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It's just struck me that this is the third Summer Olympic Games I've watched since I began writing this blog. The first was Athens 2004 which took place when I was living in Plymouth. The second was Beijing 2008 which was even more exciting than usual as a close family friend of my boss at the time won a gold medal in boxing. This year of course is the most exciting of all as it's taking place in my home city. Sadly I don't have any tickets but I'll definitely be watching as many events as possible.
Last night I left a leaving do early to make it home in time to watch the opening ceremony. I'm not normally a big fan of opening and closing ceremonies as I find them a bit cheesy and dull. This time though I had to make an effort to watch as two of my friends were taking part. One friend was crowd organiser based in the stands but her husband actually had a proper part in the industrial revolution section. I didn't spot him but I paid special attention to that part. It sounds like they had an awesome time.
In general I enjoyed the ceremony. The music played was definitely to my taste and I think it mainly avoided being tacky. I was really glad that Steve Redgrave was chosen to carry the torch into the stadium. I would have been cross if David Beckham had done it as he's not an Olympic hero by any stretch of the imagination. I also thought it was a nice idea asking stars of the future to light the flame and the whole concept for the flame being lit from lots of separate 'leaves' representing each of the participating countries was pretty cool.
I got a bit bored while all the teams were marching in and they didn't do a very good job with continuity for the pre-recorded sections (it took a really long time for the Queen and 007 to travel from Buckingham Palace to Stratford by helicopter - it was light when they left and dark when they arrived) but mostly it was great. Including Tim Berners-Lee was a nice touch with this is being billed as 'the social media Olympics'.
I've spent most of today watching the games. I never thought I'd get so involved in watching archery. It's actually quite tense and exciting as the teams are so closely matched. Today I watched the following sports:
- Archery (Mens Team competition)
- Artistic Gymnastics (Mens qualification) - Go Team GB!
- Swimming
- Cycling (Road Race) - I didn't watch much of this as it goes on for hours.
- Football (Women) - only a little bit. I don't enjoy football much even if it is the Olympic Games.
- Tennis - only a bit. Not much of a tennis fan.
- Basketball (Women)
Tomorrow is qualification day for womens gymnastics which I'm really excited about. I might try and catch some of the womens archery as well.
Last night I left a leaving do early to make it home in time to watch the opening ceremony. I'm not normally a big fan of opening and closing ceremonies as I find them a bit cheesy and dull. This time though I had to make an effort to watch as two of my friends were taking part. One friend was crowd organiser based in the stands but her husband actually had a proper part in the industrial revolution section. I didn't spot him but I paid special attention to that part. It sounds like they had an awesome time.
In general I enjoyed the ceremony. The music played was definitely to my taste and I think it mainly avoided being tacky. I was really glad that Steve Redgrave was chosen to carry the torch into the stadium. I would have been cross if David Beckham had done it as he's not an Olympic hero by any stretch of the imagination. I also thought it was a nice idea asking stars of the future to light the flame and the whole concept for the flame being lit from lots of separate 'leaves' representing each of the participating countries was pretty cool.
I got a bit bored while all the teams were marching in and they didn't do a very good job with continuity for the pre-recorded sections (it took a really long time for the Queen and 007 to travel from Buckingham Palace to Stratford by helicopter - it was light when they left and dark when they arrived) but mostly it was great. Including Tim Berners-Lee was a nice touch with this is being billed as 'the social media Olympics'.
I've spent most of today watching the games. I never thought I'd get so involved in watching archery. It's actually quite tense and exciting as the teams are so closely matched. Today I watched the following sports:
- Archery (Mens Team competition)
- Artistic Gymnastics (Mens qualification) - Go Team GB!
- Swimming
- Cycling (Road Race) - I didn't watch much of this as it goes on for hours.
- Football (Women) - only a little bit. I don't enjoy football much even if it is the Olympic Games.
- Tennis - only a bit. Not much of a tennis fan.
- Basketball (Women)
Tomorrow is qualification day for womens gymnastics which I'm really excited about. I might try and catch some of the womens archery as well.
