On Friday I wasn't feeling quite 100% so plans to head into town to watch the opening ceremony were out the question, so instead stayed in at Uns' place and watched it on TV. It would've been good to be in a bar to screen outdoors, but you probably land up seeing and hearing more when just at home.

Saturday morning was the men's cycle road race, starting in The Mall and heading out through Putney and Richmond towards Dorking and back again in the afternoon, finishing again at The Mall. Since they were heading along Upper Richmond road, it provided us with a great viewing spot just a minutes walk from my front door. We watched the start on TV and as soon as they started approaching Fulham we headed outside to catch the peloton fly past the crowds.

Once they had gone, and took a few seconds only followed by minutes and minutes of support vehicles, it was back inside to carry to watching them on the TV. It was quite something to see the local area to TV, as they headed through Putney, Richmond, Hampton Court then out to Woking and Dorking, before doing nine laps of Box Hill and then back on the same route. We watched most of it on TV, cheering on Mark Cavendish in the hope of a British winner. After a good few hours of cycling, they completed the nine laps and started making their way back to the Mall. Again, a quick pop outside the door and onto Upper Richmond Road to watch them fly past, with the peloton unfortunately way again of Team GB. It wasn't looking good for Mark and co.

The afternoon we had a braai at home - it was Marty's stag party the night before as well as the Saturday night, so they had planned a braai and chilled out afternoon at ours. I wasn't part of the stag do, but hung around outside half getting involved and half watching the Olympic Swimming which had just started.

On Sunday it was the women's cycling road race, and they were following much the save route as the mens except only a couple of laps around Box Hill instead of the nine. It was running quite a bit outside so not the best to stand around on the road edge waiting. As with the mens, we watched the start and first few miles on TV then dashed outside to watch them tear down Upper Richmond road out towards Dorking. The rest of the other was just in front of the TV watching more swimming and flicking through the Olympic channels.

On both Monday and Tuesday I spent at home on the couch in front of the TV catching up on the day's Olympic highlights, as well as all the swimming which was now in full swing. Then last night myself, Uns and Noel headed off to Hyde Park to go and check out London Live Hyde Park which is to provide unparalleled coverage of the London Olympic Games on six giant screens. Each evening, the main screen will transform into a live music stage bringing headline performances to the crowds, which is free for everyone, limited to a few thousand people or so. On top of that, every Olympic medal competed for at the Games will also be broadcast on the large screens. The event is set up to give it a real festival-like atmosphere, but in the heart of London.

It proved to be rather popular, but at least there wasn't a massive queue to get in. I would imagine the as the Olympics went on, and especially on the weekends, it would be mental there. But good atmosphere! We sat around watching quite a bit of the swimming on one of the screens, and then took a mission around the park, had a couple of beers and Noel made sure he got his soft serve ice-cream. I'm sure we'll try head back there again another night, maybe closer to the weekend or if the weather's good on a Saturday afternoon, would definitely be good atmosphere there, especially if Team GB is participating! So a good start to the Olympics, and looking forward to the rest still to come!