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Blog: We Went To The Olympics!

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We went to the OLYMPICS on Saturday and it was GRATE!

What, you need more detail? Well, it was basically like St Pancras Station i.e. something very British yet ACTUALLY GOOD, with everything done REALLY NICELY and ACE. Getting in was extraordinarily simple, EVERYONE was HUGELY FRIENDLY, there was almost no advertising AT ALL and everything was LOVELY. We had a wander round marvelling at the MEADOWS full of flowers everywhere, then went into the HOCKEY which was FANTASTIC. It felt a bit weird to be at a sporting event and NOT be singing Slightly Rude/Naughty Songs, but I soon got used to it and was thus SHOCKED when we heard one of the players using some Non-Olympian Language.

The whole afternoon was just GORGEOUS tho - right at the end, as we left the ENORMOUS (it's HUGE!) Olympic Park we saw a young lad on security. I'm used to seeing similar young lads on security at big events looking BORED and slightly AGGRESSIVE, engaging with people only to SCOWL, but here he had a giant pink HAND that he was WAVING at everyone with a HUGE GRIN, occasionally using a megaphone to say "BYE!" and "THANK YOU!" It was WONDERFUL!

We'd WALKED to the arena and thus hadn't used the Zones 1-9 Travelcards that had come with our tickets, so I asked one of the other MANY Nice Young People who were Games Maker Volunteers if we could use them on our Javelin. MAN, I already MISS being somewhere FULL of Cheerful Volunteers who are happy to help with ANYTHING. She said we COULD so The Trains On My Track and I went to Stratford International and caught a JAVELIN to St Pancras... then crossed the platform and came straight back again. It took 15 minutes and was MAGIC!!

Our Olympic Trip ended with us stood in Tap East (where ever-hopeful bar staff were trying to persuade people of all nations that they might like MILD) both watching Mo Farrah win the 5,000 metres, surrounding by a crowd which grew bigger and LOUDER the closer he got to the end. WE SHOUTED! A LOT!

Sunday found me on Birdcage Walk with Mr P Myland, watching THE MARATHON. Mileage had some running friends with him too, one of who was following the rest of the race on his phone, so we became an INFORMATION POINT for various people, including a couple from Kenya and Belgium and, most exotic of all, some POSH PEOPLE! WHO SPOKE TO US!!

I had to dash off at the end, so found myself walking through a Parliament Square RAMMED with THOUSANDS of happy, smiling British people, enjoying the Summer Sunshine and cheering on athletes they'd never heard of. It was GLORIOUS.

I even did some SPORT later, as we met with various FAMILY for some ROWING in Leytonstone. We then went to see the film "Ted", which was a bit odd. It was the first thing I'd watched in weeks that WASN'T an incredibly moving evocation of the human spirit. It was just sort of all right.

And then we watched the closing ceremony which was... well, exactly what everyone expected the Opening Ceremony to be. Like "Ted" it would probably have been better if it wasn't being compared to the AMAZING fortnight of wonderful, exciting, BEAUTIFUL events, stories and people that we'd just enjoyed.

And now we've got a fortnight to a) recover b) get in some extra HANKIES, for LO! PARALYMPICS next!!

posted 13/8/2012 by MJ Hibbett

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