The 19-year-old Londoner is not particularly tall at 1.9m (6ft 3in) or indeed heavy at 93kg (14st 9lb) but inside his frame is a good engine, as I found out recently when I watched him in testing.

There are lots of myths around physiology in rowing but, in short, you need to be able to do lots of work without putting in too much effort.

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If you run for a bus you might get short of breath; if you run a long way for a bus you might get burning in you chest and legs. That burning sensation is lactic acid - the by-product of your muscles when they aren't supplied with enough oxygen.

Almost any activity done hard enough will produce lactate but, in rowing how, much you produce and how you cope with it is a big part of the difference between first and second place - or in Boat Race terms, between winning and having wasted six months of your life.

For a Boat Race crew, the lactate kicks in after about a minute and stays there scalding and tearing at your muscles and mind for another 18 or so minutes.

The only way to relieve the pain is to stop, and that's just not going to happen.

Louloudis has a really efficient system inside him, which means that he can produce less lactate than others and either suffer less pain or work harder.

Both are valuable options 10 minutes or so into the Boat Race. By that time lots of the superficial techniques and habits will have been chiseled off the crews - they will start resorting to the path of least resistance and will be beginning to question just how much they want to win.

In a crew, doubt is contagious; once one person cracks, his missing effort is loaded onto another and so on it goes. A race can turn in 10 strokes as one crew falters and another suddenly lifts.

"Stan" is a fantastic asset to have in a crew - he's going to be able to row harder for longer than most. I'm sure, should he want to, he can appear in four races for Oxford during his four-year course.

He has already won world junior and Under-23 medals for Great Britain but whether he will go on to take part in the Olympics, especially in 2012, is a harder question and I fear those Games might have come a year or so early for Constantine.

He'll be 20 in London and whilst people have won Olympic medals before in their early 20s (Greg Searle famously won the coxed pairs in 1992, aged 20) the British team is a different beast now than it was two decades ago.

In order to win a seat in the Olympic team he would have to convincingly beat athletes in their mid 20s, who have been practicing for five years at a level he is just beginning to. If the Games were in 2014, he would probably be there. For London 2012, he's a possible.

But all of this is just theory - I've rowed with people who have the best physiology but, once in a boat, have been about as useful as a jam sandwich - it's just one section of a large picture that makes up an oarsman.

In order to win on Saturday, appear in more Boat Races and row at senior international level, Louloudis is going to have be fitter stronger, faster and - crucially - demonstrate mentally toughness at levels to which he hasn't yet pushed himself.

While the early evidence looks good, the jury is out - we (and he) are going to have to wait and see.

It has as ever been a privilege to cover a multi-sport event and it is a position and an opportunity that I don't ever want to get bored with.

I was sent out to see the very first event and was there to see India’s Saina Nehwal step off the court having won the women's singles badminton title. Fittingly, India’s final gold medal propelled them past England on the medals table - a massive achievement for the hosts.

The best realistic legacy that I can hope for is that the Commonwealth Games of 2010 mark the emergence of India as a power at future big sporting events.

It is easy to sweep a lot of their medals under a carpet marked "it’s the Commonwealths" or "wait until Team GB are around" but India's wrestlers, shooters and boxers are of world class.

It’s an old cliche to remark that India is a country of contrasts but even inside the air-conditioned, carpeted halls of the Games there have still been huge divides. 

Contrast the near disaster surrounding the start of the Games with the triumphs of the second week, or the diligence of the volunteers - sometimes hopelessly equipped for their role - with the graceless charge of the dignitaries to get close to Indian medallists. 

Put the overall safety that one of the largest armies in the world has provided up against the soul-sapping inconsistency between the paperwork required from one checkpoint to the next.

I'm not sure whether the act of hosting this has helped India's chance of hosting a future Olympic Games or not. 

Influential people within the Olympic movement will have seen some of the issues up close in the last month and yet the Indian triumphs of the last week will also have gone round the world. 

The Olympics won't have missed the idea that India has embraced a multi-sport event in a way that rivals cricket, and a 'market' of a billion people is a strong draw.  

What must change for any Olympic bid to get off the ground is a change in the way the event has been staged.

Delhi somehow managed to combine the worst inefficiencies of what has been termed "Old India" by the media here and the political machinations have begun as those in charge look to grab the glory and shed the blame. There must be a better way.

The last irony is that the Commonwealth Games organisers have apparently made no provision for sport in the future - buildings aside. 

There is no cash injection waiting to flood in to athletics, cycling or hockey. What use are some of the best facilities without droves of people to use them - that has got to be a worry.

I went to a traditional wrestling academy in Old Delhi three days ago. It was the training base for nearly 40 men and boys who wanted to become Indian stars. 

It is totally self-funded - the wrestlers take what they earn in the dirt-square competitions that India stages city-by-city and plough it into the academy. 

Some of them sleep on the wrestling mat the others on the hard concrete floor. 

Ropes hang from the trees which every wrestler is expected to climb using arms only, the dirt was dug and flattened by hand. Days started early with prayers in the on-site shrine and an hour of running the roads of the city.

All of them know India’s top wrestlers and most of the international ones. Medallists are gods. 

That's the image that I want to leave India with - the simple relationship between the champions on the television and the desire in the downtown wrestlers. In them, and thousands like them, the future of Indian sport rests.

As of Monday morning, there were still 79 nine gold medals to be decided, out of a total of 272 spread across the four remaining days.

There is still plenty of scope to change the medal tally but I'm not sure that England are going to keep their almost-traditional second placing, behind runaway leaders Australia.

At home in Melbourne in 2006, they finished with a total of 221 medals, 84 of them gold. By my shaky maths they have to win another 20 or so golds to maintain their performance of four years ago.

The most improved prize by some margin goes to hosts India. They have never finished in the top three in a Commonwealth medal table and I'm increasingly sure they will finish second here.

Their previous best was 30 golds in Manchester in 2002. That is a total they're likely to pass with days to spare and I'm sure they can get more than 100 medals in total which even taking into account the usual host nation effect is extraordinary.

There was a theory that many of the Indian's strongest sports took place in the first week but, with two more full days of shooting, both hockey competitions and boxing entering the medal rounds, I can't see them slowing down any time before the closing ceremony.

On the face of it England have slipped back in performance but the numbers are not all bad. In 2006, they won 110 medals in all - a number sure to be exceeded.

But the ratio of gold to silver does not make such good reading. In 2006 England won 36 golds and 40 silvers, compared to 54 golds and 52 second-places in 2002. Here in Delhi, the silver tally seems big already but the number of winners is going to be well down.

It's not hard to find superficial answers. England had some high profile withdrawals, some of whom were nailed on shots at winning Commonwealth titles.

In cycling, all the home nations have used Delhi as a chance to blood a new crop of talent, primarily because Olympic qualification has changed, making competing in Delhi risky for the likes of Chris Hoy and Victoria Pendleton.

Scotland have had a great couple of days, pulling themselves back up the table but are unlikely to get to the 11 gold level they set in Melbourne. Chances remain for them in bowls and medals are assured in the boxing - colours to be decided.

Wales and Northern Ireland are at about level pegging with their performances in previous editions of the Commonwealths but, with relatively low numbers, one big performance can change a whole lot.

Wales are hoping that Nicole Cooke can do something special in Wednesday's cycling time trial and have boxers in the mix at the Talkatora Stadium.

The real story remains with India - from the boxing hall to the shooting, archery to wrestling they've been a new force. I've seen some of their performances live and each and every one of those has made the hairs on my arms stand up - the perfect combination of massive home support and massive talent.

I hope one of the real legacies of the Commonwealths is that India shake off the reputation as perennial under-performers.

Too often questions have to be asked as to why India doesn't do better. Poverty, lack of funding and lack of school sport are all pointed out. India's Olympic record - hockey aside - remains abject. Abhinav Bhindra remains the nation's only individual gold medallist in Olympic history - that's something that has to change come London 2012.

I for one hope that come the supporters chanting "India, India!" in Delhi are doing so again in 2012.

There is scope to bully your opponent, shout at the officials with seeming impunity and it would certainly challenge any of the sports taking place in Delhi to be the sweatiest - despite being held in the air-conditioned hall of the Siri Fort Complex.

At some points the gladiators stand at the back of the court and exchange strokes of enormous speed and power but in an instant they are darting forward, lunging like fencers, arms fully straight front legs fully folded to reach some of the deft touch shots.

After Peter Barker won the bronze medal on Friday afternoon, an England sweep was assured in the men's singles with Nick Matthew and James Willstrop in the gold-medal match.

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As the game started it was a great mix of a good crowd and the highest-level sport - a combination seen far too seldom in Delhi so far.

You might think that, with the doubles competition starting on Saturday, some sort of team orders would have been issued but there was no quarter asked or given.

Nick Matthew was making no secret of his opinion about James Willstrop's calls in the middle of games for the cleaners to come in and provide a dry floor - and incidentally some breathing space - and both players at times were furiously asking for lets.

Getting a let in squash is part tactic, part truth and a lot of bravado. The encumbered party looks angrily back to the panel of officials, miming the action he would like to have taken with his racquet, while the blocker looks aghast and points to some area of the court with palms up and a shrug - the full Mediterranean "What's he on?"

The officials have a quick vote between the three of them and deliver a polite "yes, let". The point is replayed sometimes more than once and the sweat goes on.

In the end, Matthew swept Willstrop aside in straight games. But the match was full of nuance and skill that the bland 11-6 11-7 11-7 cannot relate.

Squash of course is not an Olympic sport, which gives gold in the Commonwealth Games an elevated status.

It's not that they haven't tried to gain a place in the Olympic programme. They applied for inclusion for both the 2012 London Olympics and, more recently, for Rio de Janiero in 2016, both times unsuccessfully.

Seeing both golf and rugby sevens being voted into the biggest multi-sport event on earth must have been a bitter pill.

Squash would be a good addition to the Olympics - it is relatively easy to set up, especially in a modern urban environment, and is fast and exciting to watch both on television and live.

Crucially, the Olympics would be the absolute pinnacle of what the sport offers - unlike so many of the current sports in the programme (such as tennis, football and arguably now rugby sevens).

Golf's inclusion in the rota is - on that particular metric - strange. Nothing in golf is going to break into the four majors or the Ryder Cup as the must-win event of someone's career.

The reality of what makes the grade for inclusion and what keeps a sport inside the ropes is never openly published. Some of them must include number of competing countries, tradition of being in the Games, spectator appeal, cost of staging, spread of medals in terms of countries and ticket sales.

The fact that squash can compete with many of the sports already in the Olympics on many of these makes me think that they must be head of the list should the 28 sports ever be increased even by one.

The earliest they could ever be included is now 2020 - too late for this generation of athletes. For now, let's hail some of the best squash players in the world and wish them well.

For competitors, all the nerves fall away as the event begins, but for the parents the butterflies turn to birds and then the birds turn to eagles.

My own parents were assiduous in attending Olympic Games and World Championships but it wasn't rare to find them absolutely shattered in the grandstands afterwards. I might have been ecstatic but they were just drained.

When I met up with Steve and Kay Adlington at their hotel at lunchtime on Wednesday, they were upbeat but all too aware of the challenge facing their daughter Rebecca.

Adlington Jr was struggling to be in full health and, while hoping she would be able to win her first Commonwealth Games medal in the women's 800m freestyle, they were worried not to see her at the venue doing her warm-up routine.

"Not good," was the only comment from Steve when his daughter failed to turn up.

Adlington has had a period of reflection since winning two Olympic titles in the Water Cube in Beijing and has had a good time since - not necessarily partying all the time but taking advantage of all the opportunities that come the way of double gold medallists.

This season has been about putting the miles back into her still young arms and legs, refocusing on the swimming part of life and doing what needs to be done to be atop the podium once again at London 2012.

No-one wants to open their international career with the biggest bang imaginable and spend a decade or more trying to recapture that form.

So Delhi had become a big target for Adlington and it would have been cruel were illness to affect her chances.

The tension ramped up throughout the evening session as finals came and went. As I sat next to them in the stands, Steve and Kay were vocal in support of the other home nation swimmers but there was only one sight they craved.

Then there she was, jumping nervously poolside as her fellow finalists were introduced - temporary relief for the parents.

Kay snapped off a few pictures from her camera.

"How many shots of her swimming have you got," I asked.

"Thousands." Kay's lens is nice but not really good enough to zoom the distance to her daughter.

"What about getting some from the press pack," I asked, pointing at a large group in the photo area, with their saucer-ended lenses.

"Nope, never had any of those."

"She looks relaxed," said Steve again, but it sounded to me as if he was trying to persuade himself.

As the swimmers took to the blocks, the venue descended into silence. Becky spent the first length looking both ways, establishing a small lead, sizing up the opposition.

"Good start," the parents murmured to each other, clutching their England flags. Then their daughter stepped on the gas for 150m and a gap opened up. She was swimming strongly.

During each down-leg, back to the start line, Kay tugged her flag in the direction her daughter was swimming, convinced Becky could see it from the pool.

With 200m to go, the Adlington in the pool began to tire but the Adlingtons in the stands stepped up their efforts. They were joined by the other England team parents and some Indian locals who had temporarily adopted Becky as the focus of their cheers.

With 100m to go, Wendy Trott of South Africa began to make some serious in-roads into the English girl's lead. The parents began to doubt but then their daughter rounded the last turn and they rallied, with victory secured.

The last moments passed in a flash. Adlington missed the Commonwealth Games record by a fraction, with a gutsy swim. Her parents were relieved and, yes, exhausted.

One regret for Kay was that the athletes disappeared down the opposite side of the pool from all the spectators after the medal ceremony .

Team-mates, coaches and television are all well-catered for by the authorities here but sadly not the parents. So would one of the press photographers make two very proud parents even prouder and give them a memento of their trip to India by forwarding them a shot of their daughter winning? Thanks.

While reports, and indeed my own experience, of low numbers have been passed on to the organising committee, they generally have not seemed unduly concerned and have continually replied that spectator numbers are increasing.

The OC chairman, Mr Suresh Kalmadi, has even claimed that there have been queues of spectators at all the venues, a feature either unnoticed or unreported by the media in Delhi.

With the mission to try to evaluate the state of spectator numbers and ticket sales on day three of the Games I went to the OC's media conference on Wednesday morning to ask whether they had seen any change in demand for tickets.

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Mr Kalmadi was asked to make some preliminary comments and noted that Tuesday's sessions of wrestling and boxing were packed, that 50,000 tickets were sold and that hockey, swimming and athletics were selling well.

I asked a question and here is the exchange:

MP - I was at the shooting venue yesterday to see Abhinav Bindra win the first gold medal for India. It was fantastic to be there. This is a question for Mr Kalmadi: There were only 30 spectators. Given the interest for Mr Bindra and his national hero status I wondered if you had a comment?

Suresh Kalmadi- I don't think there were 30 spectators. I was there myself and there were a few hundred. Please, I was there myself so I tell you there were a few hundred.

MP - I can give you the pictures, Sir. We can count them together if you like.

SK - OK. If you take the section of spectators then I don't know, I can tell you there were a few hundred spectators or people there.

MP - Ticket-holders?

SK - Yes ticket-holders.

MP - Rather than accredited media personnel? Let's be clear.

SK - There were a lot of ticket-holders there. I can get back to you with more details if you like.

MP - I'd be delighted.

Here are some screen-grabs taken from our filming at the shooting venue on the day in question:

This is the section of spectators that I was talking about. These are the ticket-holders that turned up and they were sitting together. There are less than 40 of them.

Here you can see Abhinav Bindra talking to his coach in the middle of the competition. You can see just how close the spectators are to the action - the lucky few.

Here finally is the coach congratulating Bindra's partner Gagan Narang on his gold medal - there are no paying spectators further down the range.

On a less argumentative note to finish, as I visited other venues later on Wednesday, I saw women's hockey have a good day with around 1,000 watching holders Australia take on hosts India.

The athletics in the evening had the biggest turnout of the Games so far with an estimated 6,000 at the stadium. Let's hope the trend continues.

Weaving through rush-hour traffic is pretty stressful at the best of times but the Games lanes have been pretty effective at keeping the automotive tide back from the main routes to the venues.

Relative to the capital's surge of commuters, the peace of the Dr Karni Singh Shooting Range is startling as the competitors carefully lay out their rifles, ammunition and clocks.

The pairs final is a 60-shot effort from each competitor, the scores tallied with their partners' to yield a team total. Any shot catching the very centre of the target scores 10 and if it's marginally wide it marks a nine. Anything less than a nine is almost unheard of at this level.

India are strong favourites with defending Commonwealth champions Abhinav Bindra and Gagan Narang.

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In addition, Bindra is the Olympic champion from Beijing in the singles event - the only Indian individual gold medallist ever. He carried the flag at the opening ceremony for the host nation. He's nothing short of a legend - but that lends pressure to the proceedings - India is expecting the duo to do well.

The hush descends on the hall, phones switched off, bags put down in case they fall. The shooters sit in preparation - their shooting suits are unwieldy. Stiff and strong in the right directions for shooting, it makes them walk like they've got suits of armour on. The judge steadily calls the competitors to order and we are off.

There is no release of adrenaline, no breath sounds, no sign that anything has changed - merely the uneven percussion of the rifles. Each pellet has to be loaded in turn, so arms drop and occasionally a rifle is set aside on a stand to break the concentration.

Above the shooters, screens display every result. There is no set speed, so straight away it's obvious that Bindra and Narang shoot relatively quickly. The English duo of James Huckle and Kenny Parr are shooting more slowly but just as well - after 10 shots it's India 199-199 England. Hang on, this could be an upset.

Bindra loses his rhythm and a pair of nines are the result. He stops, puts down his rifle and steps back towards the seating area. Everyone in the media stand is transfixed as his coach carefully takes out a metal comb and holds it above Bindra's thumb and first finger.

Without warning, he drops it and his athlete has to react. We used to do this in the playground with a ruler; we called it the "klutz test". We needed a full length 12-inch ruler and even then I remember it being a challenge. Bindra catches every one before the five-inch comb has dropped out of reach.

Carefully crafted mental rehearsal? Mind games to relieve the stress? Whichever it is, Bindra resumes.

Bindra overcame a loss of concentration to help clinch India's first gold

If Gagan Narang has noticed, he doesn't show it - he's producing a seemingly endless stream of 10s across his screen. England are falling back, a deficit of one after 20 shots, then three at the halfway point, eight behind after 40 and then 14 behind after 50. It's a chasm in class and suddenly it's obvious to everyone that it has to be gold for India.

Bindra and Narang finish their last shots but the applause is quickly hushed by coaches and officials alike - some competitors have 15 or 20 shots left to fire. Some of the Indian media pack are, however, oblivious.

One newspaper reporter starts a noisy phone conversation to relay the result from the seats. Bindra steps back to sign an autograph from one of the few genuine ticket-holders and cameras, microphones and recorders are thrust down towards him.

The officials are powerless as reporters start shouting requests over the melee; you can't do much to control people being too noisy if you yourself have to remain silent.

One Indian reporter quietly leans over my shoulder and whispers, "Disgraceful! You're from the BBC - you should name them!"

Well, as Mrs Flowers used to say to our unruly biology class, "I've written your names down!"

If the other competitors are ruffled, it doesn't show as they finish their shoots without reaction to the media mayhem. Bindra and Narang realise within a few minutes that the only solution is to move off the range and so the immediate sense of celebration and camaraderie is lost, which is a shame.

Huckle and Parr embrace - it's a solid start to a sport which England are hoping provides lots of medals here - but the clear stars are Bindra and Narang.

Bindra has scored 595, which would be remarkable enough were it not for Narang's near perfect 598. It bodes well for them both in the individual event - Narang will go into that event on Wednesday as defending Commonwealth champion against the Olympic champion Bindra. I'm sure there is room in Indian hearts for another hero.

In Beijing, I was off to the shooting to see if world and defending 2004 Olympic champion Du Li could get the Chinese off to a flyer in the 10m rifle. She couldn't and later confessed to feeling that the crowd put pressure on her rather than urging her on.

At the Vancouver Winter Olympics, Canada's athletes put in a fantastic performance, finishing top of the medal table. But that was by the end of the Games - they had to wait until day three before the floodgates could be prised apart by Alexandre Bilodeau in the men's moguls.

There was an added sense of history given that in their two previous home Games - in Montreal in 1976 and Calgary 1988 - not one single Canadian had won gold. Bilodeau simply said: "I'm happy to get the party started."

The Commonwealth Games in Manchester in 2002 was a happier story for the Aussies as they opened the event by winning the 1m springboard diving with Irina Lashko.

In 2006, India won the first gold medal of the Melbourne Games, with Kunjarani Devi Nameirakpam winning a women's weightlifting with .

This time around, India have set the target of 100 medals in Delhi, aiming to finish second behind Australia in the table, so a good start on day one would have lifted a whole team and set a stiff challenge.

But knowing the historical precedents, it was more in hope than expectation that I went off to the weightlifting venue on Monday to see if Soniya Chanu could upset the trend.

Soniya Chanu at the weightlifting medal ceremony. Picture: AP.

Weightlifting is a brilliant spectator sport - a mix of tactics and raw power that makes it intricate and exciting at the same time. The weight starts at a relatively achievable level and moves ever upwards.

Competitors decide when they want to come in and get a total of three attempts to get it above their heads, first in one movement - the snatch - then in two - the clean and jerk. Chanu was certainly going well in the snatch portion but, in the last two lifts, Nigeria's Augustina Nwaokolo established a 4kg advantage.

As the weaker competitors fell away, it became a shoot-out, with Nwaokolo breaking Commonwealth records to put Chanu right up against it.

The Indian favourite had to throw it all in with a last gasp attempt at 103kg - an amazing weight given she tipped the scales at less than 48kg. In the end, it was too much and her collapse to the platform meant the first gold went to Nigeria.

There is, of course, no shame in finishing second, especially when you achieve the performance target that you set for yourself when it matters most. Indeed, India won both the silver (with Chanu) and bronze with Sandiya Rani.

But Chanu burst into tears in the media area afterwards (under questioning from Indian reporters). When she had recovered, I asked her if she was proud of her achievement.

Her slow, silent shake of the head spoke volumes.

I was shown round the Welsh quarters by Michaela Breeze who is hoping to bow out from her distinguished weightlifting career by lifting the gold in the 63kg category and, like most of the athletes now arriving for the Delhi experience, I was pleasantly surprised by the village.

It's not the best I've seen in terms of villages (at Olympics both winter and summer) and if you just had the keys handed to you by the builders you'd be scribbling down a snagging list as long as your arm.

But - and it is a very big but - the transformation in the last weeks has been nothing short of spectacular.

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I've spoken to officials from England, Scotland and Wales in the last week and they all described their feelings of disappointment on their arrival several weeks ago.

They've had to throw their front-line staff into the effort to prepare rooms to an acceptable standard for their athletes to move into and at the same time insist to their Indian hosts that they redouble their workload to get the job done.

The visiting teams have had to resort to a form of gunboat diplomacy in their dealings with the organisers.

In almost every big sporting event that I've experienced, careful tactics and talks behind closed doors are enough to get most problems sorted. Here the methods have been very different and going public with concerns has been distilled as the only way to get things done. It has not been easy for the hosts to have so much dirty laundry out in the open.

The result for the teams now is more than satisfactory - athletes are able to focus on the task of getting themselves prepared for competition and that should be the primary and - in my view - solitary job of any athlete village.

I'd forego the post office and the hairdresser, the florist and the souvenir shop and say that athletes need food and lodging and that's about it. Delhi has gone much, much further and most of what's on offer is getting rave reviews.

All the teams have a "flag-raising" ceremony and it was special to see how, on the one hand, protocol and discipline was scrupulously observed, before some excited schoolchildren - who had been practicing for weeks to do their part - added a proper slice of fun to the occasion.

It goes to show that for some people the excitement and the opportunity of the Games trumped everything else. It might be innocent or even naive but, given the last week, it was refreshing.

Let's hope the Games gets off to a flying start, the wrinkles that are left are ironed out and the sport at last can be the thing we are talking about.

Many thanks to our Welsh hosts. You can see more shots of the Wales team accommodation on their Facebook page - and there is even one of me holding a Welsh flag.

I said that I would support them throughout and I think one of their first battles is in women's hockey against New Zealand on Monday. Come on Wales!

Last week, the prognosis looked bleak - those photographs of the athletes village were everywhere, pools of water surrounding venues and the constant ticking clock until the opening ceremony. The whole thing looked to be heading for a melange of argument, recrimination and disaster.

I was half expecting a phone call to say "it's all off, stay at home". But now I'm in Delhi it's hard to find much evidence to suggest the Games aren't going to happen. It looks like they may actually be OK.

While that looks to be putting gloss on the situation, there does seem to be a change as far as preparations are going. India could be pulling the largest rabbit out of their hat.

You must take some things into account, however. Every pavement is a jumble of broken tarmac, tile and unidentifiable rubbish, so to expect polished marble by Sunday is unfair.

The transport in Delhi is almost all decrepit but it works. I've spent the morning filming in the city and can count on one hand the number of times I've stopped for a traffic light while being driven around.

I'd need two hands to count the near-misses in every 10 minutes but it's just another simple adjustment. In the United Kingdom, a traffic near-miss might be five feet. In Delhi, six inches doesn't seem to raise many eyebrows.

In the UK, one beep of the horn means "you've really annoyed me", two "I'm going to stop my car and threaten you", and three means something even worse. Here, one horn means "hello", two means "hello, hello", and three - well you get the impression.

I spent most of Monday cowering in the back of a taxi waiting for it all to kick off, whereas I'm not sure anyone else was particularly ruffled.

I don't want to overplay the good news, however. There is no doubt the promised metro lines look unlikely to be finished in time to bring spectators to the venues, while some of the bells and whistles that were promised must have been cut back. As for the athletes' village, which is being improved each day, that is going to be inconsistent.

It is noticeable that the big teams with big media operations behind them have found the village far, far better than they feared it would be. However, the ire of the Sri Lankan team at the standard of their accommodation merited just one line in the Times of India - it would have been different had it been England complaining.

As ever, the issue of security is a sensitive one. How can any global sports event fully protect itself against the individual who passionately wants to cause chaos? The answer - it can't - is just as relevant for London and New York as it is for Delhi, so you just have to put it to the back of your mind.

In the cab on the way in from the airport, the driver was adamant at the terminal he knew exactly where the hotel was. Within five minutes, he'd paused to ask directions. After three more stops, I was getting tetchy and asked, "Are we lost?".

"No, no sir, not lost," he claimed, and so it continued. We stopped a total of eight times with me working myself into a fury in the back. Each of my acidic comments met with "we're on the way now, sir", or "no problems, sir".

As we turned into the entrance of the hotel, the driver turned back with a joyous smile and said, "You see, sir. I was right!"

The Commonwealth Games may well have taken a tortuous route to get here but they might in fact be about to arrive exactly where they said they were going to.