Going for gold

 How delightful to spend some time in Geneva with Tim and his family and to be able to take all the Scouseland kids as well.

There is a fair sized crew now and it made an ideal opportunity for a family football match the first morning we were there. Unfortunately I and SWMBO were confined to barracks, so we were on VAR duty, but in a hard fought game Sofia cracked in a 10 yarder to clinch the game. Soon to be Emma's husband, Nick, showed his skills have not deserted him, and JB excelled in goal. Luckily VAR was not called on so I was not the subject of any decision debate in the restaurant later.

Tuesday saw us take a trip to Annecy on the lake of the same name, where we wandered round a very French town and took a boat trip around the lake, which was a bit fresh I have to say. Dinner was in a restaurant at the base of the Jura skiing complex but as the resort is fairly low lying, there was no opportunity for Winter sports.

Our final trip took us to Lausanne and specifically to the Olympic Museum. What a wonderful experience that is. In the gardens surrounding the exhibition complex are artworks and olympic icons, like the current high jump and pole vault bars, together with a four lane 100m track over which the kids took on the adults

Inside were exhibits going back to the original meeting in Paris in 1908, every Olympic torch was there and costumes and equipment showing how times have changed. Usain Bolt had his shirt there, and Jessie Owen and Michael Johnson had donated their running shoes.

In one of the cinema presentations was the image of Mohammed Ali lighting the flame in Atlanta in 1996, an event which SWMBO and I witnessed in a bar in downtown Buckhead. It is a moment which still sends goose bumps down my arms.