Well, after about 7 years since the announcement of the awarding of the Olympics to London and constant press stories going on about all the problems it’s finally here. At last. Gold place!
Actually, I’m writing this on Day 4 and Gold hasn’t been won yet unfortunately but Team GB have done well in some of their competitions and to be fair, a lot of the previous days have been heats or not the events that we usually do well in. Rowing and Cycling to come. Yesterday we witnessed history though as the Men’s team Gymnasts won Bronzer in the most thrilling and amazing session which saw them briefly have Silver in their pockets until a Japan enquiry on the Pommel Horse edged us out…by a nose! Remarkable achievement all the same though.
So, I’ve jumped ahead of myself slightly. We were unfortunate not to get ay tickets for sessions, although don’t get me started on the number of empty seats visible, so we decided on still being involved by attending the Opening Ceremony concert in Hyde Park. What a brilliant day we had. Everyone has been told to stay out of London, so we hoped that would enable us to drive in with no bother which we did at around 2.30pm on Friday – sure enough – no traffic to talk of. Just as we were pulling into out car park, The Kasey’s were at the traffic lights and waved us down, we were meeting them anyway but that was perfect timing.
Spent the next two hours in the Lady Diana Memorial garden and then wandered down to Marble Arch where it was getting busy. Had a meal in Prezzo and then around 7.00pm went to the concert, not good news, the place was absolutely packed out with queues outside which were moving so damned slowly. I guessed right, it took us over an hour to get in and eventually at 8.10pm we got past three levels of security to see Duran Duran – they were wonderful! Really got the place going.
That was 9.00pm so the screens came on and we had a live link to the Opening Ceremony over at Stratford. Danny Boyle was the director and went through the history of the UK in terms of the Industrial Revolution to the present and it was absolutely spellbinding. It received criticism in the press or Twitter from various individuals who felt it was political or were just too stupid to understand what they were seeing, but the very vast majority of people watching it couldn’t fail to be impressed. Loved it! Some good humour, James Bond and although I am not a fan of Mr Bean his involvement was amusing and worth including for certain. Loads of great music and things that made you very proud.
At around 10.15pm the concert kicked back in and Stereophonics played for just under an hour in which Jack and I got close to the front which was cool, then it was back to more of the ceremony and then it was Snow Patrol’s turn to play and they were fantastic. Charlotte wanted to go to the front with me this time and Jack came along as well and it was lovely for the three of us to be right up there in amongst it. Very special.
Once they played their set it was after midnight and we switched back to the ceremony to see UK enter the arena and also the all important lighting of the flame. There has been so much speculation over who was going to be granted the honour, I think it’s fair to say the overwhelming favourite was Steve Redgrave, with Becks and Daly Thompson pushing close but what happened was a great twist. Becks, Thompson, Daly, ah bugger, some other famous Olympians from the past had nominated a teenager and future Olympic athlete to do it for them. And the torch was something else, petals of a metal flower that turn upwards and lit up…and then the fireworks closed it out. You could see the sky lighting up from where we were!
Paul McCartney then came on and that was the cue for everyone to make their way to the exits. We had a long 20 mins walk and then a wait in the car park for a useless attendant to sort things out but eventually got home at 2.45am, everyone shattered but what an amazing and unforgettable experience.
As I say, I’m writing this a couple of days later but it’s so fresh and the photos and videos that I will include will make the memories stick even more. Now’s just hoping for more medals from the athletes…
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