1 EAGLETON NOTES: Olympic Free Zone?

.

.

Saturday 28 July 2012

Olympic Free Zone?

When it comes to the Olympics I've always been a bah humbug sort of a bloke.  CJ on the other hand has not missed watching an opening ceremony since Soeul in 1988.  This evening I managed to get the ironing done during the first hour whilst it was on the television in the kitchen and CJ watched on the big screen in the living room whilst getting on with some intricate embroidery.  By the time 2230 hrs arrived I decided to bring my laptop into the living room and watch the parade of the athletes.  I have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed the parade: the colour, the diversity, the talent and the rather noticeable fact that athletes seem almost to the person to be beautiful people.  I enjoyed the volunteers with their wonderful dedication and obvious sense of enjoyment and occasion.  I enjoyed the flags.  I enjoyed the fact that armed services who protect us played such an important part in the ceremonial as well as the protection.  I enjoyed the inclusiveness of the whole ceremony.  In fact I enjoyed the whole thing.

I found the final opening and the number of the young athletes involved in the final lighting of the symbol of unity in the final flame to be absolutely breathtaking in its concept and beauty and emotion.

London done good.

Perhaps I'm not quite as bah humbug as I thought I was.

15 comments:

  1. just watching it here in NZ - edited highlights - but looked great :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. I am glad to see this side of you. I had goosebumps in much of the "historic" section of the opening! I love the humor of the "queen and James Bond" parachuting out of the helicopter. Well done, UK! I had forgotten that so much of children's literature that I love were written by British authors. Again, well done!

    ReplyDelete
  3. I enjoyed the ceremony too.....amazing to see so many British aspects incorporated into the production...kept on thinking of the hours that were spent creating the entire spectacle..job well done!!
    Although on some forums, others (mostly non-Brits) are seeing it differently, but hey, what do they know???? teeheee

    ReplyDelete
  4. Graham, I see you too have been swept away on the wave of apathy.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Although I have not watched the ceremony, from what I have read on Jenny Woolf's blog, CJ's and now yours, I guess if I was in England, I'd be quite infected by the whole atmosphere as well. Your experience sounds somewhat similar to what happened when we had the Football World Cup in Germany in 2006; I am not a footie person at all, and usually am simply bored by sports on telly (I much rather do sports myself), but because Steve asked me to sit with him for one of the first matches during which Germany played, I agreed to watch with him at least for a little while, to please him more than myself. Philip Lahm (who is now captain of Germany's national team) scored within the first 2 minutes of the match - and the party mood sort of swept across from the telly, and I thought "wait a minute - this is entertaining!" and remained in the living room with Steve for the whole game, and for several more during the championship.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Even I (!) ended up watching the whole olympic opening ceremony this time, and was mightily impressed. Well done London. I'd never have thought that anything even remotely connected to sports would keep me glued to the TV for four hours in the middle of the night. As we're one hours ahead of you that means I did not get to bed until 2 am, which is extremely unusual for me. I was super-impressed with the first theatrical/historical/entertainment part, and then also with the parade (realizing how many nations in the world there are that I know next to nothing about), and by the time all those people had passed by, of course I just had to stay and see the finale as well. And I was impressed by that too. It was an absolutly spectacular show, all of it.

    ReplyDelete
  7. What a treat. I did wonder. when I saw them setting up at the beginning of the evening but what a spectacle. I watched from the beginning to the very end and I found myself for the first time ever, thinking about my heritage in a different way and it made me very proud to be British. Well done to them all it was absolutely AMAZING.

    ReplyDelete
  8. PS. I was enthralled by the nostalgia. A brilliant bit of conception and production.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Lucky you, to see it there. Had you seen this same coverage in America, I wonder if you would think it as good. I just saw a comment somewhere that said NBC (who covered it in the USA) should stand for "NEED BETTER COMMENTATORS". I thought that was funny but honestly, I wish they had just done away with them, they were blabbing over most of it. Still, I found my highlights, and I just did a post about it.

    ReplyDelete
  10. I've never thought you were as 'Bah Humbug' as you make out. And I'm really glad you enjoyed it. It was a wonderful occasion and the lighting of the flame was marvellous indeed.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Hmm. The money would have gone some way to reducing the UK deficit though.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The money was spent in England, wasn't it? So it must, in some way, also have helped UK economics.

      Delete
    2. To an extent that is true. Would I have spent the money on a vanity project like this? Would I have plundered the lottery fund for the olympics? Would I have thought that bump-starting the UK economy should start in the SE of England? Probably not.

      Delete
  12. So glad you enjoyed it, GB. Perhaps we'll make a sports fan out of you yet .... well, maybe not, but never mind!

    If you decide you want a personal connection of someone to root for, watch for my granddaughter's friend swimmer Nathan Adrian. We're hoping he can win an individual gold this time, as well as the team gold he won in the past.

    ReplyDelete
  13. I have decided this evening that old age really doesn't come alone. I looked at this an thought "What happened to my responses to everyone's comments?" I am - was - sure that I had responded as I usually do these days. But it doesn't look as though I did. Please forgive me. And thanks for all the comments which I had read even if the answers had only been formed in my head.

    Exits stage left muttering about the state of the economy and his mind!

    ReplyDelete

Comment moderation is activated 14 days after the post to minimise unwanted comments and, hopefully, make sure that I see and reply to wanted comments.