Remembering London 2012

We were lucky enough to get tickets to the Olympics in London this summer.  It had been a trip a long time in the planning; I'd applied for the tickets in the first round of applications, starting back in February 2011.  The tickets I wanted were for the tae kwon do event - my husband is a 2nd degree black belt in tae kwon do, and I wanted the tickets as a surprise wedding present for him.  In June 2011 I found out I'd managed to get a pair of tickets, and on our wedding day in July 2011 I surprised my husband with the tickets to London 2012.

Fast forward a year in our lives to the Olympics, and a lot had happened - we were lucky enough to fall pregnant with the baby we so wanted, and although the baby was due to arrive in June, we still planned to go to the Olympics.  We changed our plans though and decided to go for only two nights, rather than the four nights we'd thought of originally.  My mum offered to babysit the children for us so we could go on our trip of a lifetime to the Olympics, and everything was planned.

Daisy died, and our lives were thrown upside down.  We weren't sure whether we wanted to go to the Olympics any more; we were sad, we didn't feel like celebrating.  But we decided that this was an opportunity of a lifetime not to be missed, and that some time away together, just the two of us, would be good for us.

So five hours in the train and we were in London. 

This was my first ever visit to London; and I loved it.  I loved the bustle and the diversity; the excitement and the atmosphere.  This may have been attributed to the buzz created by the Olympic games, but everywhere we went there seemed to be smiling, happy people and a friendliness about the place.  Not at all what I had expected from a capital city!

We took some time to breathe.  To sit, to reflect, to talk, to not talk - to spend some precious time just the two of us, enjoying each other's company.  Enjoying a new shared experience; enjoying being part of something global, an opportunity we're unlikely to have again in our lifetime. 

We can say; we were there.  We went to London 2012.

I wanted to create a visual reminder of our time in London, so I used keepsakes from our trip and made up framed collages of our experience.  A tube map, travelcards, our tickets, some photographs.  These will hang on our wall and remind us of our part in something special.