helsinkibaby | Entries tagged with olympics

Dad got another batch of plums off the tree yesterday which lead Abigail to ask the question, "What else can we make with plums, Nanny?" Mam duly suggested plum crumble, possibly because Abigail's apple crumble is the food of the gods (seriously lads, this home ec business is great) so that is what was done this afternoon. Crumble was duly taken over to my parents' house this evening and devoured with gusto by all. Abigail was delighted!

Have also spent more time looking at the Olympics - Noah Lyles ran the 200m with covid? *shakes head* I do not get that at all. I don't know how he did it, I don't know how he was allowed to do it and I'm furious that it was allowed to happen. What happened to isolating when you know you're infected?

Very late post tonight but I didn't want to miss my streak... late because myself and Abigail were sitting down to watch Kellie Harrington's boxing match, to see would she win back to back Olympic gold medals... and she did. It's a measure of how freaked out I was over the whole affair that even when Abigail was jumping up and down on the sofa at the end, I couldn't find it in myself to tell her to sit back down!

Chicago Med has announced some new faces for the new season... after the disappointment that was season nine, I'm hoping that things will improve. I also saw on twitter or instagram, I can't remember which, that Med Student Naomi - she's played by the girl who played Sydney LaForge on Picard and I cannot remember her name for the life of me right now, it'll come back the second I press post - is also back and I'm happy about that. I like her.

Abigail and I sat down for most of the morning and looked at the final day of Olympic gymnastics. Wow, was that a mistake. Well, not entirely, there were some great moments. But there were so many women falling off the beam (on the same spot) that I was having Sydney 2000 vault flashbacks and the high bar was not a whole lot better - so many missed catches and four (?) falls on landings where the landings looked fine but then they pitched forward when they hit the mat … Rhys McClenaghan was on twitter saying to check the height of the bar so it wasn’t just me wondering!

But then Alice D’Amato won a surprise beam gold after being fourth twice, keeping her balance when all around lost theirs. And Rebeca Andrade won the floor for a much deserved gold medal, and Jordan Chiles and her inquiry lifted her to a bronze and her reaction and Simone hugging her was delightful. And then the two of them kneeling before Rebeca on the podium was so sweet. The ladies have been so supportive of one another and so much good sportsmanship on display, it’s been a pleasure to watch.

Then tonight we watched the athletics. Mondo duPlantis having won the gold already at 6.10m decided to go for 6.25 to break his own world record, just for the craic, and made it. And then we had some surprising skin in the game because it turned out the British girl, Keely Hodgkinson, who was the favourite for gold, races for Leigh Harriers. “Leigh?” says Abigail, because that is where Himself used to live and sure enough, a quick Google reveals that Leigh Harriers are based in Leigh Sports Village, right beside the Holiday Inn where we stayed for a week last month, and around the corner from the Whistling Wren, the pub where we had some meals (currently busier than usual, watch party anyone?)So then we had to shout for her like she was one of our own and she won! Fingers crossed we will get to do the same for Rashidat Adeleke in the 400, she looked good in her heat today!

Well, our adventure in jam making was a bit of a mixed bag. It would appear that in our attempts to make sure that the jam was properly set, we ended up over setting it, because the texture is definitely thicker than it should be. (I am choosing to push the narrative that too set is better than the alternative of the jam oozing everywhere.) However, the taste is yummy. Abigail baked scones today and then we went over to my parents' house, where scones with plum jam on top were duly devoured and fulsome praise heaped upon her, so happy daughter. We have agreed that next time when we make jam, we just won't do it for as long. Or buy a sugar thermometer to take out the guess work.

In other news, we sat down to look at the uneven bars final today, because that's Abigail's favourite event. We were delighted for Suni getting her bronze - I loved her reaction! Kaylia Neymour soundly deserved the gold, but I was heartbroken for Becky Downie. Falling on your own element should be an automatic do-over.

Then this evening we watched Daniel Whiffen swim to a bronze medal in the 1500m - it was very interesting, watching the RTE commentary because they were all gutted that he didn't win. Clearly a case of heightened expectations because he'd won the gold in the 800 earlier in the week and as one of the pundits said, if the medals had come the other way around, everyone would be jumping up and down. But as someone on Twitter pointed out, in the last sixty odd years, Ireland has won 6 medals. (I think they're discounting Michelle Smith?) This week alone we've won 7 and it's out most successful Olympics ever.

Despite my best plans, Himself coming down with bronchitis on the bank holiday weekend, necessitating a trip to the out of hours doctor meant I couldn’t sit down and watch the Olympics as planned. I know the vault results and am about to sit down and watch it now, but I did get to see the pommel horse live which, let’s face it, with Rhys McClenaghan going for gold, was the big one for me. ( “spoiler )

In other news, myself and Abigail attempted plum jam this evening! We shall see how it tastes tomorrow. I’m slightly worried it may set a bit too much… it was very runny til it wasn’t but fingers crossed!

I spent this afternoon at the cinema with Himself and Abigail seeing Despicable Me 4. Very enjoyable, got better as it went on. Minions funny as always and Abigail loved it so that’s all too the good.

Saw yesterday online that BBC are making an animated version of Julia Donaldson’s Tiddler to be shown over Christmas… I am more excited for this than I have any right to be, I used to read that to Abigail all the time and do all the voices and it was one of her favourites, slightly behind Room on the Broom. I am hoping for the Christmas afternoon slot, it’d be just lovely to sit down and look at that.

A day off today from Olympic gymnastics but Rhys McClenaghan goes in the pommel final tomorrow so I shall be seated for that. I was nervous enough because of Max Whitlock but then I saw Stephen the Pommel Guy in the mens team so I’m twice as bad.

And In other news, the IOC denied the figure skating appeal of the Canadians so Russia will get the bronze medal from the 2022 team event. Despite the fact that Russia didn’t even officially compete in that games. Flying in the face of all precedent and common sense - in what other team event does someone get DQed for doping and the rest of the team keep their medals? Please!

1st of August seems like a good time to try to get into the habit of coming on here again... not crossposting to LJ because that truly seems to have gone the way of the dodo, but we shall see...

I spent much of this afternoon/evening watching Simone Biles try her very best to give us all heart failure with the Olympic gold medal. ( Let's see if I remember how to spoiler tag )

I saw on twitter that Francine Pascal, creator of the Sweet Valley High books passed away. Those books were a huge staple of my teenage years, I devoured them. I think I might still have some up in the attic somewhere. This is a really good interview about how she came up with the series and how they were written.

Feeding Abigail today I began to look at some of the closing ceremonies of the Winter Olympics that I taped, and there were highlights of the hockey game on it at the start...they showed the entire anthem being played, however many thousand people singing "Oh Canada"... I got goosebumps!

In other news, this is the first LJ post I am making from my shiny new laptop! Which arrived three weeks ago but only got turned on for the first time last night. This is my life now, but I'm sure that some day I will get lots of use out of it! I'm using it as an excuse to look for lots of shiny new icons too... you may have noticed!

So, in the process of dumping files from the old laptop onto the external hard drive (because I do not have the time to put it all on DVD, which would be some feat seeing as the old laptop doesn't have a DVD burner!) I came across my writing folder with many many WIPs in it, and stuff that I actually finished writing and never posted. So my question to you all is, is there anything that you think might be in that folder that you really want me to post? Show, pairing, anything... let me know what might interest you and I'll post that first! This is also my way of saying to expect the odd bit of fic from me in the near future...be very afraid!