Saturday 7 July 2007

Big screens but no ice cream

We braved the hoardes today and headed into London for Le Grand Depart today, the prologue for the Tour de France.

I have to say that the Le Tour has lost its magic for me since the departure of the magnificant Lance Armstrong. So I didn't really know the names of any of the riders, except one. Yesterday on the way back from school I got chatting with a Dad and he mentioned Bradley as being 'our boy'. So I knew I needed to cheer for a Bradley, turns out that's Bradley Wiggins. Apparently he won an Olympic medal and has an OBE. Sorry but he didn't survive testicular cancer and win the Tour seven times so he just doesn't measure up to Lance.

Weather was kind to Ken Livinstone and the organisers and the sun shone all afternoon. In fact, in contrast to the last few weeks, it was very hot mid afternoon, which was when we decided we needed an ice cream.

So we wandered over to the 'People's Village'. Now I expected the place to be heaving with catering establishments operating out of the traditional trailer with generator. Well there were a few: italian coffee shop, homemade pie shop, organic burger bar, exclusive ice cream parlour and posh sweet shop. Now I know that someone had clearly decided that this would be an upmarket event but that someone should have done their research.

We, the consumer might like the sustenance available in these places but we don't like having to queue for half an hour to get it. And there's nothing wrong with posh, fancy, organic, free range food, but, equally, there's nothing wrong with a bit of choice and few more establishments to help cater for all budgets and queueing tolerance.

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