THEY'RE FINALLY HERE!!!
By "they" I mean the Olympics, and by "here" I mean London... well, and on our TV/computer screens! ;o)
Have I ever mentioned that I LOVE the Olympics? No? Well I do! Since as far back as I can remember. The Opening Ceremonies are always thrilling (my clearest early memory is the lighting of the torch in Barcelona'92... with a flaming arrow! And then watching Spain win Gold in football). I'm constantly amazed when I watch the gymnasts -how do they do that?!?!?!-, thrilled with the divers, mesmerized by the synchronised swimming, excited by the team sports, my adrenaline starts pumping with the speed of the swimming and running and I'm simply moved in each medal ceremony I watch (no matter whose anthem is playing). I love having the chance to see sports that are never given any air time. And I particularly enjoy them when I'm living in a time zone that allows me to enjoy as much of the events as possible! This year it's more special because thanks to a wonderful blogger I'm able to see some of the goings-on backstage, through the eyes of one of the volunteers! ;o)
The Olympic Fever is a widespread phenomenon I think... Some of the kids who live in my complex have been playing at "synchronised swimming" in the pool! Not too bad either!
And when I went with a couple kids to a nearby theme park (Juliette you'd love this place, the "theme" is Ancient Mediterranean cultures!), we had lots of fun "playing" Olympic medallists! ;o)
Then there was the joy and excitement of watching the Opening Ceremony last night. I was watching it alone, and was so excited I simply HAD to comment it... even if it were sending out statements into the Facebook ether... Here was my take on the ceremony as it happened:
- Waiting for the Opening Ceremony to start... love that the Olympics are here again! :o)
- cool! Kenneth Branagh and Shakespeare, how appropriate! :o)
- Awesome costumes! And WOAH those smokestacks!!! Wonder what the molten metal is becoming? Olympic rings? ;o)
- COOL!!! Love those fire-raining Rings!!! :o)
- James Bond!!! Do we get the Queen???
- We get her corgies at least...
- WOAH!!!! THE QUEEN!!!
- Did they just have the Queen of England jump out of a chopper?!?!?!
- well, her doppleganger at least. Fun idea! ;o)
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| Voldemort! |
- Storybooks... so many wonderful stories!
- Am loving the NHS segment! Swing dancing around the hospital beds? While the kids get to JUMP on the beds?! FUN!!!
- And JK Rowling reading them Peter Pan?! :o)
- and children's nightmares? the bad guys from children's stories! Including Voldemort!!! :D
- Mary Poppins to the rescue! Is Julie Andrews among them I wonder?
- Oooh! A CINEMA homage! Starting with Chariots of Fire of course... but did Mr Bean have to be there? (ugh!)
- (ok, I guess he's a bit funny... but he'd be funnier if he had another name...)
- those dance costumes are crrrrrrrazy!!! (but the music's awesome!)
- Beckham sure looks happy to be driving that motorboat with the Torch! :o)
- Very moving song... (ed: Abide With Me)
- FINALLY the Athletes! :o)
- that's A LOT of really important people in the VIP section... :p
- LOVE the outfits from many of these countries! (mostly the African nations)
- rubber boots! The Croatians sure have a sense of humour! :p
- I think those metal thingies the girls accompanying the flag bearers are carrying are going to be somehow assembled into the cauldron for the Olympic flame...
- Cyprus: Baghdatis, Russia: Sharapova, Serbia: Djokovic, Switzerland: Federer... I miss Rafa! *sniff*
- woops! They switched Federer for Wawrinka! :p
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| Pau Gasol leading the Spanish Athletes |
- ESPAAAAAAAAÑA!!! :o)
- so the US has sent more women than men athletes? Cool! :o)
- Michelle Obama's looking good up there!
- so all the athletes are in... time to wrap it up? sleepy... zzzzzz
- cycling doves? interesting.
- "Reject doping" Excellent words by Jacques Rogue.
- The Games get declared open before the Flag goes up or the Flame comes in?
- Impressive Flag bearers! PEACE! :o)
- that hill with all the flags looks gorgeous!
- I didn't know the judges and trainers swore an Olympic oath as well as the athletes! Seems fair. Fair play and Olympic Spirit for all. ;o)
- VERY impressive final lighting of the torch! PRETTY! :o)
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| FIRE! |
- 2 a.m., time for bed! zzzzzzzz
Did you watch the Opening Ceremony? What did you think?
I heard that in the U.S. it wasn't live, had lots of commercials and had bits edited out... Pity. Here in Spain we had it live (but we're closer so the whole time zone thing helps), with no advertisements, and very few commentaries (just enough to introduce each section and explain some of the symbolism, plus the usual comments of the athletes when they come in). All told about 4h. Was at times funny, moving, interesting... and very British! I liked it! I thought it was quite beautiful. I particularly enjoyed the NHS segment (the children in hospital beds with the nurses and the stories coming to life). And 007 with the Queen! I was also astonished by the speed with which they transformed the bucolic countryside into the stage for the industrial revolution! And the final lighting of the torch? Simply beautiful! :o)
I loved the stuff with the Queen, nice to see her showing her sense of humour a bit!
ReplyDeleteI love the Olympics too. The British ones are partly responsible for me having so much trouble getting work, which dulls the edge a bit, but I do love them - looking forward to seeing the table tennis tomorrow :)
How are they responsible for the work issue? Doesn't sound good!
DeleteFrom what I've seen of the table tennis on TV it's really fast and crazy! Should be exciting to see live, lucky you! HAVE FUN!
Arts funding has been gradually getting smaller and smaller for years - made worse by the recession but starting when we got the Olympics. Though my brother is being employed to sing opera for the Cultural Olympiad, so it's not all bad!
DeleteYes Cris you sound as mad as I am about the OLympics. Once that TV is switched on I can't move away from it. The opening ceremony was awesome in the true sense of the word. Listening to the children sing at the beginning made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. It wasn't until yesterday that I found out that I actually knew the boy soloist singing 'Jerusalem'. He was from the school i taught in a few years ago. The choir was made up of kids from 2 local schools which have very good choirs. I remembered the boy who was only 5 when I was there, as he only has one arm. It was unusual as also in the same class there was another boy who also only had one arm. His voive rang out so crystal clear in the stadium it was just beautiful.
ReplyDeleteHow amazing you knew the soloist! He did have a heavenly voice!
DeleteFunny, my cousin (in Virginia) just realised while watching the opening ceremony that one of the US athletes had been a student of her husband's in high school!
And yes, I am MAD about the Olympics! For the next two weeks that's about all that will be on the TV, even if it's just as background noise while I do chores! I'm lucky to have 3 different channels showing events (plus two more online ones), so I have a pretty decent choice of stuff to watch! :o)
We have been watching the Olympics non-stop in our household. Unfortunately, because of work, I end up having to watch it in time delay because it isn't live - thanks to the time zone thing, but J has the ability to stream it live at work. Lucky!
ReplyDeleteI loved the opening ceremony as well. I have to say the Queen and Bond and Mr. Bean were my favorite parts.
I've been watching waaay more than is good for me! Today I actually saw 7h (!!!) of tennis! But then who am I to resist an excellent Federer match (he's in the Final, YAY!)? And how could I not cheer on Spain's final tennis players in the doubles match against historic enemy France (snif! we lost! and on top of that have to play the other French duo for the Bronze!)
DeleteAnd of course when that ended the swimming finals were on... Go Phelps!!! And WOAH!!! Did you see that little 15 year-old in the women's 800m freestyle?! I was mostly watching the Spaniard (Silver, yay!), but the American was AMAZING!
Fortunately next week no more tennis or gymnastics or swimming (except synchro, yay!) so I should be able to stay away more... in theory. ;o)
"Here There and Everywhere" has been included in the Sites To See for this week. I hope this helps to attract many new visitors in your direction.
ReplyDeletehttp://asthecrackerheadcrumbles.blogspot.com/2012/08/sites-to-see.html
Cool! Thanks for that, I always look forward to new visitors! :o)
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