Looking back, looking forward

So, 2012 then. How was it for you?

I'd say it was a pretty awesome year. Wiggo winning le Tour and getting a knighthood for services to offending the French, soaking up the atmosphere of London 2012 (albeit at arms length), and just for a few days there the newspapers were full of positive role models for girls - Jessica Ennis, Victoria Pendleton, Ellie Simmonds, all totes amazeballs, to name but a few.

It didn't quite have the personal upheaval of the previous couple of years - which seems a slightly odd thing to say given the one significant life change the year did bring, but I probably went on about that enough at the time (spin back to March/April if you want to relive my thoughts!).

But now I'm settled... settled into the rhythm of living with a man (it is an acquired taste, but you get used to it), settled into the routine of my wifely duties, I even got the new signature down within a couple of months.

So what's next? Stuck in a rut and waiting for the seven year itch? Well, I'm not going to worry about that for at least six years, but I don't think I (sorry, we) will remain settled long enough to get bored. I think there are more changes going to happen in 2013.

It's been a couple of years since God recruited me to His team, and I don't think he did that just so I could keep Animal company (although, if that did turn out to be my main purpose in life, it wouldn't be so bad). No, I think God has another job in mind, either for me or for us both, together. There have already been a couple of interesting developments which may be related, but time will tell....

Musical Monday

Just because I didn't want it to end, and to celebrate the awesomeness of Team GB. Again.

And because it's an awesome video to a classic tune, naturally!

Musical Monday: Velodrome

Just because I'm gonna miss it now it's done its job for London 2012... Oh, and by the way, sorry it's been so long!

How awesome is this?

Who knew Great Britain would actually turn out to be so... Great?

OK, I may be slightly biased, but from where I'm looking Team GB totally dominated the velodrome over the last few days. Queen Vic is totally my hero! And the rowing for that matter - we don't just win these things, we own them!

And who the heck is Greg Rutherford? Didn't see that one coming!

But, congratulations to Greg, whoever you are, but Super Saturday surely belongs to one person.

When you look up 'inspirational' in the dictionary from now on, it'll simply say:

The sheer dedication it must take to be that good at seven sports boggles my mind, but wow, what a role model, what an example to every one of us.

And you gotta love the crowd.... not that you can blame them, I was on my feet cheering her on too! But the way they cheered her home, and Mo Farah too.... Right now, I just love being British :)

Olympomania #2

So, I got to cheer Cav and the team on on Saturday :D

I'm not sure whether Animal has quite forgiven me for getting him up at 5am, driving for 2 and a half hours, camping out at the road side for another two hours, cheering like an ecstatic banshee for 30 seconds and then driving for another 2 and a half hours, but, well, tough. For better for worse and all that malarkey eh? Besides, we're not going to get a better chance to see the Olympics, and it'll be something to tell the little Sadimals about some day won't it?

At the moment the two groups came flying past me - about an hour or so into the race - the gap was worringly big, given that Team GB were in the second group, but they should have had time to pull it back. And indeed they nearly did,but I think there was just too much expectation on Cav, and the other teams just didn't want to make the effort to compete, so our boys ended up wearing themselves out to no avail.

So, gutted for Cav, still no Olympic medal, but Vino was a deserving winner, and of course: Yay Lizzie!

And if I see any empty seats in that velodrome next week, I'ma gonna kick somebody's backside....

Olympomania!

Yes, it's true, I have come down with a serious case of Olympic fever - or as I'm sure I heard Bozza Jozza refer to it earlier, Olympomania. (Honestly, that man couldn't be a better charicature of a politician if he was literally a muppet.)

I know there are some people out there who think its a big white elephant and a waste of taxpayers money and we should never have even attempted to host the games and blah blah blah.... well take your humbugginess somewhere else, and be sure to keep quiet while the rest of us enjoy the atmosphere.

After all, hasn't it been great being British this year? Apart from the monsoon anyway. And those 100 anti-monarchists that went out to protest against the boat thingy (I think Liz 2 won that one by several thousand). I can't be the only one who thinks so, given that you can buy anything from pork pies to nappies to condoms with Union Flags emblazones on them (or possibly just the packaging, I don't buy any of those things myself, patriotic or otherwise).

Me? I'll be having an opening night party - beer, pizza and non-humbuggy friends, enjoying the ceremony and hoping it doesn't embarrass our nation too much... Not too much beer for me though, cos I'm getting up at stupid o'clock tomorrow and heading for Surrey to catch a glimpse of the road race. Yes, I know, it's a little extreme just to catch a flying glimpse of some guys in lycra of the world's greatest cyclists in one of the world's greatest sporting competitions, (which reminds me, having completely overlooked blogging for the entirety of le Tour: Yay Wiggo! Yay Cav!) but I didn't actually get any tickets :( and I want to enjoy the aforementioned atmosphere.

So hopefully I'll make up for my oversight during le Tour by remembering to at least mention how awesomely we're doing during the Olympics, at least in the cycling.

Now, I have a party to prepare for!