Olympics Day 5: Finally golden

It took five days, but British competitors finally claimed gold today in two key events, both in record-breaking style. First, Helen Grover and Heather Stanning won the women's pair rowing, as expected, becoming the first British women to win an Olympic title.

Next up, Bradley Wiggins won the men's individual time trial, carrying on the fine form that saw him win the Tour de France barely 10 days ago. In fact, no one has ever won both the Tour and Olympic gold in the same year. And this gold medal takes his total Olympic medal count to seven, which is more than any other Brit has ever earned. It's no wonder that people in the streets are wearing his trademark red sideburns in tribute. Although he did look ridiculous sitting on that winner's throne at Hampton Court.

The other big event today was the men's individual all-round gymnastics title, which went as expected to Japan's Kohei Uchimura. Less predictable was the scrum of able competitors going for silver and bronze - everyone had at least one key error, which made it a real nailbiter to watch. In the end, Germany's Marcel Nguyen claimed silver and America's Danell Leyva won bronze.

Today felt like a day off for me, as I was able to veg out at home all day and catch up on some film review writing and website updating, watch quite a lot of the competition live, and then work an evening Olympics news shift from home. The weather was nice and warm , with sun shining in the open windows. I hope it stays that way since I'll be out and about all over town tomorrow.

Olympics Day 3: Surprise surprise

One of my favourite things about the Olympics is the way so little goes according to expectations. The world's top competitors arrive confident of adding to their already impressive collection of medals, but go home empty-handed. Sometimes this allows someone unexpected to sneak onto the top of the podium, and other times it's heartbreaking.

Over the last few days British hopes have repeatedly been dashed. In Saturday's men's road cycling race, everyone expected Mark Cavendish and recent Tour de France winner Bradley Wiggins to medal in the event, but they were knocked way back in the field. Today it was the turn of the Olympics poster boy Tom Daley (right) in synchronised platform diving, but he and his partner Peter Waterfield came in an agonising fourth.

Conversely, in the women's 100m breaststroke, 15-year-old Lithuanian Ruta Meilutyte shocked everyone by winning gold, beating the American world champion in the process. Her stunned face while receiving the gold medal (with the president of Lithuania cheering her on) was priceless.

Meanwhile, London's transport system has held up for three days without any severe problems. No one expected it to last that long. Yesterday, two of three trains I took went to different destinations than announced. It's not too difficult for a Londoner to get back on the right route, but tourists must find that kind of thing bewildering. Ah well, almost everyone in the Underground looks bewildered at the moment! But that's not unusual for summer time.