Remember that the previous post I said that we were told to meet up with some kids the next day to collect tix for the Games? The rendezvous place was the Guangzhou Olympic Sport Complex so there we went.
As we milled around the entrance to the Complex, my Dad was quite excited as we had been promised Athletics tickets. I, on the other hand, was a bit skeptical as the Games website showed that the Athletics programme did not begin until Sunday.
And it turned out that I was correct. For the kid turned up with hockey tickets and asked for 380 Yuan. We did not really want to watch hockey but I told my Dad that the tickets would at least allow us to go in and see the facilities up close so we bargained down to 350 Yuan a piece and bought them, relieved in a way that they did not cost the 1200 Yuan we had been offered the day before.
We then proceeded to queue - for quite a long while - to get in...
And then just as we were about to get in, the kid called saying that he now had tickets for tennis, which was ongoing in the same complex and asked whether we would care for tickets at 600 Yuan a piece. Considering that my Dad watches a lot more tennis than hockey and considering that Peng Shuai is one of my Dad's favourite Chinese female players, we bargained down to 550 Yuan each and bought them.
We were quite pleased with our purchased actually - until we saw the offical selling price - 10 Yuan.
Minor glitch there. And we did not let it get us down as we feasted our sights at the magnificient Complex. Now, you know I'm a sucker for neatly ordered wide open spaces so its no surprise that I was very impressed by the layout of the place.
These are some of the pictures we took of the facilities and the decorative artifices...
But enough of the surrounding scenery. On to the Games proper. As I said just now, we had tickets for tennis. The Centre Court was a colossal crucible-like structure. The way it was shaped made for a tremendous atmosphere - great if the crowd was with you, intimidating to say the least if it was not.
Also, no measure was spared to ensure that the players could concentrate as fully as possible on the match at hand. To that end, we could only enter Centre Court in between points. This is a picture of us waiting to get inside...
And what we saw the minute we stepped in...
These are some of the views of the arena...
And this was the giant screen in showing goings-on in between points (Not during, because I presume it may distract the players). Notice how the crowd sits within the shade only?
Anyhow... On to the match we were waiting for... It was between Peng Shuai, this lovely girl here...
And Chang Kai-Zhen, this equally comely lass...
Peng was from China and Chang from Chinese Taipei. Despite that slight difference in geography, it was clear whose side the crowd, and my Dad, was on. Peng won in the end, after a tight second set. When she won the Gold medal a few days later, we were delighted to have watched the eventual women's champion.
Before that had happened however, I had queued 20 minutes....
To purchase this. It was very fragrant 'French Bread'. It did not have any fillings, but it was filling, but partly fulfilling. We were full - and filled - but not quite fulfilled.... (Ok, I know... This is overkill, right?)
I also had a chance to pass by Court No. 1, where the top seed Kimiko Date had apparently just beaten what, from a distance, looked like a cute Korean player by the name of Lee. I noticed that the seats there allowed far greater proximity to the players. Darn, maybe I should have watched there too.
But by the time the tennis matches ended, we hardly had time for the hockey, which, being between Japan and Hong Kong, didn't appeal to us that much after all...
So not so many pictures of that... Anyhow, that was our brief but tantalizing first-hand experience of the Games...
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