Sumos can do it too!

Satuday, 18th June, after much anticipation, arrived. Sally and I finally got to run around London in inflatable sumo suits! We got up bright and early, had our showers, packed our bags, fluffed around doing my hair and then missed the train. Oops. Luckily we had allowed for such a scenario and this gave us half an hour to pick up some McDonalds for breakfast, a sumo breakfast of champions. (McDonalds is nowhere near as good here, mostly due to the pork sausages they use instead of beef. Although, to quote Sally "Oh hash brown, you are delicious all over the world!").

We eventually got on the train and met our official photographer Kira (in her high-vis jacket) at Marylebone station. We journeyed forth to Battersea Park where the run was to take place. Upon arrival, we signed in under our team name "Does my bum look big in this?". As we were signing in, we noticed the very few peole who actually managed to raise 250pounds, despite the daily emails reminding us to raise more money or we wouldn't be allowed to run! Thank you to everybody who sponsored us, thus supporting a worthwhile charity and allowing us to run around London like fools!

We then unpacked our suits and helped each other into them, awaiting the "mass inflation". Apparently, they were aiming for a Guiness World Record so we had to be counted before inflation could begin. We then had a countdown before all turning our inflation fans on. After we were fully inflated it was time to do our warm-up and stretches, led by some personal trainers. Sally and I both made the mistake of putting our water bottles on the ground before inflation and then found that bending down to pick them up was not as easy as it once was!


"We clearly didn't eat enough McDonalds"



"Does my bum look big in this?"



The race was about to begin and we were herded to the starting line. We got off to an ok start and managed to run about 1km of the 5km race before my runny nose and cough kicked in thanks to day 2 of a nasty cold (I blame the children). We then alternated between walking and jogging the remainder of the race, making sure to put on a good show for the crowds. We also got a bit competitive towards the end - how very unlike me! We crossed the finish line and were awarded with gold medals! (sadly not because we had won).


Victorious!

 We stripped off our sumo suits at the earliest opportunity and attempted to air ourselves (we were just a little bit sweaty / drenched). We then said goodbye to our photographer and headed to the station to enjoy the rest of our day in London.

After having some lunch, we ventured to the Sherlock Holmes Museum. It was pooring rain by this point and of course there was a queue outside to get in. The man at the door kindly allowed us to be the last in the door to get out of the rain, but no, Sally had to get a photo with him first! So we stood out in the rain a little longer while we had our photos taken wearing hats worn by many many other tourists already that day (ewww). The museum was pretty good and we had many more photo ops. I think we actually spent more time in the gift shop though, as is often the case.


Thrilled to be standing in the rain.



Holmees and Watson themselves



We had one more item on the agenda for the day and that was to go to Madame Toussauds. The queue was huge but we had all day, so we were not to be put off. As it turned out, it was lucky we did have all day as the wait was 2 hours!!! When we finally go inside we took a few photos and then hurried out. There were just too many people in there pushing us around and it was terribly unpleasant. The actual waxworks were amazing though and it would have been good to get a proper look at them. The ride to get out was really interesting though as it took us on a journey back in time through London. After this, we weary travellers headed home.


Did I mention that we met Robert Downey Jnr?




And Robbie Williams...?



We thought this would be our one trip to London that week but nay! We didn't count upon me winning tickets to see Big Boi on Thursday night. Who is Big Boi you may ask? So did we! Why he's a rapper of course! Fantastic! We were not thrilled. But after looking him up on youtube, we decided that he actually didn't sound so bad so despite earlier musings of giving the tickets away, we decided to go to the concert! We dressed as rapper-like as our 20kg of clothing could allow and re-named ourselves Sly and Gangster J. We weren't sure how up-to-date our gangster lingo was, so we decided that we would just hope to bump into some gangsters on the way and we could ask them to educate us. Sadly we didn't run into any however. They must have all been at the concert! The concert was actually really good and I now have Big Boi on my itunes.


Big Boi (the little one)

 For my final London adventure of the week, Kira and I headed into Wimbledon bright and early Saturday morning. We got the first train in and arrived at 8am. Upon arrival, we were given a queue card (we were 8700th in the queue) and told that we would probably get in by about 12:00. Not put off by this, we stayed in the queue and eventually got chatting to some American boys in the queue in front of us when we both discovered that there were picnic blankets for sale for 4pounds. What a bargain when you're in a 4 hour queue! So we got our picnic blankets and waited it out. And waited... and waited... 12:00 came and went, as did 1:00, 2:00 and 3:00. When 3:30 came, our American friends had to leave as they had a plane to catch. We finally got in at 4pm!!! First stop - merchandise! Once a sufficient amount of merchandise had been purchased (hat, shirt, umbrella, key ring), we went for a wander around the grounds. While wandering we came across Casey Dellaqua playing doubles.


Casey Dellaqua



Wearing our merch



We took some photos and then went to Henman Hill to watch the big screen. Not long after this, we received a text from one of the TAs from school saying that she was on centre court and was coming out for a break if we wanted to go onto centre court for a bit! I was thrilled!! Yay!!! So we went to centre court and got to stay there for 45mins watching Djokovic and Baghdatis play!!

Centre Court

The change of ends / shirts

We then had to relinquish our seats so went back out to Henman Hill to watch the remainder of the match. It was a worthwhile experience, despite the wait - although, I'm not quite sure how I'm going to get all my merchandise home with me...