The Tribune

TODAY was Sunday, so it really is meant to be a day off for rest, and that’s what we did (primarily). We stayed up playing Monopoly with team Bahamas till midnight. I know...it’s late, but when you put a group of athletes together and call it a ‘friendly’ then eventually it’s going to get competitive.

Arianna had crossed over GO three times before I turned the first corner, and she didn’t look back, giving all of us a good lesson in buying property!

We decided to sleep in Sunday, but we both got up at 7.30am for breakfast. Ok...yes then we went back to bed. I can’t help but fall into the same habits as Arianna.

If she eats, I eat. If she sleeps, I sleep. I feel really connected to my athletes when I think like they think. I know it’s weird but it works for me.

For lunch we decided to get out, so we tracked down a little town around 15 minutes away and had a Sunday roast. Man it reminds me of growing up in Australia!

In the afternoon we went back to the pool for a dip and sauna, just for a recovery and to keep the body fresh.

It was a beautiful day in London with the peaking temperature of 28 degrees Celsius (around 75 degrees Fahrenheit). It’s said to be the same for the whole of next week!

I THOUGHT I would start this entry by talking about some differences in the food. After practice this morning (Saturday) we headed off to a pub for lunch. In England it’s called ‘the local’, meaning there is a pub on every corner, and they all serve great comfort food. Today Arianna chose the ‘Welsh Dragon’, which was a spicy sausage on a sandwich. Very yummy by all accounts! I chose the liver and bacon, over mash potatoes, peas and gravy. A very traditional English meal. It was delicious!

After that we stopped off at the store for some chocolates. The hard working ladies back at the office in Auburn were asking for some Cadbury’s Dairy Milk (world famous!), so I delivered! This one’s for you Dody, Beverley and Deb.

It wasn’t all about eating today, we still had a big workout to do this afternoon. Arianna did a full dress rehearsal for the Games. She executed her pre-race warmup, went through some mental imagery, put on her race suit and did a broken 100m race. Everything was the same as it would be for her race in 10 days (except for the competition). We videoed her swim just to put some added pressure on it, and she knocked it out of the park! We may be small (in number) but we are coming big!

I think the confidence I see in Donald Thomas, an ex-Auburn athlete and fellow member of Team Bahamas, is really rubbing off on Arianna. Donald looks so confident right now and his energy is infectious. I’m glad we are in camp with the rest of Team Bahamas!

The mass shooting in Colorado left Bahamas swimming sensation Arianna Vanderpool-Wallace and her coach Brett Hawke with heavy hearts, as he reveals in his latest Olympics 2012 blogs from London:

TODAY (Friday) started out just like the last few days - breakfast 6.30am, then onto practice at 8am. Arianna was feeling a little flat still this morning so we took our time stretching and loosening up before an easy 2500m in the pool. Nothing special just drills and skills to help get her ‘feel’ for the water back.

We then decided to take a day trip into London to get our thoughts off performance. We had in mind just getting off the train at London Bridge, but a nice chap (say that with a British accent) told us we were better off heading into downtown where Buckingham Palace is, so we took his advice.

It just so happened that we arrived at the precise time of the Changing of the Guard which takes place at 11.30am each day. Something of a spectacle really, more like a halftime production with marching and yelling, with trumpets and horns, they really turn it on for the crowd.

After that we decided to head up to Winston Churchill’s underground war rooms from World War Two. Here you could walk through his bunker, which has been left exactly the way it was when he battled Hitler and bought a nation back from the brink of destruction. Amazing experience!

Then, on Arianna’s request, we took a black cab to the theatre to watch the new Batman movie, which is excellent!

We did however hear the news of the tragedy in Colorado and that really gave us heavy hearts for the rest of the day. We are praying for all the families affected.