MandyMcGregor.co.nz

02, Aug, 2009

Woke up pretty early and listened to some mental training stuff on my ipod, before heading down to breakfast and then onto the bus to get some 'unofficial' practise in. 'unofficially' it was good practise! We didnt really know whereabouts the grounds were but the bus pulled into a football stadium, well I was happy about that! We grabbed our gear and walked thru the gates to thousands of empty seats.  The targets were all laid out ready for us, and the heat seemed to increase by about a degree every hour. The humidity was intense, it was like Turkey all over again, clothes stuck to you and breathing in hot sticky air. The cloud cover was low, and there was a slight drizzle, and looking up to the sky there were millions of dragonflies flying all around us, which was neat.  I covered 70m, 60m and then had a go at 50m before the bus arrived to take us back for lunch. Overall this morning I shot 118 arrows over those distances and was relatively happy with how they went.

Barbara, anne & I went to Yu Yuan Garden this afternoon, I was expecting a garden, but the cab dropped us off at this bustling tourist trap with all of shanghai in it and probably half of the rest of the world. Shops everywhere, including burger king and starbucks alongside crispy fried duck and some other well cooked animals, and way down the end was a chinese garden.  Most of the place was open-aired and suddenly this huge crash of thunder rang out, and the rain just hit us, and within a minute every single person except me had their umbrella up.  So we muddled thru the garden and the tourists and had a look, i took shelter where possible, and dived into some shops where we ended up haggling for goods - or not, and getting soaked thru.

It was fun seeing being in a full on crowd (I was having an 'I like crowds' day) and to get out & see what was going on. Back to the hotel for some tea.

Fondue is still there.  I am going for a swim now.