Saturday 11th August

Day 15 – Today is our last day, we are going canoeing and then off to see Tom Daley in the 10m platform diving.

We need to be up around 7.30am to make our way to Richmond for our canoe trip round Eel Island. We arrive in good time to ne met my Pierce and Tony who will be our instructors / guides for the day. While we wait for others to arrive we watch a handful of people trying paddle boarding, basically standing on what looks like a surf board with a paddle, they are all making it look very easy and we think that could be something to try in the future.

Once all 14 of us are there we all begin to get to know each other and do a warm up so we are ready to paddle. We share a boat with two Italians and as we gently paddle along we stop at various points and Pierce fills us in with some history, we also chop and change positions are various times on our route.

We stop at Eel Island which houses around 100 residents and is also home to a rowing club. Several artists live there also. Back in the 60's and 70's it was renowned for being a party island where it was ok to do anything and everything.

It used to have a hotel where much of this partying went on, however this was destroyed by fire many years ago and is now a much calmer place.

Pierce also told us about a local DJ who took claim to the Island a few years ago and declared it an independant state, this only lasted a few hours before he was escoted off by police. Since then he has done the same thing with a flat he bought and it is called Lovely and it has 58,000 residents, and you can if you wish also become a resident and also an Embassy of the state if you send a photo in of a room in your house which we think we will do.

After our couple of hours on the river which was lovely and calm we head back to our apartment for a quick snooze before heading back to the Olympic Park for our last event the 10m Diving and Tom Daley. He hadn't been in the best of form in the qualifying but he is safely through.

We have some ribs and chicken for tea washed down with a beer. We then decide to stay our near the Olympic park drinking this and listen to the crowd inside as Mo Farah has taken to the track for the 5000m, could he do the double. You could hear the cheers inside increase, and all of us outside were either refreshing live text update or watching live stream video on phones. The atmosphere was tense but excited as we all waited with anticipation as he took the lead at the bell, the live feed vidoe was just behind the text so we all knew he had won before the live feed finished. The roar from inside the stadium had also given it away and the large group of outside cheered in unison.

Many of us then headed across for the short walk to the aqautics centre to watch Tom. Inside it is incredibly hot as the temperature has to be kept at 29 degrees, we take our seats and join the other 17,000 people to watch what was the most tense event we had attended. The roars for Tom just being introduced took minutes to settle before the next diver was introcuded.

The look of amazement on the audience's faces as each dive took place was a picture in itself, they were in awe and disbelief that these young men could do something like this under so much pressure. the handstands were unreal and the closeness to hitting the board on the way down made everyone marvel and gasp as each dive took place.

As the tension mounted and Tom began to creep up the board, it was clear the American was having a fabulous series of dives putting unusual amounts of pressure on the Chinease divers. 

Further roars hit the building as first David Beckham joined the audience with his sons and then as Tom moved into medal contention.

At the end of the 5th round the place erupted in a sea of noise as Tom edged into gold medal spot, could he do it??? As the final round unfolded and Tom took his last dive we knew if the American had a good dive he would take the lead as if had a harder tariff, he did and went into the lead. The final diver then edged Tom into Bronze medal position, to which Tom was elated with and he then jumped into the pool with his team-mates. The medal ceremony was extra special and his jump of joy on the podium made you realise how special getting a medal at the olympics is.

I don't think the venue would still have a roof on it had he won the gold, The crowds hung around for ages afterwards to try and get a glimps of Tom as he did his lap of honour. Another fabulous night, and as we leave the park we have the police doing the Mobot............the troops all smiling and enjoying the experience.

We head back shattered and with a feeling you had been part of a very special two weeks. More highlights as ever to watch and then its off to get some sleep before up and getting packed for the trip home tomorrow.