Pigeon Olympics 2012 – Rain Stops Play

So, that’s that. Rufus is back on Centre Court, and so is the rain. Jesus. Relentless. I’m back under Waterloo bridge for the foreseeable trying to crack on with my new Time Out job. Tough work when it’s pissing down. Who wants to stop for a chat about the Olympics when it’s raining? Seeing as they’re probably expecting more than just interviews with damp bored pigeons from Manchester with nothing to do, I’d better get out there.

A pal called Linda brought these to my attention. Socks, for pigeons. Genius. I’ve asked her to see if they might do me a pair with a rubber sole. Could really help when trying to cling to the stadium roof when it’s shitting it down, as it inevitably will.

Check them out:

I’m thinking red could work? Of course, Mart wants black. Bit more ‘Ninja-like’, he said. Cheers for thinking of us, Linda.

In the meantime, at least I managed to catch some Chip Tossing practice on Trafalgar Square on Sunday. It was the north Londoners chance to show what they could do, and they ended up showing us quite a lot including some great solo handling skill here from Cricklewood Paddy:

Despite being faced with three attackers, he still managed to keep possession. Good work.

One of the biggest problems with Chip Tossing is keeping focus when more than one chip appears, often a dirty tactic used by the opposing team, but not for this lot. Even when Mart – left – paraded around with one hanging out of his beak asking if anyone wanted him to pass it to them, they totally ignored it:

I had pointed out to Mart that they’d probably know he wasn’t on any real Chip Tossing team and would just think he was some random twat trying to join in, but he wanted to give it a go anyway.

So, onwards and upwards. Literally. Just been back to The Square to check on the latest there. Nothing. Not a pigeon in sight. Just puddles. Worrying stuff with only twenty four days to go. I’m off to check out the train stations. The pressure’s on so they’ve got to be practicing somewhere, surely?