Another Grand Day

By the time lunchtime came CJ and I wondered what on earth had happened to the morning.  We'd both been up early (in fact CJ seemed to have been up most of the night) and hadn't been lazy but at the same time I certainly didn't feel that I'd actually achieved anything.  Nothing new there then.  In the afternoon Gaz popped in having cycled out from town on his 'fixey' and we spent a very pleasant  afternoon.  Pat and Dave came for dinner and then we watched the Olympic closing ceremony.

I can well understand it of you have already asked yourself why you are reading such mundanities.   It suddenly occurred to me when I woke up this morning that it was, to some extent, the mundaneness of yesterday which had made it special.   There had been no pressure to 'do' anything in particular.

So I had time to watch the birds as they had a bath in the waterfall into the pond.  I did wonder what the sparrow in the second photo was trying to do.

 Then as evening fell and we finished dinner the sky turned into a blaze of colour

and we settled down to watch the closing ceremony.  Perhaps it wasn't the sort of thing that many were expecting.  I had had absolutely no idea what to expect.  It was a young show for the young because when you think about it the Olympics may be viewed by all ages but they are truly the province of the young.

I thoroughly enjoyed it but, more than that, I found it a very emotional experience.  I'm not nationalistic but every other country seems to be proud of who it is so why shouldn't the Brits?  After all contrary to many expectations the Games went exceptionally well and Britain didn't do too badly coming third in terms of gold medals with only 9 less than China.

My Goddaughter, Louise, and her partner had been in London for some of the events in the middle weekend and I knew that they would be watching the ceremony.  They go off to one of the F1 GPs each year and it always gives me a warm feeling when I get a picture text from Louise in, say, Singapore watching the same race in person that I am watching simultaneously on the TV.   So last night as I watched we texted each other and shared the emotion.

As the lights extinguished and The 2012 Olympics came to an end I pondered on the spirit of the games and decided that I had two photos from the last part of the ceremony which were symbolic of my thoughts.  Firstly was Darcey Bussell when she was being lifted.  To me it symbolised the athleticism, the determination and the support on which each participant relies:

The second was these, to me, unknown young ladies who said it all:

I shall end with two snippets:

Bye for now.

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.