Our family has scored gold… Olympic tickets!

Due to my husband’s work, my busyness, the kids, the heat, crowds and other unspecified niggles, going into the Olympic ticket bid was a little “too hard” for our family. Even though I personally love the Games, I wasn’t devastated about not going, so my reaction really took me by surprise when my husband came home waving tickets to the hockey yesterday. I actually jumped up and down, screaming. Within minutes, my daughter Ella hand-drew and coloured in an Australian flag and I unearthed a batch of flag tattoos and my telephoto lens.

I also began asking all the standard questions I suppose all of you have asked yourselves – or anyone in earshot – can we take cameras (yes), can we take snacks in for the kids (not sure), can we take water (no), can we buy water when we get in there (yes), can we take umbrellas (only fold-up ones), can we arrive later than out ticket time (mixed reports), can we stay as long as we like (not sure), can we take flags in (small ones), can we retain our tickets (yes), can we jump up and down like monkeys when our team knocks that little ball into the net (oh yes yes yes!).

So, we are officially in the Olympic loop. We even get to go to the Green, which is so exciting and I’m gagging to take a photo of the Olympic torch atop the stadium. I want to take photos of everything, even the signs, and Ella, having caught the shutter bug from her mother, is also taking her camera.

Can hardly believe we’re going. I held our little stack of tickets like a precious gold ingot in my cupped hands and turned them over and over again and squeezed them like a Willy Wonka golden ticket. It was a memorable moment. I have hidden them in my house. Hidden from whom, I’m not so sure – probably from my own propensity to put them in that famed Safe Place – a place where things go and can never be found again.

I know it sounds twee – but truly, the most exciting part about this whole tickets thing is that my kids get to go. When the ticket-leadup to the Games first started happening, I remember hearing lots of queries from parents about taking their kids along. At first, I thought “But why? Heat, queues, crowds, lousy food, long wait times, kids whining to go home as soon as your backside hits the seat…” but, amazingly, now that I am holding tickets, I’ve changed my tune. How on earth could we not take them? It is probably the most exciting part of the whole going-ness. I think they’ll love it. And hopefully my stash of lollipops (are lollipops allowed in? please say yes) will keep any teensy stretches of boredom at bay.

Whatever happens, this is a moment in time I’m enormously grateful for. And any of those kinds of times need to be shared with the kids.

Aussie Aussie Aussie – oi oi oi!

Tania McCartney