As you all know I loathe the sponsors, the money men, the greed of the corporates involved in the Games, have made my feelings clear and wish the Games could proceed without any of these greedy money makers hanging on their coat tails, but it seems this is not possible.
So the Games are now here and no point in moaning any more and last night I decided, after exhortation from friends, to embrace it all and really no point in doing otherwise. As I had to get up in the middle of the night to go to Heathrow to collect Kathryn, not much point in going to bed, so watched the Opening Ceremony from beginning to end. I simply loved it. I was prepared not to, heard all sorts of rumours about its content etc and was beginning to wonder if it would be a disaster but we did it, we bloody did it, produced a simply stunning, off the wall, crazy and funny opening. It had moving moments of splendour which took your breath away and I thought it was quite wonderful.
I simply screamed with delighted disbelief when I saw Daniel Craig aka James Bond marching purposefully through Buckingham Palace to meet the Queen and there she was. Thought it would be a look alike or Dame Judi, but no it was Her Maj turning round, looking him up and down and saying 'Good Evening Mr Bond'. Twitter went ballistic with Tweets yelling with joy and quite a few along the lines of 'You rock Your Maj' and many many saying 'F*****g marvellous. Long live the Queen'. A total riot and how simply marvellous of her to do it.
THIS CLIP HAS NOW BEEN TAKEN DOWN FROM YOU TUBE AS THE OLYMPIC COMMITTEE ARE INVESTIGATING COPYRIGHT ISSUES.... shame
And then Mr Bean and a spoof of the wonderful Chariots of Fire sequence. What I loved about these two little gems in the middle of the spectacle was that it was so British. Like those choristers belting out Land of Hope and Glory on the top of a boat in the Jubilee Pageant, in the pouring rain, soaked to the skin with water dripping off their noses - only the Brits have that bloody minded attitude. We have all moaned and winged and complained and yet, against all the odds, last night was a triumph.
A Tory MP was mouthing off about it being left wing crap and he duly Tweeted about it and found himself in deep doo doo. I think MPs of all parties should be banned from using Twitter as they seem to think that anything they say on there is nothing to do with their job and nobody will notice. The tone of his Tweets were hardly surprising as this was a man who recently was demoted to the back benches for attending a party where all the guests were dressed up as Nazis and giving salutes all over the place. Not exactly a bleeding heart liberal then - just a rather stupid stupid stupid man who has been on the radio and TV today saying his Tweet had been 'misinterpreted'. Tosser.
The words eccentric and quirky have been used to describe Danny Boyle's vision. I prefer to say barking mad and lunatic at times but it WORKED and this morning Boris was on TV saying we knocked Beijing into a cocked hat. For once I agree with him.
Right I admit it - I am now into full Olympic mode - all the moaning is on hold - I am just going to enjoy the experience.
AND best of all, Kathryn is home. Currently asleep on my bed and I keep peeking in to look at her. Let Joy be unconfined!
