The BBC seems to have sole coverage rights to the Olympic games in London in the year of 2012. The opening few minutes alone, of the "Olympic Countdown," made me proud to be British, it's the first time the games have been here since 1948, the year of the "austerity games," and a time when this was a very different world.
There are VT clips of Olympians from the past and these are some of the names which I remember vividly; Daley Thomson, Nadia Comaneci, Carl Lewis, Mark Spitz, Sebastian Coe, Steve Ovett, Matthew Pinsent, Kelly Holmes, Olga Korbut, Michael Phelps, Steve Redgrave, Michael Johnson, all of them providing Olympic moments, moments in history, quite incredible.
Danny Boyle, film director and creator and director of the opening of the Olympic Games 2012. Lancashire born and bred, he hails from about an hour up the road, what an honour to be trusted with this task, the Northern lad should be proud.
The first glimpse we get to signal that the greatest show on earth is about to begin, are the Red Arrows trailing red white and blue smoke in their wake. World class precision flying, and just stunning to watch.
Seven years ago it was announced that London would be the host city of the Olympic Games 2012, I suppose that living outside of London, it didn't seem quite real, the country is in a mess, the majority of people in this country, the bread and butter workers are struggling, it feels like our heads have been bowed for such a long time with worry and drudgery, we have hardly dare look up for an age. But tonight at last, it feels tangible, the Olympic Games are actually here, and so is the rest of the world, finally, something bright, brilliant and hopeful enough to lift our heads up for.
During the countdown, Gary Linaker and the lovely Sue Barker interview Steve Redgrave, Michael Johnson and Mr John McEnroe, the L'enfant terrible of tennis is just... don't hate me, such a gentleman and professional broadcaster! I love it when he is here to cover Wimbledon and I love that he is here for this amazing event and is so excited at the prospect.
The opening ceremony is literally a work of art. I truly hope that the rest of the world "gets" Mr Boyle's vision, as a friend put it, his words not mine, "stunning, I was genuinely filled with national pride." Ditto.
For me, it was towards the end of the opening ceremony, when the young athletes of the future took turns of running around the Olympic Stadium with the torch, they did a lap of honour, arriving before the former Olympians who had nominated them for the honour. The former Olympians symbolically handed each young athlete an unlit torch infront of 240 Olympic medal winners which included Jayne Torvil and Christopher Dean. The one lit torch lit each of the others, they each then bowed before an unfurled mass of, what looked to me like, long stemmed, steel lilies and placed the flame near each flower. The flames leapt into each of the flowers beside them until a circle of flame was visible, then another inner circle and another, then, each stem rose up slowly, high into the air, the like of which I have never seen before. As each stem reached it's destination, an aerial view looked deep into the mass flame, and it was beautiful. I only wish that we could have had a camera on Danny Boyle as his masterpiece was brought to life.
Let the Games, begin.
Showing posts with label Olympic torch. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Olympic torch. Show all posts
Friday, 3 August 2012
Friday, 1 June 2012
The Torch
I have had a dreadful week at work. I won't even bore you with the details, suffice to say that no one in authority takes ownership of their own mistakes and that no one in authority, at my place of work anyway, cares about the staff. I'm done now, thank you for listening.
So, in light of the farce in work that has gone on for the past two weeks, I decided to take extra leave. J is going on holiday the early hours of Thursday, so I won't have much contact and I won't see her for about three weeks. So I offered to take her shopping for last minute holiday stuff, and we could spend some time together.
Despite going to bed late on Wednesday night, I woke at 3.45am this Thursday morning, my usual time. I tried to get back to sleep for a good while, then got up at 5am. I had breakfast then jogged for an hour. It's cloudy and raining today, the first we've had for two weeks, and I don't care, I'm off work.
J and I avoided the Bridge like the plague as it was being closed while the Olympic torch was run across it. The Bridge was being closed for an hour, can you imagine the backlog of traffic? J and I headed for a neighbouring town, far, far away, where the traffic was free flowing.
We parked up and headed, in the horizontal rain, for Starbucks. A coffee and half a fruit toast later, plus a substantial conversational catch up, and we hit the shops. They are filled with holiday items, but as I'm not going anywhere and J is only going in this country, with the dogs, we passed on everything.
After mooching around the shops, with no purchases, J and I headed for Starbucks again, mainly for the sit down before we hit M&S for a food shop, they have special offers on for the weekend, and as it's "Dine for Two," I get two meals, or one meal twice, lucky me.
So, it's still raining when I get home. I start the ironing then head out to get my hair cut, it's desperate, I haven't been able to coax the barnet into anything for weeks now. After spending all day avoiding the torch, I see one! It's obviously a torch bearer, holding extinguished torch and having photo taken outside the Ferry Boat, remember we had coffee there? I park up and head for my hairdressers. Louise, my hairdresser asks me if I've had a stab at it myself and I confess all. She laughs and tells me that at least I own up, it's the customers who have clearly had a go themselves that don't own up that makes her scratch her head. As usual, I take multiple pictures to attempt to illustrate how I want it, better that than try to explain, but I always add that Louise can do what she wants, she has a great understanding of my weird hair, so I trust her. I ponder that I even saw a short hairstyle that I liked and that I considered it. Suffice to say that Louise put me straight, and with my weird, curly, fine, bald in places hair, there is no way on earth that I should consider going short, at least I know now. I really like Louise, she brings me to my senses. Absolutely no nonsense.
So I leave the hairdressers, do a little food shopping, (it's dead, think everyone is avoiding the torch,) and head home to make a few phone calls then continue with the ironing, life is so exciting.
So, in light of the farce in work that has gone on for the past two weeks, I decided to take extra leave. J is going on holiday the early hours of Thursday, so I won't have much contact and I won't see her for about three weeks. So I offered to take her shopping for last minute holiday stuff, and we could spend some time together.
Despite going to bed late on Wednesday night, I woke at 3.45am this Thursday morning, my usual time. I tried to get back to sleep for a good while, then got up at 5am. I had breakfast then jogged for an hour. It's cloudy and raining today, the first we've had for two weeks, and I don't care, I'm off work.
J and I avoided the Bridge like the plague as it was being closed while the Olympic torch was run across it. The Bridge was being closed for an hour, can you imagine the backlog of traffic? J and I headed for a neighbouring town, far, far away, where the traffic was free flowing.
We parked up and headed, in the horizontal rain, for Starbucks. A coffee and half a fruit toast later, plus a substantial conversational catch up, and we hit the shops. They are filled with holiday items, but as I'm not going anywhere and J is only going in this country, with the dogs, we passed on everything.
After mooching around the shops, with no purchases, J and I headed for Starbucks again, mainly for the sit down before we hit M&S for a food shop, they have special offers on for the weekend, and as it's "Dine for Two," I get two meals, or one meal twice, lucky me.
So, it's still raining when I get home. I start the ironing then head out to get my hair cut, it's desperate, I haven't been able to coax the barnet into anything for weeks now. After spending all day avoiding the torch, I see one! It's obviously a torch bearer, holding extinguished torch and having photo taken outside the Ferry Boat, remember we had coffee there? I park up and head for my hairdressers. Louise, my hairdresser asks me if I've had a stab at it myself and I confess all. She laughs and tells me that at least I own up, it's the customers who have clearly had a go themselves that don't own up that makes her scratch her head. As usual, I take multiple pictures to attempt to illustrate how I want it, better that than try to explain, but I always add that Louise can do what she wants, she has a great understanding of my weird hair, so I trust her. I ponder that I even saw a short hairstyle that I liked and that I considered it. Suffice to say that Louise put me straight, and with my weird, curly, fine, bald in places hair, there is no way on earth that I should consider going short, at least I know now. I really like Louise, she brings me to my senses. Absolutely no nonsense.
So I leave the hairdressers, do a little food shopping, (it's dead, think everyone is avoiding the torch,) and head home to make a few phone calls then continue with the ironing, life is so exciting.
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