just missed their stop because the new computer screen calls it “West End” not “Shandwick Place”, I wonder if I missed my calling.

:)

Haste ye back airlink passengers!

(And taste the Edinburgh chippie sauce before you leave while avoiding the deep fried mars bars)

Hopping on the Priscilla bus

Posted on by
3

I think I’ve got out of the habit of blogging a little bit. I’ve not really wanted to write too much this last week, because I’ve been struggling a little bit with the deepening onset of Winter Blues. I’m now on the search for winter clothes. I’ve been really finding it tough to find clothes to wear as my wardrobe is filled with clothes that don’t fit or clothes that are so worn they need to be binned. :( sad times. I having to suck it up and rake through the sale racks (not good for my OCD – I can’t stand messy clothing stores).

The biggest news this week though is… I’M GOING TO SEE PRISCILLA!!!

Lots of my online friends know that I’m a fan of Home and Away. And was dead chuffed that Ray Meagher FINALLY won a Gold Logie last year (thanks Diane & Paula for tweeting the results that night).

Last year we found out Ray was coming to the UK to be in Priscilla. Rebecca, Ruth, Carolyn and I had hoped to all go, combining a ‘tweet-up’ with a chance to see ‘Alf’ in action. However, Ruth and I were doing inter:act, seriously low on funds as a result of that and couldn’t go. Sob! :( I kept trying to win tickets for us, and I won a signed t-shirt instead (which is pretty darned cool).

Then, Diane tweeted me to say Ray Meagher was going to be on This Morning (a well-known TV magazine show in the UK, the closest equivalent I can think of in the USA would be Today Show or Australia’s Morning Show). From watching that we discovered that Priscilla was closing at the end of the year and Ray was back to be in it for the last 3 months.

I knew that I was headed to London so I could get a lift with some folks from one of the London pregnancy centres to our national conference in Northampton in November. Would the stars align?

It would seem that yes they would. It was cheaper for me to travel down on the Wednesday, which is the night Rebecca was free to see the show. My friend Mike (who lives in London) said he’d be up for going. Then Ruth found out that she’d be able to come on the Wednesday too. Rebecca’s friends were able to come also. The only sad part is that Carolyn’s job means that she can’t come with us too.

We got a great deal on tickets, Ruth & I got a great deal on train fares and hopefully we will get a great deal on a place to stay on the Wednesday night too.

Priscilla – we are coming! And Ray Meagher – we fully intend on hanging around the Stage Door to meet you after!

I am so excited to have something to look forward to this winter.

Even if now I might find it a challenge to feed and clothe myself for the next few months.

 

Banana Breakfast Muffins

Posted on by
1

This recipe has been requested by Lynn. Sorry it took me so long to get it up!
Ingredients:

3 ripe bananas

4 fl oz semi-skimmed milk

3 eggs

4 oz unsalted butter

2 tbsp honey

8oz self raising flour

4 oz of bran flakes

4 oz porridge oats

2 handfuls of raisins

2 handfuls of chopped nuts

Method

Preheat oven to 150 C

Melt butter and honey in a small saucepan, stirring occasionally (do not let it boil!!) 

Peel, then mash the bananas in a mixing bowl. Put bran flakes in a plastic bag (I usually use a freezer/sandwich bag) make sure the bag is closed then bash with a rolling pin to crush the bran flakes – then put to one side.

Add milk, eggs, melted butter & honey to the bananas and whisk together.

Add the flour, crushed bran flakes, oats, nuts and raisins and stir it all together. You do not want to stir too much, just enough so that everything is mixed in to create your muffin mixture.

Divide equally between 12-16 muffin cases. The muffins will not rise much, so you want the cases fairly full (fuller than you’d have for cupcakes).

Put in oven for around 25-30 mins where they should be golden on top.

If you put the muffins in a sealtight container, they can keep for up to a week. They work great as a snack as they full of fibre and more complex carbs for slower-release energy in place of a chocolate bar! Also useful for the mornings where you sleep in and don’t have time to make breakfast, or when you are about to go to the gym and your stomach is rumbling it wants tea and is threatening to ruin your workout. :) The use of honey, bananas and raisins means they still taste sweet, but the sugar is more natural and better for you than refined sugar used in cakes (and most definitely better than artificial sweeteners – please insert my usual rant about so-called ‘diet’ drinks and people putting sweetener or faux sugar in their tea or coffee here).

My ‘To Visit’ List

Posted on by
1

Rebecca started a wee blog meme which she tagged me in, and it is still Travelling Tuesday (may not be by the time I finish this post…but och well!) so I thought I’d better do it. :)

My task? To share my ‘To visit’ list. I actually wrote mine when I was 15 or 16 which is over a decade ago. It originally had 23 countries on it, but I’m only going to share with you the countries I have visited and the ones that I’d still like to visit. If that makes sense? Here we go…

Wales – I still need to see Snowdon though.

France   I wanted to visit Paris, and this was the first stop on my Inter-rail trip in 2002. I also visited Strasbourg, Lyon & Grenoble on that trip. I would still like to go to Verseilles, and would happily go back to Lyon.

Germany  I wanted to visit the Black Forest, Munich & Berlin, and again I got to do all 3 (plus Cologne) on my Inter-rail trip.  I’d like to go back to Munich and see more of the city.

I tried to take a picture of every station we stopped at during our Inter-Rail trip. This is me at the German-Dutch border

Switzerland – though I did travel through Switzerland overnight on a sleeper train (seeing the Alps was very cool), I’d like to see more of Switzerland than I did lying on the floor of a sleeper train carriage.

Spain – Madrid, Barcelona I got to Barcelona a few days after I turned 21. I got my bag stolen while I was there, and one of my close friends from high school lives there. I also got to see some beautiful parts of Andalucía when I was there on an ERASMUS field trip programme in 2003 (one of the perks of studying Geography).

Italy – Now. This is THE one. I’ve only seen a teeny part of Italy and there’s so much more I want to see. I have seen Genoa, a brief bit of Milan and Pisa. But there is still Verona, Venice, Florence, Rome, Naples, Lake Maggiore & Lake Garda. I feel a trip to do ‘Italia Rail’ may be in order…

Greece – I have been to a few of the islands, but never to the mainland.

Japan – Tokyo (would have been lovely to have been there last week).

Bali, Indonesia

Canada – namely Vancouver.

USA – I have visited the US a couple of times – 2x Florida and once to New York City  in September 2006 after I graduated, 5 years after I was originally supposed to be there before I started university. I’d love to do a road trip and see lots of friends across the states. My original points of interest were Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego (I think for the zoo), Grand Canyon, Topeka & Wichita (the setting for my favourite ever book), New Orleans, Wilmington NC (because of Dawson’s Creek), Florida, New York City, Maine, Boston (because of Ally McBeal). I’d add Tennessee to that list now!

A lot of places on my list came from reading about them in books. In this case: The Babysitters Club series - I went hunting for the Alice in Wonderland statue in Central Park.

Mexico – I always wanted to go and see the WAGGGS (World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts) home in Mexico, ‘Our Cabaña’.

Brazil – Rio de Janeiro (since I can’t get tickets for London 2012, maybe I can see some gymnastics in Rio in 2016?)

Australia – I fulfilled this huge dream in 2007 in my ‘interim’ period between Aberdeen and Edinburgh. However Ayers Rock and Fraser Island are still items to cross off that list.

Brunette Koala meets Crumpet the koala.

New Zealand – I don’t think I was too fussed where!

Netherlands – I’ve visited the Netherlands twice and I love it there. I love the people, the flat services for cycling on, the cleanliness, the beauty of Amsterdam and sprinkles for breakfast.

Czech Republic – Prague

Ireland – Though I’ve been to Northern Ireland for a wedding, I’ve never been to Eire. I would love to go for the Irish hospitality and the lush emerald green of it all!

Not on my original list but I’d like to add it: Scotland (there’s so much of my country I haven’t seen – like Loch Ness and Skye, plus I still haven’t climbed Ben Nevis), Ghana, Sweden, Finland, South Africa and Morocco.

I visited Sweden on a work experience exchange in 2000 (I got to work as a dance teacher which was loads of fun). A few months before that I had an opportunity to do a field trip in Morocco where I made lifelong friends with some of my high school peers (it was such an experience we’ll never forget it). And of course I want to return to South Africa. A piece of my heart got left there in 2009.

What is on your travel list – and to what extent have you already ticked off your list?

World Artistic Gymnastics Championships

Posted on by
Reply

So just so you understand why I’ve been so glued to the gymnastics (even more than usual, because I confess I often don’t watch all the men’s events). Here is the King of Gymnastics, Kohei Uchimura, 3-time consecutive world champion who made 6 of the 7 individual finals. The montage is from the All-Around final, and the woman waving the flag at the beginning is Shuko Uchimura (his Mum).

The apparatus finals have been in the daytime rather than evening. Because of the time difference between UK and Japan, it meant getting up at 5.20 a.m. on Saturday and 5.50 a.m. on Sunday. I didn’t want to miss a thing, but I had to drink lemonade (I usually don’t drink sugary fizzy juice like that) because I felt so sick from sleep deprivation. At least I could watch it wrapped in a duvet in my pyjamas though, and went back to sleep until lunchtime as soon as the finals finished! Sunday was even tougher because my friend had made a surprise visit to Edinburgh which resulted in me getting to bed at 2 a.m. after spending the night in the pub speaking a mixture of Spanish and English (long story why).

I’ve been part of a team helping put all the results and details of the last week of competition on wikipedia, so you can get the results there.

Men’s Artistic Gymnastics: Men’s All Around Final

Posted on by
Reply

Well. We knew it was going to be an exciting competition. We had two questions: Would Kohei Uchimura get his 3rd All Around medal to maintain his domination of Men’s gymnastics this quadrennium? And who would take Silver & Bronze?

The answer to the first question was a resounding YES.

Today, in front of a home crowd, we watched the best gymnast the world has ever seen prove just why he is exactly that. Kohei Uchimura truly showed us he is a top class champion. He dominated from the start, and even holding back on some difficulty he didn’t score below 15 all day. I would actually argue that he was underscored in a couple of rotations (particularly floor where they took away 0.9 marks for a basically flawless routine). His ending score? 93.361 He finished 3 points ahead of the silver medallist. Unbelievable. His ending high bar routine brought on a standing ovation from everyone in the arena, the applause was almost deafening and in the stands, people applauded his mother who turned and took a bow. Yes Mrs Uchimura – you did a terrific job!

It seemed like Silver was destined for Uchimura’s teammate, Koji Yamamuro. He performed consistently throughout the competition. And following in the Japanese footsteps meeting that consistency was the stalwart of British Gymnastics: Daniel Purvis. He’d lead off the first group on floor, and for the first two rotations was placing 2nd in the top group. The 2 Americans had qualifed in front of him at the weekend, but where they made mistakes Dan made none, hitting routine after routine.

After vault it became the question: who would take the Bronze? Would it be Dan Purvis bringing a medal home to Great Britain, or Philipp Boy bringing one home to Germany. We knew after Vault, Philipp had 2 strong events, where as Daniel had 2 of his weaker events. On the other hand, Philipp had not had a good week in competition suffering plenty of costly mistakes as had a few of the other German team members. We watched the gymnasts in the top group go up on the Parallel bars one by one…

Orozco (USA) had a fantastic routine bringing him back up the scoreboard. Yamamuro made some small errors. Uchimura was stunning as per usual. Philipp went up, and a couple of mistakes, and was scored very harshly. In fact, too harshly on my opinion. He was shocked at his score. And so was I. At the same time, I knew that if Dan could hit his routine, he could get a much higher score on PB to keep himself in medal contention. And he did. 15.200.

It was time for the last event. Philipp Boy knew he had to have the routine of his life…and he did. Scoring a whopping 16.066. He was elated as he stuck his landing. Dan followed with a great routine for him and scored much higher than he had done in qualifers (14.800), but it was not enough to stay ahead of Boy. Yamamuro went up choosing a less difficult routine with the hope of better execution score. He only scored 14.866, which put him behind Boy. We knew then who had one – even with a fall, Uchimura had won. And even more surprisingly, Philipp Boy had pulled off an incredible comeback to not just get the Bronze, but the SILVER medal.

Uchimura could have done half a routine and got the Gold, but he did not disappoint. Throwing several ‘Kovacs’ and other difficult moves he finished off in style.

And so it ended… Uchimura 1st, Boy 2nd, Yamamuro 3rd, Britain’s Dan Purvis in 4th and John Orozco in 5th.

But you know the best part – the great sportsmanship between the gymnasts in that top group. Throughout the competition you saw them clapping each other, shaking hands as one came off the podium and another went on, smiling and talking as they stood to get their medals. Yes, they are competitors, but they are gracious too. And that is something to be commended. :)

Tomorrow, it’s an early start as we have Day 1 of Apparatus Finals…Men’s Floor, Women’s Vault, Men’s Pommel Horse, Women’s Uneven Bars and Men’s Still Rings.

 

Women’s Artistic Gymnastics Championships: Women’s All Around Final

Posted on by
Reply

Well. We thought it couldn’t get anymore nail biting than it did yesterday, but once again it came down to the last few routines. EEK!

First of all…my star of the day award goes to Hannah Whelan. They weren’t going to pay much attention to her, and then she was at the end of the first rotation in 9th place. And then she kept creeping up in the standings to point that going into the last rotation she was in 6th place. Her last routine of the day was bars, her lowest scoring event, but she still finished in 9th. Very respectable! Hopefully she’ll stay healthy and be able to do some upgrades on Bars to be in with a chance to be in top 8 in London next summer. One thing is for sure: she did Great Britain proud today! To see her floor & vault click here (I think it will only work if you’re in the UK unfortunately).

The top 6 was where the drama was though.

The Americans both had huge vaults. Wieber pulled out the amanar, perfect but for a big step on landing. Raisman had the double twisting yurchenko, put to near perfection. It’s been said many times, but she does have many similarities in power, strength and style to her older teammate, Alicia Sacramone. The rest pulled good vaults, but from what I could tell did not come close in execution to the Americans.

Then it was onto uneven bars. The Russian star, Komova pulled out another great bars routine, though still not quite so well executed as we had seen in qualifiers, but much much better than she did in Team Final. The Chinese girls pulled out great routines. Wieber went up and made some huge mistakes and it really did cost her. Then Raisman went up. It was awful, I was yelling at my TV – I know that she, like Alicia, struggles on bars. Last year she had an awful time on Bars in AA finals. Today, she had a total meltdown again. Somehow she managed a good dismount, but she only scored 12.900. Ouch.

On to beam. Wieber had dropped from 1st to 4th. Komova went up first, and pulled a good routine having a number of wobbles – but no falls. Then Huang got up on beam – was doing well and then fell. All of a sudden, the door for an American medals opened back up. Then Afanaseva got up on beam and fell on her first move – a standing arabian. Raisman got up and performed a hit routine (she really can command that beam!) – a lot of gymnasts would have been so rattled after a performance like she’d had in the previous rotation, but her focus is such that she just moved on and fought back. Yao followed, and also had a fall. This was unbelievable – Chinese are known to be great on beam, and now both their gymnasts had fallen. Wieber got up on beam and had a near perfect routine, really just a small step on dismount putting her into 2nd place going into the last rotation…

Floor. Huang’s routine was charming but low on difficulty. Afanaseva had powerful tumbling – her first 2 passes (ending in a double straight and a triple twist) were breathtaking. She too had fought back after her fall on the beam. Aly Raisman killed it on floor hitting all her difficult passes with controlled landings and nailing her leaps and choreography. Yao hit her routine too – the precision was fabulous, the performance had the charm of her teammate, Jiang Yuyuan had in Beijing on floor. Wieber got up, and had a powerful routine, but took a step out of bounds on one of her passes. Her difficulty was high, and aside from her step out, the execution well done. But surely after the step, it would be silver?

Komova got up. Her first pass was great, but she fell out of a spin on her dance moves, and though the choreography had that Russian grace and elegance, it seemed like she was tired as she wobbled and landed deeply on some of her tumbling passes. Though improved from Team Finals, it still wasn’t going to get a good execution score. However, most of us thought it could be enough for Gold.

But when the score came – it wasn’t. Wieber had beaten her overall by a mere few 100ths of a point. Wieber burst into tears, and so did Komova. But for very different reasons. And rather than the massive cheering you’d normally hear, the arena was strangely quiet with a few audible gasps as most of them thought Komova had done enough for Gold.

For sure there is debate going on about scoring at these championships! Yesterday some suggested USA men’s team should have got Silver over Japan. Today some are saying that Wieber was overscored on floor or Komova underscored and that Komova should have got Gold over Wieber.

In the end it was Gold to Wieber, Silver to Komova and Bronze to Yao.

All I know is: Gymnastics at London 2012 is going to be one to watch. The Russians will want to get their Golds the Americans won here. Beth Tweddle will want her medal in Uneven Bars. Lauren Mitchell (who scored highest on Floor today improving her score again) will want her medal on Floor. Ana Porgras who scored high on Beam will want a medal there. Because none of them will have the chance to reclaim their world titles on those events this week despite their high scores in Team and All Around.

Tomorrow: Men’s All Around final. If the last 2 days are anything to go by – it’s gonna be dramatic!

 

Men’s Artistic Gymnastics Championships: Men’s Team Final

Posted on by
Reply

So. Twitter prevented me from tweeting anymore (who knew you had a 24-hour period tweet limit?!) and as the Men’s Team Finals overran by about 25 mins as soon as they finished I was trying to exchange pyjamas for outdoor clothes, eat lunch and get out the door to babysit a very chicken pox covered Mr Teapot so his Mum could take his big brother (now over the pox himself) to rugby tots.

Japan dominated with precision and high end routines…China started off with a few teeny errors (but nothing major) and just seemed to get stronger as the competition went on. USA started strong but weakened in the middle with form errors and a hands & knees landing on Vault from their anchor, Jon Horton. Russia were also doing well, and after those 4 teams had all competed on Vault (the highest scoring event) there was only a point between those top 4.

And so we entered the last rotation.

By this time, I was regretting having the large glass of apple and mango juice before the competition started 3 hours prior.

Because MY WORD this was nail biting.

USA suddenly made a HUGE comeback on High Bar. They really go all out and hold nothing back on that event, and man it was shades of the moment Sasha Artemev killed it on Pommel Horse in the Beijing Olympics team final.

I was cheering and clenching (I thought Leyva was going to fall at one point) and was cheering at the telly. Surely, surely – it would secure them a Bronze? But it depended on how Russia performed on Pommel Horse…

Meanwhile China were on floor. One routine I watched was filled with teeny form errors, giving Japan a chance to move back into 1st place. I knew they were up next on High Bar, and they had 2 amazing High Bar gymnasts up. The first one was stunning. I love the USA gymnasts, but they sometimes look a little bit messy though the difficulty and enthusiasm is awe inspiring (or nail biting). Then Tanaka went up, and fell. The no 1 ranked on High Bar fell. Oh. my. word. He amazingly got back on and finished his routine well.

Then China had their last man on floor and he was spectacular. Then we heard that Russia had fallen on Pommel Horse so it was pretty much for sure that USA would get the Bronze. Just before Uchimura – 2-time consecutive All-Around champion – got up to perform the final High Bar routine for Japan, we got Zou Kai’s floor score which was huge for floor.

We knew that it was pretty much impossible for Japan to win now, but then again….with Uchimura anything could happen. His routine was packed with difficulty and almost flawless execution. And then he just flew away from the bar and landed stuck on the floor. Well. No one expected that.

We thought USA would be lucky to get bronze if going into this rotation, and now, after an amazing High Bar set, and not one, but 2 falls from Japan – would it now be a silver medal?

Everyone was yelling and amazingly Uchimura composed himself and with only a few seconds to think performed the rest of his routine adding in several huge moves (including the one he’d fallen on). Aside from the fall it was spectacular, and incredibly he secured Japan’s silver. By 100th of a point.

China were delighted with Gold, Japan I think a little disappointed with Silver but happy to have stayed in 2nd and USA happy to finally be back on that Team Medal podium for the first time at Worlds since 2003.

All-in-all it was an action packed Team Final (I haven’t even mentioned how Korea were doing so well and then fell one by one, or how the Romanians had a fall on Vault earning zero near the start basically putting them in last place, or how Germany had such a rough time but Hambüchen’s High Bar was still a highlight of the day…)

I’m exhausted just remembering it all.

Tomorrow is my favourite event: the Women’s All-Around Final.