Six and One Half*

Today we had tickets for the final of the diving at the PanAm games. We had a very slow morning with two power cuts before Huffle and I even emerged, a sit on the porch to catch up on the day's news and then a pancake breakfast.

Smallest's pancake and his photo

The rest of the morning and beginning of the afternoon we spent at the pool. Swimming, floating, catching, whirpooling and then a curious game of Noodle Cricket up on the deck. We had a bit of reading, relaxing and a small amount of gaming.

Someone's was trying to tip ,e off the ring! A panoramic shot by Huffle

Noodle Cricket - Hamletside

Noodle Cricket at CCG

Tickling Mummy

Quiet time

Around 2pm ish we all went in for showers and got ready to go out for food and eventually the diving. We had a nice dinner and then went on to a big sports shop nearby where Huffle bought himself a new pair of Soccer Cleats, or Football Boots (please read Football Boots in a Broad Yorkshire accent) as we like to call them (down from $150 to $20) a Baseball Glove for me for Mothers Day and a Traded Player Baseball Top for Huffle (reduced from $125 to just $20 all because the player has moved on to a different team). BARGAINS.

Beer and milkshakes

We then drove to the University where the diving was being held. $20 for parking and quick walk to the entrance where we had to queue for far too long in the blistering heat. Silly us, forgot to take water (though we wouldn't have been able to take it in unless it was sealed anyway) so we also had to spend $3 each on a bottle of water. Huffle promised us ice creams and even found us the best place to go (except we ran out of time). Into the centre where the diving had already begun and we realised we were far away from the diving boards to get good photos but close enough to see them doing their flippery dives. On one side were the diving boards and the other, the big screen showing slow motion dives, the audience occasionally and the scoring. The first group of divers divers were Canadian (obviously) women, Brazil, Columbia, USA, Puerto Rico, Chile etc. whenever one of the two Canadians came up to dive (3 metres by the way) the crowd went crazy. There were flags, banners, hats, tee shirts, dresses, shoes, socks, you name it, they were dressed in it! Now we know why the Canada Day clothing is not on sale yet! We felt quite subconscious sitting there amongst the Canadian supporters, almost like we were in the wrong seats, on an away end at the football on a Saturday afternoon. Strangely we had no-one really to support as we didn't have a team to cheer for. So for the whole of the Women's diving, we just watched and took it all in. The Canadian Divers were very good, especially Jeniffer (with two f's) Abel who won gold. Pamela Ware (Canadian) won silver.

We had a forty minute break while the men warmed up so we went outside to breathe some fresh air and get an ice cream. Forty minutes sounds a long time but it was JUST enough time to queue and queue for a choc Ice style ice cream and a quick trip to the loo. Then we were back in our seats and watched the men's 10 metre diving.

The men's was much more daring and many started their dives with a handstand or armstand (what's the difference?). This time we all chose a team to follow to make it more interesting. Huffle and Smallest chose the Mexicans because we had a family behind us who were very vocal. Small chose the Brazil team until they didn't do so well and then chose the USA. I chose Columbia because they make good coffee. My star of the evening was Victor Ortega who was an excellent diver. One of the Canadian divers did a back flop (ouch) and I missed it because I was looking at the reactions of the coaches. They didn't play this one on the big screen. Is it in bad taste to replay a failed dive?

Unfortunately the diving didn't start until 6pm and Smallest was very tired during the event. He perked up somewhat though when Mexico won Gold. I kept calling him my little Mexican Jumping Bean. Columbia was second and I don't know where USA came. We left before the medal ceremony as it was already very late. A very good entertaining evening. Very interesting to watch the Canadians being very patriotic (and us just looking on).

It occurred to me, whilst watching the men's diving, that they all have very little bums!

*refers to the scoring process during the diving. The commentator would call out the scores as six and one half instead of 6.5. It made Huffle and I laugh.

 

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