It is another cloudy day but already hot by 10.00am, with brief showers of rain, just enough to make it steamy like a Turkish bathhouse. We all meet at the Sportsplaats and have a long practice of our dancing medley in the car park, between 10.00 – 11.30.

Then we walk up to the catering tent for our hot lunch and collect our sandwich box for tea. My gluten free lunch is a bowl of boiled potato, nothing more… this is my main cooked meal of the day! The others have salty soup with under-cooked potato cubes and sliced sausage floating in it. Alan says it is equally awful. There is almost a fight to get to the sandwiches, all made with bread (I can’t eat) and mayonnaise for spread (Alan won’t eat that either). The food is so awful, we decide to skip the catering and eat in the camper.

Our first dancing spot is at 1.30pm on the small stage at the street foodcourt. It is OK, but we agree that we have done better. The audience seem happy but there is not a lot of people here yet. Afterwards, we buy ice cream and eat it in the shade, in full sun it is about 28°C, very hot.

We decide not to go to the Opening Ceremony tonight, it’s a long wait,  almost 6 hours, till 8.00pm and no food unless we go to a restaurant. We call at Lidl next to the Sportsplaats on the way back to the camper and buy chicken and veggies for stir fry. We open wine, cook tea and sit in the sun. We are joined by Albert and Kath and later Jo and Margaret. We all make our own tea, drink more wine and have a jovial evening until it is dark.