For the past week I have sat on my sofa and yelled at the tv; I've laughed and I've cheered, I've listened to The Breakfast Show on Radio 1 and almost cried when JK said he was a failure. I got fed up of JK missing out on the top spot, because I believed that on more than one occasion he deserved it, and I got annoyed along with him when he was robbed in the diving. Yes it was the week of The Games. For a whole week it was the reason that Lucy always knew where I was at nine in the evening. Except half way through the week I decided it wasn't enough to yell throughout JK's events thus informing everyone in my house of the happenings in Sheffield, I wanted to be there and cheer JK on and then someone, namely Jen, made the mistake of pointing out that Sheffield actually wasn't that far away...
Consequently, within 24 hours I had got us tickets to the final on Friday; it's been a while since I've done something spontaneous* and weird though it was, it was bloody exciting. First though, I had to get through two days of sitting on the sofa watching The Games from the comfort of my living room and my pj's where no one could see the nerves the opening music brought on. Oh and the small matter of a seminar on Friday morning; one which, though I attended, I really couldn't tell you what happened, where I spoke when I had to but I'm not entirely sure I remember what I said.
Some point before the seminar, I made the mistake of mentioning that I hadn't eaten all day but Corinne couldn't yell at me, like she usually does, since she was all the way in York. Five minutes later my phone rang...

"I don't have much credit so I just have one thing to say to you...GO EAT!"

The conversation then moved onto banners and Corinne set me the mission of getting on tv. Now, I don't actually like being on tv, which is why when it comes to GTV, you are more likely to find me in the gallery playing with faders than in front of the camera, but a mission's a mission and as much as I hate being in front of the cameras, I wasn't going to ignore it.
Within two hours of leaving my seminar, with a slight detour via the library to pay of my fine in case they suddenly decided I couldn't graduate, I had arrived in Derby. Just over two and a half hours after that we were on a majorly packed train to Sheffield with our banners in hand, or rather hidden in bags. Now I should probably stop there and explain. Every morning Chris Moyles would ring JK and, amongst other things, would ask what banners he wanted that night. Consequently, it is highly entertaining to look at all the banners and see how many people listen to the Radio 1 Breakfast Show.
Upon arriving in Sheffield, it quickly became apparent that this was going to be another Harlow in the sense that if it ever stopped pouring then it would lull you into a false sense of security for all of two minutes before the heavens opened again. Whilst the fact that I got to go on a tram and the poster outside the arena pushed the rain from my mind, the long walk round the stadium and the queue upon finding the entrance did not. Plus I was slightly worried about the state of the track after all that rain.
When we eventually got in, it was unanimously decided that the nearer the front the better since we were already soaked through so more rain couldn't hurt. Thus we ended up four rows from the track listening to two dj's from Hallam Fm attempting to get the crowd to cheer and yell "hello Jamie"**. And at that point I remembered what it was like watching something being filmed, there was lots of waiting around, so to speak, since we couldn't always see what was going out live on the big screen and didn't always have audio. I was slightly entertained, however, by the fact that one of the dj's had dropped her pen on the track and couldn't find it and was therefore hoping that someone either cleared it away or that no one slipped on it during the sprints.
The women's hammer event was first, on the far side of the stadium and the bright lights shone in our direction made sure it was as difficult as possible to see the girls' throws. Then came the men's javelin and the nerves kicked in. Jade had thrown a no throw twice in heats and I was convinced that there was no way he was going to do that on the night. I was right, he threw that javelin just over 30 metres and Jen and I realised that JK wasn't going to win that event since his PB*** was only 25m. However, credit where credit's due, the boy did good and gave it his all to throw the javelin a brilliant 29.08 metres thus coming second overall. And yes, I cheered a lot.
Somewhere in the middle of all this, I got a text from Corinne:

"You have completed your mission, fab shot of you and banner after JK came out"

Having watched this back I can say that I managed to hide behind the banner so the banner shows up well and you can't really see me, to the point that my whole house were watching the repeat with me and managed to not see me despite looking hard.
Next was the women's sprint but we were, temporarily, distracted by the boys warming up and getting ready for their sprint after. The women's sprint was always going to have a clear winner in Javine so I wasn't too bothered about the whole thing but once the gun went off I found myself yelling myself hoarse for Michelle, who try as she might couldn't catch up with Javine thus coming a repectable second. Next was the men's sprints and I'd already started yelling before JK was even in the starting blocks. As soon as the gun went off I didn't stop yelling until JK passed that finish line and I think I possibly didn't stop after that since I'd realised, through watching the monitor, that his foot had crossed the line straight after MacPlat'num's**** and he'd beaten Jade. The fact that he'd come second in both his events meant that he got the bronze medal overall.

*****
I forgot about the rain and the fact that it was freezing and I looked like I'd fallen in a lake and jumped up and down cheering when JK took the podium.

"Aww he did so well! Remember you don't need to worry until you stop shivering"

There aren't many people I'd stand out in the pouring rain for for a long period of time. It turns out JK is one of them.


*Though I don't plan on recreating anything like the trip to see Riccardi in London that was decided at 2 o'clock in the afternoon of the same day as the gig and involved a train trip to Nottingham and a driving trip down to London complete with snow, broken heating and a quick change in the car in a back street...
**Whilst I did yell this, along with everyone else, I drew the line at yelling 'we love you Jamie', since I can safely say he would never yell 'I love the ND'.
***Personal Best
****I called him this the other day and Tariq asked if that was his real name. Well no, but the Breakfast Show call him that so now I'm incapable of calling him anything else.
*****Picture stolen from The Games site.