Thursday 21 August 2008

Olympic Fever

It's been one long round of visitors to the Potty house this week.

First up? The Olympic Lion Gymnastic Team, rolling and posturing round the flat as they showed off their floor exercises. Every now and again the action would be paused as they roared threateningly at the spectators, baring their teeth and waving their claws in the air. A smaller lion prowled around the edges to provide the team with a show of support, growling at will and occasionally delivering a nasty lick when least expected.

Then yesterday, Usain Bolt dropped by, gold trainers and all. Well, actually, we were forced to imagine the trainers; he had to take his shoes off for fear of slipping on the polished wood floor when he showed us how he won the 200m in record time by running 3 times round the living room super-fast, finishing up with a flourish as he threw himself, exhausted, upon the sofa to mark crossing the finish line.

Then his younger brother ran a similar race, complete with proper starting position. He was obviously a tad slower, but more than made up for this by the hug he gave the crowd at the end.

And today, the flat and the garden were full of the thunder of hooves as the horses from the show jumping event paid us a visit; leaping, prancing, and whinnying to their hearts' content as they showed us how winning a gold medal should be done. And whilst they were at it, they finished off a particularly annoying monster who had been terrorising the neighbourhood.
Frankly, this was a blessed relief as my throat was getting rather sore from all that roaring, and a girl can only take being called a monster for so long...


I must stop switching over the Olympics between programmes on C-beebies...

11 comments:

  1. Potty Mummy, I am so with you on the Olympics. My 5 year old is transfixed and if that's all I have to worry about him being addicted to I will be a very happy woman.
    By the way I laughed out loud at the previous post (comparing grandparents to yourself). Hilarious and so so true.
    "So I gave them a Kitkat and an icecream before tea because they cocked their head on one side and looked all cute. Is that OK . . . " Grrr.
    And thanks for your visit on my 'big day'. I will of course take my head out of the clouds and come back down to earth to land on all my old comfy favourites - that's you by the way! It's nice while it lasts . . .

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  2. This just cracked me up. The imagery was great!

    I wish my little guy had been a little more interested in it all, but he really wasn't. Ah, maybe the winter olympics!

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  3. And I suppose you know that only Americans won any medals. Or at least that's what we're being told here!!!

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  4. What about diving? Or have you managed to exclude them on grounds of domestic safety?

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  5. Sadly, Olympic fever just hasn't caught on at our house. A lot of that has to do with the fact that the Olympics don't come on until just before the boys bedtime.

    I thought the comparison post was hilarious. It is everything I wish my boys had for grandparents.

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  6. I'm ready to throw sand in the face of the people who decide what to show here in Canada.

    Last night I turned it on after a very long long day - we only get the olympics in the evening here - and what were they showing? Beach volleyball. Again.

    I might hang myself with that damn net.

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  7. Oh, I can picture this so well in my head, and all the different roles you have to play in it. It's great how these little kids pick up the importance of what is happening on TV so quickly and want to be the same heroes. The best thing you can do is get them on a sports team as soon as they are old enough. My son played American football and my daughter ran track and it did them a world of good.

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  8. Sounds like you have future Olympic competitors in the making!

    Also just realized that NBC must be broadcasting the same coverage to the entire world. It's one thing to be in America and see focus on American competitors but I can see how annoying it would be to others. This exclusive contract thing sucks, you would think they would find better ways to chop up the licensing agreement. They should get Disney licensing gurus on the case. Those guys know how to cut a license 20 thousand ways.

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  9. well i think you're very kind to let them watch telly at all during this exciting olympic period.

    Mine have been told, 'it's two weeks every four years, the ONLY time I demand free and total access to the telly, for 3 years, 335 days of the time it's yours (maths not too good), but for now, IT'S MINE'.

    And usain Bolt...the man is delicious.
    Pigx

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  10. Have they tried the rhythmic gymnastics yet? Or even better, the synchronised swimming? Being male is no excuse for not attempting these 'sports' (said with tongue firmly in cheek)

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  11. Hi Tara, I'm encouraging this interest in sport as much as possible, of course. Though I'm sure it won't be long before we're back to motorbikes and crocodiles...

    J's Mommy, let's live in hope. Though I think as a family supporting a child training for a summer olympics medal might be a little lighter on the wallet than if they go for the down-hill (not so much snow over here...)

    EPM - partly true, yes. But we won 19 golds! Hurrah!!(Oh, and not forgetting the chinese, who came top, and the Russians, who came third...)

    Iota, luckily no diving made it's way into the favourites list, mainly because I managed to ensure that neither of them saw it. Nothing if not manipulative, me.

    Hi Ped, this is where the BBC actually is OK - we could watch a round up practically 24 hours a day on their multi-screen offering. Have to say it revolutionised the games for me.

    Aims, see the comment above. And my next post - about beach sports...

    Irene, I live in hope. Though maybe not American Football. I was thinking of something safer - like rugby (you know, similar games, no pads... Is my logic off?)

    Hi SB, there speaks a licensing queen. Sadly, I still think that way too; on hearing the news a couple of weeks back on how a lot of factories were forced to close down to reduce smog levels during the games, one of my first thoughts was: gosh, that must be playing havoc on manufacturing and shipping times for premiums... How sad is that?

    Pig, lucky I got them into it too really. But I clearly wasn't tough enough since as you noticed, c-beebies was still on the menu. A word from me, and they do as they like...

    Sharon, you know, I was wondering if synchronised swimming was still involved. Not sure why I was wondering, but there you go...

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