Observations on the London 2012 Olympics
What a wonderful party we have enjoyed in London over the past 15 days!!!
Continuous excitement and rejoicing over the fact that it was all going so well – and let’s face it we did have a few worries on the security front when the G4S fiasco unfolded and Mitt Romney gave us the thumbs down ?
But what a triumph we pulled out of that little last minute hiccough!! We had lovely super friendly, super-efficient soldiers manning – or womaning – the security barricades at the entrance to the main stadium – and if only Heathrow were half as quick!
We had an opening ceremony- gob-smacking from start to finish – it will always be remembered for the brief moment when people thought Her Majesty was Sky-diving into the Olympic stadium – it was amazing enough that she agreed to act in the Bond sequence at all!
Queens date with Bond, James Bond
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-19020220
We also had wonderful volunteers – the route from West Ham showing off the cheerful and colourful and diversity that now makes up GB United – and when we look at the medals we won, and who won them, how grateful we have to be to our imperialist ancestors foresight!!
Seriously what all these people had in common were ready smiles and a willingness to help everyone to “Have a great day!”
And the locations – managing to involve the entire country with the torch relay – whoever came up with the plans to use Greenwich Park for the equestrian events and Horse Guards Parade for the beach volleyball were truly inspired – take a bow!
And we have the promised inheritance of some fantastic new venues for future use – such as the Swimming Pools, Veladrome and BMX venues in Stratford
But this is a Florentine website , supporting my business in Florence, and I have had a bit of a struggle during my Olympic Games holiday in London these past two weeks to make any connection between Florence and my activities!
That is until this morning, when I found out that our beloved Lord Coe – Chair of the London 2012 Organising Committee and Olympic gold medalist. London – in the days when he was ” merely” one of our leading athletes – set his first world record in the 800 metre race running in Florence on 10 June 1981 – Hoorah a link at last!
This record of his 1:41.73 in the 800 metres remained unbeaten until August 1997 – and I believe , notwithstanding David Rudisha’s fantastic run on Thursday 9th August, as he was running for Kenya, this still stands as the UK record !
So, thanks to Seb Coe and all his team for a wonderful couple of weeks – when we didn’t turn on the TV News and shudder, but rather couldn’t wait to get to the TV to catch up on the latest haul!
Huge congratulations to Team GB and best of luck to everyone leaving their sport now the games are over – may they all be so fortunate as to find new careers as fulfilling and even more enjoyable in the future.
And what a great message to take away from the closing ceremony of the Games – to remember our classic British Bonkerness – Eric Idle singing “Always look on the bright side of life!
Ah Yes – la Vita e Bella – and for now at least the Great is back in Britain – Long may it last !
ps Thanks to BBC website for providing such great free images to share on Blogs!
So Farewell to 2012 Mascot Wenlock, with thanks for a good job well done – and welcome to Mandeville and the Para Olympians for the second half of these “incredible” Olympic Games!
