London Calling*

The London 2012 Olympics opening ceremony- the best show on Earth..?

Visit the official website here.

Am really very excited.


* The Clash.

Cardiff 2012

The London Olympics kicked off two days early and some 160 miles (around 260 km) away at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff, Wales.

Well actually the opening ceremony is being held in London on Friday night. Today saw the start of the Football (Soccer) competition with Team GB's ladies taking on New Zealand. Tomorrow the men's competition starts. Apparently in football, the poor players **need** two days between matches to recover, hence the early start so they can fit all the matches in. Can't help but wonder how all the other athletes will cope without such a luxury...

Oh and if anyone is interested Team GB beat the Kiwi's 1 - 0. Well done ladies.

To The Tower

As mentioned yesterday we took a trip to the Tower of London to see the Crown Jewels and also the Olympic rings hanging from nearby Tower Bridge. For once (this summer) the sun shone and the sky was blue. It was as if someone "up there" had decided with the games starting soon, it was high time the UK had some good weather.

Here's a small selection of images from today.




The Tower.

LL and the Bridge.

Traitor's Gate.

















Even the weather vanes are a bit posh.

Pomme De Terre

Dug these up today. Can't wait to get cooking some of them.

I also had to spend considerable time sweeping up a mass of fallen leaves. It's just like Autumn come very early. What is wrong with this weather?


Tomorrow (Sunday) I'm up early-ish and taking LL up to the Tower of London to see the Crown Jewels. I'm under strict instructions not to go trying on any of the crowns LOL.

Day 63

The Olympic Torch relay has now made it's way into the capital. Before that it visited Redhill and then on to Guildford in Surrey, where I was fortunate enough to gain a really good vantage point (with LL) to see Lisa Roberts carry the torch.

After Guildford, the Olympic flame was carried by RAF helicopter to London. At precisely 12 minutes past 8 (or 20:12, geddit?), a Royal Marine abseiled down from the helicopter to the Tower of London with the flame contained in a Davy Lamp. The flame is tonight being stored with the Crown Jewels in perhaps the most secure location in the country. Tomorrow the torch will begin a week long tour of all of the London boroughs before the opening ceremony next Friday.

But back to Guildford, here's a short video I made. Hope it gives a flavour of the event.

Points Make Prizes

With the London Olympics just over a week away I can't help but notice how many of the competing countries flags incorporate the Union Flag. Take the Aussie and Kiwi flags- both feature the UK flag in the top left corner, taking up about a quarter of the total. It's a homage of sorts to the Mother Country and an acknowledgement of the historic links between our nations.

New Zealand

Australia









With this in mind, may I suggest that twenty-five percent of all medals the Aussies and Kiwis win at the Olympics are awarded instead to the host nation? It's only fair LOL.

Olympian

While I was working away this week, the Olympic torch relay came to the Thames Valley area. The torch was taken to Henley, Windsor (to be presented to the Queen), Ascot racecourse, Bracknell and finally overnighting at Reading.

LL got up early on Tuesday morning to go to the river bank at Henley to watch the proceedings, where he had to wait for 3 hours (poor boy) for a brief glimpse. His reward was a £2 LEGO Olympic Team GB mini-figure, he's easily pleased. Anyway here's his video (I've removed the sound so don't worry if you think your speakers have packed up!).

Later in the day, after school, he was taken into Reading to see the torch arrive there. Lucky boy.