Olympics Selection

We've been SELECTED!!!  Oh yes - properly SELECTED!!!  On Wednesday night at training the coach came up to me and said 'we'd really like you on the team, training starts soon, are you up for it?'  Up for it?  Oh yes!!!  And SO proud - it's the first time I've ever been selected to be on anything.  Can't quite believe it still, apparently we'll do our team stuff all over the UK, camping may be involved for overnight stops (gulp) and we'll be an integral part of the whole thing.  Amazing!  New Running Dog was oddly unfazed at being selected for the Rockwood Dog Agility Display Team, but I'm still gobsmacked.  Selected!  YAY!

You thought I'd been selected for the Olympics?  Now that would be Silly...  Well, ok, maybe the heading should have been Olympics AND Selection...  On Saturday the Olympic Flame came through Caerphilly.  I KNOW!  Li'l' ol' CAERPHILLY!  The Melodeon Master and I cycled to Caerphilly in keeping with the whole healthy sporty feel of the day.  We were the only ones.  Everybody else went by car and most of them passed us on the road - like rush hour times ten...  Mad!

Anyway, we padlocked the bikes to a suitable bit of railing and found ourselves a good pitch near the train station.  (Bad pitch, apparently the place to be was near the Castle.  Doh.  Next time the Olympic Flame comes through we'll get it right.  We'll be 140 years old, but we'll get it right...)

There was a Very Large Lady in front of me who knew she was blocking my view and said she'd crouch down.  And she did.  Until the actual cheesegrater thingy got close at which point she stood up and I didn't see a damned thing.  Well, to be fair I did see it going down the street away from me.  It was a cheesegrater being carried by a bloke in a white track suit.  Sorted.

You've probably seen enough pictures of the Olympic Flame by now so here's a very nice picture of the church where the bells were ringing beautifully..  Shame you can't hear them.  That would be a soundblog....

After the torch had gone past the crowds vanished remarkably quickly and we decided to go and investigate the nearby cafe who had given us a flyer for 'pedal your own smoothie'.  Yep, pedalling a smoothie.

So the Melodeon Master chose a smoothie and I did the pedalling!  Proper bike, the harder I pedalled, the faster the blender went - magic!  I would happily have stayed there all morning pedalling for everybody else's smoothie - I loved it!

Caerphilly did us proud - there was also a food festival (fab cupcakes, Mel!), a flower festival and an Olympic Park where kids could try out different sports.  Yes, OK, we went there because I thought grown-ups could try different sports.... hey ho.  And on the Blue Peter stage there was Steve Redgrave answering questions.  The ACTUAL Steve Redgrave - proper Olympic 5 Golds Legend.  WOW!

And so to proper running/cycling on Sunday...  No Ice Cream Sian as she has tonsilitis (get well soon!) and not very far as it was Very Hot.  So we did a scant 8k up and down through the woods - this is the remaining 3 Cows heading back towards Machen.  Just look at that sky - awesome weather or what?

And I did my best to keep them cool....  I herded them towards a nice shallow bit of the river.

And was reminded of the old saying....

You can lead a Cow to water, but only one of them will paddle....