HFW's Adventures at Hampden

Just over two weeks ago my extremely clever daughter came home from school with some news .....

"Mum, I have news ..... not sure what you're going to think about this, but well, erm, I've got an invitation thing to go to a prize ceremony in Glasgow on the 8th of June" ....

Obviously I was a bit taken aback - didn't even remember her saying the poster thing she was doing for Inspire/Aspire was being submitted externally from school ... but there you go. So, having managed to drive up the road safely and got the invitation handed to me so I could read it properly, it turns out this awards thing is actually pretty big .... only 100 finalists from across the whole of Scotland and it was to be held at Hampden, the National Stadium of Scotland - I've never been there ... well I'm not a huge fan of football and haven't been to a concert there either ... but it would be pretty good to see it .... of course, then the next bit of news was dropped ..... "Mrs Ritchie says the Olympic Torch is going to be there"

:excited: :excited:

Mr HFW happened to pop in shortly afterwards so I suggested he'd like to take the day off on 8th June cos well we were going to see the Olympic Torch ... :yahoo: .... he was equally :excited:

Friday morning dawned and we were up and organised and got the car packed (well it'd be daft to go all that way and not have a night in Glasgow with a shopping trip at Braehead to stock up on essential items for the summer hols, wouldn't it?!)

Half way to Glasgow my phone beeped with a text coming in ... yep, the school wanting to know why Esther wasn't in registration :rolleyes: :rolling: .... gave them a quick call saying she was REPRESENTING THE SCHOOL at an event in Glasgow .... poor receptionists must be driven mad by the silly system ... mind you, Mrs Ritchie did fess up that she hadn't told them :rolleyes:

We weren't sure how long it'd take - our sat nav is awfully good at telling us it'll take an awful lot longer than it actually does .... so we were in plenty of time .... actually, even stopping at Stirling for a coffee, we still got to Hampden an hour and a half before the ceremony was due to start! Oh well, never mind, picnic in the carpark to kill time!

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We did have some excitement when two official Olympic Torch Relay minibuses appeared in the carpark :excited:

Other school children were arriving and heading in so we thought we'd have a wander in as well. There was a registration table and Esther got a name badge. It was still too early to go up to the room for the ceremony so we headed down to the museum shop and cafe and the nearest loo - well it's a long way to Glasgow from chez HFW!!! As we got to the bottom of the steps we spotted a taped off area which we assumed would be for folk to wait for the torch's arrival.

Had a wander round the shop but opted not to buy anything .... we decided to wander back upstairs and wait in the foyer area - having already seen a few folk with official torchbearer tracksuits on coming in. I think these were the next batch of torchbearers gathering to be taken to their various meeting points for the next leg of the torch's journey into Glasgow.

We weren't long in the foyer when we were told we could head upstairs to the Lomond Suite where the presentation ceremony would take place. Off we wandered into a big room set out for loads of folks and the first job was to find Esther's poster on all the boards. We already knew that she was a bronze finalist - the other girl from her school was a silver finalist which was well done for her!

Found it eventually .... (sorry it's a bit blurry!)
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Once we'd found seats fairly close to the front, and had a cuppa, I thought I'd just nip out to the loo again .... :excited: :rolling: .... excitement built even more to see this view through the door across the way!!!

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Turns out the awards were to be presented by Liz McColgan which was pretty exciting - especially with the whole Olympic Theme of the posters and her daughter qualifying for the Olympics that day too!

All the awards were handed out and we were allowed to go into the stadium so the award winners could get a group shot together. It was really exciting to be inside Hampden Stadium - it looks great even when it's empty and we got right down to pitch level too which was pretty cool ....

But the time was nipping on and it was nearly torch time :excited:

We had all been told we had to go out the main door and down the steps and stand on the right hand side of the steps. A lot of folk stayed up top where there's a walkway but we went down to the pavement and got a great view of the torch arriving!

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We had been told that the torch would stop on the steps and they were hoping a group photo with all the prizewinners would be possible along with the torch. So when the torch bearer vanished up the steps into the building well obviously we followed .... and then it all gets really :excited: and very surreal!

We headed into the building to see the group disappearing down stairs behind reception - we followed and found ourselves going through a door into an underground carpark through another door and before we knew what was happening we were passing the changing rooms, referee's rooms and following in a lot of very famous footballers footsteps out the player's entrance onto the pitch :shocked:

The player's entrance ...

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On the pitch!

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Mr HFW doing his photographer bit!
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Totally brilliant day out .... not quite over though as once it was all over and we were heading back up to the foyer, we found the torchbearer - Karen Woodward - getting photos taken with her family, friends, and basically anyone else who happened to be there and asked nicely!

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On the way out, we got a photo of Esther at the top of the steps! More proof of this really amazing day!!!

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WOW WOW WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! How exciting. Great blog and photos. Particularly LOVE the last one of Minnie. Awesome stuff. :clap: :clap: :clap:

Excellent Jane! :clap::clap::clap:

Wow! That sounds amazing! What a day! Well done Esther! Glad you all had a blast!

Fabulous Jane, seems an awesome experience!

That was brilliant Jane..what an exciting day for you all.:clap: The photos are fantastic of Esther.:cheer: Nice that you visited Braehead, know what you're like when you see those shops!:excited: Hope you showed your appreciation of the wonderful day out she gave you.:big grin::big grin:

What a great day you all had Jane - thanks for the photos! And congrats to Esther!!

Wonderful! :clap: :clap: :clap:

Sounds like an amazing day Jane! Pass on my congratulations to Esther :)

An amazing day, Jane. Thanks for sharing - great blog and pics of Esther. Congratulations to her. :clap:

Brilliant stuff! And that last photo is really excellent! :clap:

Wow, brilliant Jane - and thanks so much for sharing it with us - fantastic :clap:

Awww, your day sounds absolutely fabulous! The pictures of Esther are lovely.

Fantastic Blog Jane - What an awesome experience for all of you. Well Done to Esther. :clap:

Another pic for you which appeared on the website of the organisation that put the event together .... Esther with Liz McColgan!

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Cool! Liz looks different to how I remember her - which is mostly when she was running, and when her hair was a different colour.

Liz did say she keeps dyeing her hair to look younger but watching video of her in the Commonwealth Games she realised she's got no chance of recapturing those youthful looks :lol:

wow , how exciting for you guys , and your daughter is adorable too !!!

Fantastic!! Thanks for the blog. Well done Esther!

Thanks everyone. It was a really amazing day! :)

Sorry only just caught up with this, except for twitter. Such an amazing experience for the whole family. Well done Esther so much hidden talent!! Great blog, amazing pics and a shopping trip to your alma mater as well!! One for the scrapbook.

Lovely to read your blog Jane, what a great experience and huge congratulations to Esther!

Blimey - where's the fainting smiley ... Minnie popped up ;) :lol:

What an amazing day and your excitement really comes through in the blog. Well done to Esther, great expreience for you all.