Day 65 - New Delhi
Friday, October 22, 2010
Tuesday 12th October
Day 9 - Commonwealth Games
I awoke feeling better than the previous day, and also excited - not only was it semi-final day, but I also had tickets to the athletics that night. I had breakfast at Khan Market, trying out a new cafe. An Indian man was also dining in, and he turned to me and asked if I minded if he turned the cricket on the cafe's TV. "Not at all", I replied, "I'm Australian!". He was delighted to find an Aussie and we discussed cricket over breakfast. Aussies seems to be the favourite tourists of Indians, and whenever they hear you are Australian they reply with one of two things: either, 'Ricky Ponting!', wanting to discuss the cricket, or 'You number 1!', referring to Australian's position on the medal tally.
The first match didn't start until 11:30am, and the stadium didn't open until 10am, but I arrived at the gates at 9:45am, to ensure I was first in the gates. The Army officials offered me a seat in their circle inside the gates whilst the stadium was officially opened, and I had a grand old time chatting with them. Some spoke English, and some did not, so one young guy acted as a translator for us.
At 9:59am, I was allowed to enter into the stadium, laying down my flag on the seats that our 'crew' had sat on everyday. Our crew grew in size that day - not only was there Kila and Denyse, but we were joined by John and Mark (two single travellers about my age) and two girls in their early 20s, all Australians. How small is this world - when I was chatting to one of the girls, I mentioned something about how I loved the Crows. "My friend Chris plays for the Crows", she said. "No way", I replied, and pulled out my iPhone to show the picture of Chris Knights that acted as my background. "Is this your friend?" She confirmed that Chris Knights, my idol from the Crows, was like a brother to her!!
Just before the match started, we were joined by a guy wearing a very skimpy and revealing netball uniform. He'd spotted our Aussie crew in the crowd and headed for us, introducing himself as Ash Williams from Nova radio. He worked with Hughesy and Kate on their breakfast program in Melbourne, and they'd sent him here to try to get on TV in as many stadiums as possible, wearing completely outrageous costumes. If the audience back in Australia managed to spot him on TV, they'd win $1000. He was a scream, and a genuinely nice guy - needless to say, everyone in the crowd wanted a picture with him. It was his first match of netball, but he ended up liking it so much he returned for the gold medal match on Thursday.
The first match of the day was Australia vs England. The English supporters were out in force, and extremely parochial - too much so, acting like soccer hooligans. "Bad luck", Denyse or I would call out the girls when they just missed an intercept. "What's lucky about that?", they would call back. The match was very tight, with the English actually up for most of the first three quarters. I really didn't want to lose that match - first, because I'd come here to watch a repeat of the 2002 final between NZ and Australia, which wasn't going to happen in Australia wasn't in the final; and secondly because I just couldn't stand to lose to such bad sports, it would be like losing to Collingwood!! Thankfully, we won the match - I didn't rub it in their faces, being a good sport, but I was happy to don my Aussie flag and wave it around, singing 'Aussie Aussie Aussie!'
The second match of the day was between Jamaica and New Zealand, for the second spot in the gold medal match. Although Jamaica started strongly, it sooned turned into a demolition. I remember remarking to Denyse at the time, "Geez, this seems like the longest match in history!', as there seemed to be an injury time-out every couple of minutes. Who knew that the longest match in history was to come on Thursday ....
It turned out John also had tickets to the athletics that night, and Mark and Denyse were also keen to come with us, so we visited the ticket counter at the front of the stadium. Unfortunately, no tickets were available, so they went sightseeing out to the Lotus Temple whilst John and I headed to the athletics stadium. We snapped a few photos out the front of the stadium, and were then separated at the security line-up, where males and females are segregated (thankfully, as it's not that comfortable to have a male frisk you!).
I had class 'A' tickets, which were right at the front, near the triple jump pits. Sitting right behind me were a couple of Aussies that had sat in front of us at the netball - again, such a small world! It was my first time at an athletics meet, and being the last night of competition every event was a final. The Indian crowd went absolutely berserk every time an India athlete competed, and went mad when they won a medal - Indians were doing laps of honour for coming third (I thought that was normally reserved for the gold medal winner?)
The night finished shortly after 8pm, and on the Metro home I realised that the stadium was only 1 stop from Khan Market, so I alighted to have dinner. (I was starving - I'd eaten breakfast at 8:30, and had only a burger in the time since!). I had a nice meal at a creperie, talking sport with the waiter, and then walked outside to hail a taxi home. Also getting into a taxi at the front of Khan Market was Liz Ellis and Luke Darcy! Unfortunately they were halfway in the taxi, else I would have gone up to them and asked if they could come over to us on Thursday for a photo and a chat.
Day 9 - Commonwealth Games
I awoke feeling better than the previous day, and also excited - not only was it semi-final day, but I also had tickets to the athletics that night. I had breakfast at Khan Market, trying out a new cafe. An Indian man was also dining in, and he turned to me and asked if I minded if he turned the cricket on the cafe's TV. "Not at all", I replied, "I'm Australian!". He was delighted to find an Aussie and we discussed cricket over breakfast. Aussies seems to be the favourite tourists of Indians, and whenever they hear you are Australian they reply with one of two things: either, 'Ricky Ponting!', wanting to discuss the cricket, or 'You number 1!', referring to Australian's position on the medal tally.
The first match didn't start until 11:30am, and the stadium didn't open until 10am, but I arrived at the gates at 9:45am, to ensure I was first in the gates. The Army officials offered me a seat in their circle inside the gates whilst the stadium was officially opened, and I had a grand old time chatting with them. Some spoke English, and some did not, so one young guy acted as a translator for us.
At 9:59am, I was allowed to enter into the stadium, laying down my flag on the seats that our 'crew' had sat on everyday. Our crew grew in size that day - not only was there Kila and Denyse, but we were joined by John and Mark (two single travellers about my age) and two girls in their early 20s, all Australians. How small is this world - when I was chatting to one of the girls, I mentioned something about how I loved the Crows. "My friend Chris plays for the Crows", she said. "No way", I replied, and pulled out my iPhone to show the picture of Chris Knights that acted as my background. "Is this your friend?" She confirmed that Chris Knights, my idol from the Crows, was like a brother to her!!
Just before the match started, we were joined by a guy wearing a very skimpy and revealing netball uniform. He'd spotted our Aussie crew in the crowd and headed for us, introducing himself as Ash Williams from Nova radio. He worked with Hughesy and Kate on their breakfast program in Melbourne, and they'd sent him here to try to get on TV in as many stadiums as possible, wearing completely outrageous costumes. If the audience back in Australia managed to spot him on TV, they'd win $1000. He was a scream, and a genuinely nice guy - needless to say, everyone in the crowd wanted a picture with him. It was his first match of netball, but he ended up liking it so much he returned for the gold medal match on Thursday.
The first match of the day was Australia vs England. The English supporters were out in force, and extremely parochial - too much so, acting like soccer hooligans. "Bad luck", Denyse or I would call out the girls when they just missed an intercept. "What's lucky about that?", they would call back. The match was very tight, with the English actually up for most of the first three quarters. I really didn't want to lose that match - first, because I'd come here to watch a repeat of the 2002 final between NZ and Australia, which wasn't going to happen in Australia wasn't in the final; and secondly because I just couldn't stand to lose to such bad sports, it would be like losing to Collingwood!! Thankfully, we won the match - I didn't rub it in their faces, being a good sport, but I was happy to don my Aussie flag and wave it around, singing 'Aussie Aussie Aussie!'
The second match of the day was between Jamaica and New Zealand, for the second spot in the gold medal match. Although Jamaica started strongly, it sooned turned into a demolition. I remember remarking to Denyse at the time, "Geez, this seems like the longest match in history!', as there seemed to be an injury time-out every couple of minutes. Who knew that the longest match in history was to come on Thursday ....
It turned out John also had tickets to the athletics that night, and Mark and Denyse were also keen to come with us, so we visited the ticket counter at the front of the stadium. Unfortunately, no tickets were available, so they went sightseeing out to the Lotus Temple whilst John and I headed to the athletics stadium. We snapped a few photos out the front of the stadium, and were then separated at the security line-up, where males and females are segregated (thankfully, as it's not that comfortable to have a male frisk you!).
I had class 'A' tickets, which were right at the front, near the triple jump pits. Sitting right behind me were a couple of Aussies that had sat in front of us at the netball - again, such a small world! It was my first time at an athletics meet, and being the last night of competition every event was a final. The Indian crowd went absolutely berserk every time an India athlete competed, and went mad when they won a medal - Indians were doing laps of honour for coming third (I thought that was normally reserved for the gold medal winner?)
The night finished shortly after 8pm, and on the Metro home I realised that the stadium was only 1 stop from Khan Market, so I alighted to have dinner. (I was starving - I'd eaten breakfast at 8:30, and had only a burger in the time since!). I had a nice meal at a creperie, talking sport with the waiter, and then walked outside to hail a taxi home. Also getting into a taxi at the front of Khan Market was Liz Ellis and Luke Darcy! Unfortunately they were halfway in the taxi, else I would have gone up to them and asked if they could come over to us on Thursday for a photo and a chat.
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