The Olympic Football at St James Park

Ok, I'll admit it, until today I'd never been to a proper football match, I'd seen it on tv and I'd watched hubby play locally but I'd never been to a match and the only time I'd ever been to St James Park was for weddings.  Well in our house I've been overcome with Olympic fever, I booked the tickets for the Olympic football pretty much as soon as Looby and I returned from the Olympic Torch Relay Party, I knew that this was going to be a once in a lifetime event and although I would have loved to gone to some of the events in London with my work schedule it was just never going to be possible to take the time off so the next best thing was to go and see the Olympic mens football at St James Park.  I have to say that I absolutely loved it, the first match was Mexico vs Korean Republic and it was a party atmosphere, what those mexicans lack in football skills they make up in cheering, singing, chanting and mexican waving.  One of the things they do when there's a free kick is shout "whoooooooaaaaaaaahhhhh, football" as well as doing a hand action which I can't really show you on a blog, you had to be there for that one but I think I might become a mexican supporter as those guys really know how to have fun.  To be honest the Korean Republic fans were also pretty vocal and they brought drums and a mascot who looks a bit like Hello Kitty, I wish I could have gotten that photo but they were too far away, I had wanted to take a slightly longer lens but I erred on the side of caution as the security checks are pretty vigorous and the last thing I wanted was to have my camera taken away.  So heres the story of our day in photos!

 Abigail has decided that she's a girl geek and this is her new style, this includes a pair of 3D glasses with the lenses removed, I do think she suits it though!

Soaking up the atmosphere before the match, it was a bit of a dark grey day today but it didn't spoil our fun!

Looby also loved it, like me i think she enjoyed the party atmosphere a lot more than the actual football.

Warming Up, thats the Korean Rebublic doing some hopping, skipping and jumping

lots of warming up and football, I think it would be great if it was that busy on the pitch during the match, 4 goals too!

I would have sang along if I'd known the words to any of the national anthems

Rocking the sunglasses!

This was during the Gabon vs Switzerland game, not the most exciting and you know what Swiss fans, your cowbells are not half as much fun as big drums and hello Kitty mascots

So all in all a great day, a few points to note if you're going over the next few days, the security is tight but it only took us about 5 minutes to get through it, it's not half as scary as they make out, I didn't take a bag but you basically have to put everything on your person into a clear plastic bag so the security can check that it isn't anything sinister, they're quite a jolly jovial lot, none of them are G4S though, that might be why!

The food, well that was a bit of a let down, they do a meal deal for £5.50 which is a Bacon or Sausage stotty with a bottle of pop, not exactly the cheapest but apparently it's all locally sourced, I asked if I could swap the bottled pop for a coffee (coffee was 20p cheaper) and I was told no in no uncertain terms which seems a bit daft but hey ho!  The snack selection is rubbish, no crisps just small pots of Pringles and the sweets are overpriced and a bit rubbish but you really have no alternatives since you're not supposed to take any food or drinks into the stadium.

All in all we had a great day out, we got to see 2 matches and it wasn't so pricey, adult tickets were £20 and we had great seats and with the kids you just pay £1 per year so a bargain if you have lots of little ones really!

I had such a blast I'm tempted to get some tickets for one of the matches next week, anyone fancy coming to watch Brazil vs New Zealand with me?