Santa Ahead Of Schedule

Santa is making good time on his journey around the world. He has actually arrived in London a little ahead of schedule at 2352. Let's hope that Rudolph and all the other reindeers have not peaked too early and that they are able to complete their journey on time.

Under The Spreading Chestnut Tree

The other day I wrote a post about having a dream about something I should write for this blog, but by the  time I woke up I couldn't remember what it was that I was supposed to be writing about.  This afternoon I was talking to a friend on the phone and a chance remark during the conversation reminded me what the post was going to be about.

Conkers.  Yes, that's right, conkers.  I had dreamt about writing a post about conkers, strange as it may seem.

It all began a few weeks ago as I was sitting on the bus on my way to my regular Friday psychotherapy session.  London, for all its sprawling size and apparent mass of buildings, is actually a very green city.  I mean that in the nature sense, not the environmental one.  The capital has lots of parks, some large some small, all over the place.  These parks are in the central, touristy part of London and they are in the suburbs too.  In addition, many streets in London are tree-lined, and it just so happens that in my part of London there are lots of horse chestnut trees.  So, on this journey a few weeks ago I happened to notice as I was looking out of the window that there were an awful lot of conkers on the trees.  It was one of those things that you just sort of notice at the time and then file away for future reference.

Horse chestnut trees are amongst the most beautiful that grow in this country.  From the sticky buds that start to appear as winter starts to fade into spring they become clothed with leaves formed of usually five leaflets, that start off drooping then become firm and fan-like as they grow larger as the days grow longer and warmer.  Then there are the magnificent pink or white flowers that look like candelabra fixed all over the tree.  The flowers die back as summer arrives and the horse chestnut displays itself as a magnificent spreading sunshade during the days of high summer, and if we have been lucky and the flowers have been fertilized the conkers begin to grow.

This year we have not had the best of weather; I think we can all say that it seems to have been one of the coldest and wettest summers that we can remember.  But the weather this year seems to have been perfect for the horse chestnut trees.  Spring was mild, we even had some really lovely weather at the perfect time for the blossoms, and it seems that the bees and other insects were busy fertilizing the flowers.  The excess of rain seems to have suited the horse chestnut trees with the result that there was sufficient to ensure that there was minimal loss of fruit from the trees during the summer.  It is normal during July and August to see lots of immature conkers on the ground around the trees which have been shed because the trees cannot take up sufficient water for all of them to grow to maturity.  This year there were few.

During the last couple of weeks, as I have been taking my daily walks, I have noticed that the conkers are starting to fall from the trees, and this year there seem to be far more than I can ever remember having seen before, and not only are they numerous, they are also large.

So, while it may not have been a very good weather for humans this summer, it seems that the weather has been perfect for the horse chestnut trees, and consequently for a good harvest of conkers.  

Team GB Go From Strength to Strength

It is not going to be quite such a Super Saturday as was predicted because as has happened so often at this games, the wind has failed again at the Olympic Sailing and Ben Ainslie and the three Blondes in a Boat will have to wait for tomorrow to find out what colour their medals are going to be.

Our medal haul from the rowing today was one gold medal and two bronze, and hearty congratulations should go to all our medal winners, but also to our other finalists who were not lucky enough to get a medal. To qualify for an Olympic final is a magnificent feat in its own right.

We are already assured another gold medal in the cycling, and at least two silver medals (although one of these may be gold), so our track cyclists are performing well and reproducing the form that they showed at the World Championships in Manchester earlier this year.

At some Olympic Games we wonder whether we will win any medals; in fact we wonder whether we will get anyone into a final. Beijing is proving to be a successful games for Team GB; we are eighth in the medal table as I write this post, and we are likely to climb higher over the next few days.

Team GB are doing this country proud. They should get a hero's welcome when they come home, and we should remember that so many of them have gone to Beijing to get experience of what it is like to compete at a major games, and successes achieved can help to provide a strong core to build on for London 2012.

A Ridiculous Time to be Blogging

This is a ridiculous time in the morning to be writing something on my blog, but after a long nap yesterday afternoon, and an early night (very early really) where I fell asleep almost immediately, I have woken up just in time for the start of today's Olympics on the television. This is the time when the Olympics programme starts to get really busy because not only do we still have a few more days of exciting swimming to watch, but the athletics is about to begin. One of our real medal hopes, Kelly Sotherton is shortly to start her bid for gold in the Heptathlon; she is due to start her bid in Heat 5 of the Hurdles. Depending on how long this post is, she may actually have begun before I can publish it.

The programme started by showing the inside of the Bird's Nest Stadium, and like so many other occasions during these games there were many empty seats. We then went to the studio that the BBC are using for linking the whole of their coverage of the games, which has a wonderful view of the stadium as a backdrop, and it was possible to see why there were so many empty seats. There were literally hundreds of people making their way across the somewhat strangely named Olympic Green, towards the stadium entrances. It seems that before long the 91,000-seater stadium will indeed be full.

Filling stadia should really not be a problem for the Chinese for they are, after all, the most populous nation on Earth, but it has been remarked at how often there have been empty seats at these games, and this is something that the organisers of London 2012 must ensure does not happen. There is a very fine balancing act to be managed; prices should be high enough to ensure recouping at least a major proportion of the costs of running the games, while at the same time ensuring that the cost of seats at the various sporting venues does not mean that they are priced beyond the reach of the interested population in Britain.

Since the start of the programme, a little over half an hour ago, the number of empty seats has reduced. There are now significantly fewer patches of empty red seats and more spectators can be seen finding their way through the stadium. And as the heats of the Heptathlon hurdles progress, Kelly Sotherton has just run a life-time best for the hurdles and is lying in fourth place after the first event. Producing your best time ever shows that you are committed to performing well, and Kelly is obviously keen to improve on the bronze medal she won at the Athens Olympics and has shown this from the start. We now have to hope that she continues in this vein and produces a performance of which she can be truly proud and without the heartbreak that getting an injury would bring. After all, if Kelly is in with a chance when the 800m, the last event, is run tomorrow, there can be no doubt that she will do all she can to ensure that a medal, hopefully the gold, is her reward.