Day 2 and it already feels like I’ve been here for a week!  Today is the badminton and we’re making our way to the Carrera Stadium.  Yes… some of you will have noticed that we’re wearing the same t-shirts as yesterday and those that didn’t notice, well, now you know.  We paid good money for those and we wanted to get as much wear out of them as possible….. never fear though, they’re getting a wash tomorrow.

So with blow up hand and minion at the ready for great photo opportunities (#miniononamission) we boarded the train and got our day started.

On the shuttle bus Madds sat next to a volunteer and immediately started chatting – she’s know for her ability to chat to ANYBODY! In fact if were a Commonwealth sport – she’d have ALL the gold. He was super friendly and gave us some great hints about getting out of the venue easily at the end of the day.

He also gave her a little fun fact about shuttlecocks – Did you know that the feathers in the SCs are made from the left wing of a goose or duck?  The reason that they take them from the left wing is because when smashed, the SC spins clockwise and it you take them from the right wing they spin anticlockwise, so to keep all SCs uniform it’s an unwritten rule that all SCs are made with 16 feathers from the left wing….. now I don’t know if this is true or not – so please let me know if you know.

I have to say that the volunteers at these Games have been awesome – even more so today – well done badminton volunteers!  There was jokes and banter and we got a cheer or comment on our t-shirts every time we walked past.  They played up to the crowd which made it all the more fun.

I walked past this lovely lady and asked her where the water fill up station was… she answered, but I hilariously said “I’m sorry, I couldn’t hear you.” So she grabbed her megaphone and gave me the instructions again – wetting her pants laughing as she did it.  What a card!

Madeline – Team AUS
Degree of difficulty: 6.2
Execution: 9.75
Total score for the semi final in the Women’s Individual OWAF Jump:
15.95

After yesterday’s rush, we arrived really early – like about an hour too early, so we found a little bar – with bean bags, purchased our gold plated beers with two of our limbs – each  and found a spot where we could savour the only drink we will purchase this week and watch the world go by.

Our blow up finger had seen better days, but Madds was insistent that we bring it along…

She did find that it lost its appeal when she had to keep blowing it up before pointing at anything!

They let us in right on time and it was great to not be rushing so we didn’t miss anything…. but there’s always time for a quick OWAF jump.

Degree of difficulty: 5.4
Execution: 9.324
Total score for the final in the Women’s Individual OWAF Jump:
14.724
and it’s GOLD for Madeline of Team AUS
#SharetheDream
(it helps when you’re the only competitor)

On the way in we saw that there was only a relatively short line for the merch shop, so we jumped on the end of it, followed closely by this lady below, her husband and 15 year old son.  She asked us a couple of questions and we got chatting….. I think I may have mentioned my badminton career highlight back in 1978 and she nonchalantly mentioned that she’d swum in the 1990 & 1994 Commonwealth Games as well as the 1988, 1992 & 1996 Olympic Games…. not only did she swim, but she won GOLD at the 1990 CG in the 100m Freestyle and GOLD at the 1994 CG in the 50m Freestyle!

So we let her take a photo with us… and Madds made plans to catch up with her at the Rugby 7s next Friday!

Thank you Karen van Wirdum!!!

Merch purchased and into the Badminton Dome we went.  It was free seating which confused a lot of people, but there really wasn’t enough people there for it to cause any real dramas.

There were 4 courts (this was our view straight ahead) and 8 teams competing in today’s heat – Singapore, Mauritius, India, Sri Lanka, Jamaica, Scotland, Pakistan & Zambia.  They played 5 games per team – 2 x singles, 2 x doubles and 1 x mixed doubles.

This player here in the black for Pakistan was told off quite a few times for chatting to her coach, not getting back onto the court in time after breaks and trying to question a lot of the calls….. so I was fixated on her whenever she was on court.

With 4 games going on at different times and each umpire with a microphone giving the score and calling the game it was hard to focus on just one game at a time… luckily I had Madds letting me know when any shuttlecock was in or out!

You’d think the shuttlecocks would be easier to watch fall to the ground than say a tennis ball, but quite a number of the calls were challenged and turned out to be wrong.  They could have just asked Madds.

For a non 1978 under 8 runner up badminton champion 3 solid hours of baddy can take its toll so it wasn’t long after I took this photo…

… and here’s a close up

We decided that it was time to head home.  We missed the last game between Jamaica and Zambia and to be honest throughout the day I questioned how much badminton is really played in those countries.

2 hour journey home where we turned on the telly to watch more of the games.

Tomorrow I’ve got the day off whilst Madds hits the cycling.  When I say day off, we are welcoming 2 more members of the Team Aus Support Team – Madd’s Dad, GK and her niece, Erin and I’ve been entrusted with making some food for next week – Heaven help us all… if the train travel doesn’t do us in, I think I might know what will!