Starry, starry night

I hadn't realised until Jackie mentioned it in conversation, but I haven't seen a single star since I've been in Beijing.

I guess a combination of overcast conditions and the general amount of light that a metropolis of about 17 million people would demand, means that a 24-hour city gets no views of worlds beyond our own.

However, I did see some stars of an earthly kind yesterday evening (and early morning!) after a very long day at the Olympic Green.

First up was Archery at 10.30am. The morning was humid and getting hotter by the minute, but I still enjoyed the outdoor viewing at the Archery Field located in the Forest Park, north of the Green. The Koreans appeared to be the strong front runners in this competition and a lot of their compatriots had turned up to support them in at times rousingly choreographed cheering and clapping :) Their enthusiasm was deserved, as one shooter scored 6 in a row of perfect 10 bulls eyes. The arrows were going so fast, you couldn't see them with the naked eye - just when they pierced the target; and while the session I was in seemed dominated by Asians, I couldn't help but think of the rather English Robin Hood in Sherwood Forest :)

I headed back to main part of the Green to grab some lunch, and just as I was walking out of the ginormous McDonalds (as a sponsor, the only major food store available at Olympic Park) it steadily, but surely began to rain.

I was very glad that I had been carrying a cheap rain poncho in my bag, as just having an umbrella wasn't going to cut it in this downpour. My shoes got sodden as I tracked to the bus that would take me to the Tennis Centre - located in the same park as the Archery earlier - and many of the other sports fans looked like drenched rats before the Olympic Volunteers began handing out free ponchos to all the spectators.

The Tennis was supposed to start at 4.00pm, but as I sat down at 3.00pm there was an announcement that due to the weather, the referees would have to postpone the start of the game until 5.00pm. I was disappointed, but as I had booked this evening for the Tennis anyway, I figured I'd wait it out, and kept myself amused with Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey (I've brought her whole canon with me to China and intend on reading them all while I'm here:).

Well, I got through quite a significant portion of the novel as the rain didn't stop for almost 3 hours!

The cheering started at about 7.00pm when a referee poked his head out and made the decision that play would go ahead - a veritable army of cleaners, court driers and crew turned out to transform the sodden and sorry state of Centre Court to arena more befitting for the giants of the game.

And wow, we did have some amazing players that night! Roger Federer for Switzerland against James Blake of the US was the first game; then Venus Williams of the US versus home town favourite Na Li of China; and finally current Wimbledon champion, Rafael Nadal of Spain going against Jurgen Melzer of Austria.

Bill Gates (yeah, Mr Microsoft himself) was even in the stands watching the Williams/ Li match!

But it was definitely a late night - the final game didn't even start until midnight!

So I was thankful that I could sleep in this morning and leisurely catch the subway to Wukesong after lunch for Basketball at the Beijing Olympic Basketball Gymnasium.

I love watching a good game of b-ball - it's fast paced and I easily get caught up in plays and great hoop shots. I had a ticket to the afternoon session so just missed out on seeing Australia play in the morning, but got a couple of great games with Russia versus Brazil and then China against Mali.

The stadium was impressive, and I had really great (and comfortable!) seats, so a fantastic view of all the action. And I loved the interludes with the Fuwa and the Beijing Stunt Team during timeouts and half time.

It was absolutely hilarious was it to see that the Mexican Wave was started time and time again by an actual Mexican!!