Quintus

I was frustrated by the limited BBC coverage, so in case it's of interest, you can sign up for one month (then cancel) of Discovery+ for £6.99 on your smart TV / fire stick or equivalent, and that gives complete coverage of every event, sorted by sport. It works very well indeed.

I'm normally an avid tennis watcher, but I find the Olympics matches are not presented in an engaging way - the couple I've seen had no commentary, no audience or even much seating, so it felt like they were just being played in a car park somewhere, and a wide angle camera that emphasised the near court and made the far baseline all but invisible. By contrast, the taekwondo and judo coverage has been excellent, with enough of an in-bubble crowd to generate some atmosphere, and multi-angle camera work that shows every throw from multiple perspectives. I hope when it gets to the final rounds, they'll move the tennis to a better venue.

I know this much is true

100%. OK, final question. Is "I bought a ticket" part of: A. A Spandau Ballet lyric B. A common Balletcoforum post C. Both D. Neither

My son managed to get a second dose this morning after a four week interval, but it took a deal of persuasion. The person ahead of him, a retail worker, was denied the same request.

I agree, but there seems no consistent policy on that either. My son is trying to get a second jab 4-5 weeks after the first to simplify a trip. He can't book an appointment online at less than 8 weeks after the first jab, and walk-ins seem to depend entirely on the GP on duty - so far he's found two that would have done it but had the wrong type of vaccine, and two who said they would only do it after 8 weeks... Hoping it's fifth time lucky tomorrow.

There's a detailed explanation of how the app and risk scoring works here: https://covid19.nhs.uk/risk-scoring-algorithm.html The key part seems to be "For the purposes of contact tracing, a high-risk encounter is classed as one where an individual has been within 2 metres of someone who has tested positive for Coronavirus for at least 15 minutes." The Bluetooth signal strength of the other device tells it the proximity. However, that's the theory - given the 'pingdemic', whether it's working as advertised in practice seems to be questionable...

Yes, ultimately it's the stats that drive it - a very small percentage of a very large number is still unfortunately a lot.

Football hooligans. I was utterly mortified by England fans booing other countries' national anthems, and the attempted laser pen sabotage. I was told on social media that this was 'just banter' and that you should always make a home venue into a hostile environment for the opposing team. Why would you want a game not to have a level playing field - what kind of hollow victory does that give? Now, the vast majority of football fans are not loutish hooligans, but the vast majority of loutish hooligans are football fans. What is it about football that generates so much of this kind of behaviour compared to other sports?? I've just been watching the Wimbledon womens' doubles on TV. Russian, Belgian and Taiwanese players, to a largely British crowd. Every good point got enthusiastically cheered, and both winners and losers got a huge round of applause. That's what sport should be all about. Grrr.

We had a trip to Bempton Cliffs near Bridlington today and were stunned by the seabirds - puffins, guillemots, fulmars, razorbills, and the gannets below. We've had Swan Lake - isn't it time for Gannet Cliff? I see the corps as herrings, with scaly tutus.

Good question.. Can't tell from the photos I've seen - in the lower tiers people don't appear to be spaced out, but it's not possible to see into the gloom of the upper tiers under the roof (and having sat right up there before, I can say it's not possible to see much from them either - it's like squinting at the court through a letterbox; colossal waste of money). Overall the venue was supposed to be at 50% capacity, but it looked like that was unevenly distributed between the big show courts and the outside courts. For the finals, they are going back up to full capacity .

I thought Covid-adapted Wimbledon worked well yesterday. The ticketing app added a degree of stress, as it doesn't deliver the QR codes for entry till the working hours of the day itself, but the queuing and security was then way quicker than usual. Most seating in outside courts had spaces left between each group of spectators, but it looked like Centre Court was solidly filled. People were largely being sensible, and we saw some good matches from great viewpoints when the drizzle finally stopped at 3pm, five hours after we'd entered.... Liam Broady was in very good form, and I was impressed by Elena Rybakina, who looks both bigger and much younger than on TV.

Those booms carry for miles.. Here are some fairly distant pics

We didn't get any swallows in our stables this year, but an enterprising wren has converted one of their mud nests and extended it with moss. We won't tell the planning officer.. I got lucky visiting Minsmere the other week on a day when they were running a bittern survey, radioing sightings and movements between wardens in the hides. I'd never managed to spot one before, but eavesdropping the wardens that day I managed to see five!

It was the Wimbledon ticket free-for-all today and we managed to get a pair for Court 3, which is perfect - we find Centre Court just too big and most seats too remote from the action. That just about makes up for our Birmingham tickets having been bumped to next year!

Haven't seen that anywhere, I'll be very interested to find out. Love her as a dancer and from her social media posts she's clearly as sharp as a tack, so Stanford will be a fantastic development opportunity for her. It's worth joining Instagram just to follow her, as she posts a mix of ballet insight and laugh out loud observational humour. He latest craze seems to be fancy poultry - does Stanford offer Chicken Studies? 😂

meanwhile the LTA is punting various membership upgrade schemes to get preferential access to tickets, and Wimbledon are pushing 'hospitality packages' that guarantee a place: "if you would like to guarantee your attendance at The Championships this year before mid-June, then we would like to make sure you are aware of our hospitality ticket options. Whilst this summer may look a little different at Wimbledon, our exclusive hospitality packageswill provide you with a long-awaited first-class day out, that is also safe and comfortable." So the message appears to be - you can buy your way in if you have deep pockets

Looking forward to the Birmingham tournament next month and glad I hung onto our tickets. I do hope we're not expected to wear masks in outside seating. Did anyone see the Rome finals yesterday? Swiatek double bageled Pliskova in 46 minutes - never seen anything like it and felt rather sorry for Karolina.

One swallow doesn't make a summer - how about two and a sand martin? And a three bits of avocet fluff with their mum, who was defending vigorously against all comers, including a huge goose!

Spring still feels somewhat distant, and so was this cuckoo this morning!

I've been very lucky to see Dartford warblers on two occasions over the last week - never having seen one before at all. Quite a striking little bird. Also came across a nest of adders in the dunes at Minsmere beach - all in different colour combinations...

I had a very early and frosty walk today looking for a barn owl - which turned up but led me a merry dance, so I only got one photo. I did see lots of linnets, very noisy and active oystercatchers and a yellowhammer. The lark below filled a whole frosty meadow with its song, perched proudly on a molehill...

it's about this time of year you find them gathering old newspaper reviews to line their nests

For those who enjoy South Asian dance there's a free two day online Akademi event starting tomorrow. Needs registration to get an access ticket.. details here

he might well have - I waited till his head went down then scurried bent double behind a hedge to get closer. my wife suddenly left far behind me, had much the same expression...