Be Excellent To Each Other

hmm

This started poorly, but is getting better and better . Eric Idle was epic.

We're just on wonderwall. Anyone who has played rock band with me will wrest to thevfact that I can't sing. But I would have (and am) doing a far better jib than that.

Your jib is epic.

Is Brian may in the same club as Craster?

Aha! Cheers Mimi, was wondering what the badger and the fox thing was all about.

I realise that the URL makes it look like it could be for a support group for those affected by the closing ceremony.

I honestly thought the Olympics was going to be a bit crap and a letdown, but it was brilliant in every possible way

Too long. Need sleep

Loved every second of them Olympics. Brilliant. Now I REALLY need to find a job. Jeremy Kyle is probably back on tomorrow.

Tasty Afro girl from the "lost my phone" scandal in the opening ceremony was an angle in this.

Also: Everythings in both ceremonies was a bit... out of the blue. Fatboy Slim in a Giant octopus? Why not!

Well, after 16 days and nights of absolute brilliance, I can forgive them a three hour misfire.

*doffs hat to Seb Coe and the team*

Had a blast watching the closing ceremony. Was funny to see what things a big crowd enjoyed. In order of cheers/singing:

5 - Wonderwall
4 - The Spice Girls
3 - The National Anthem
2 - Boris Johnson dancing to the Spice Girls
1 - Always Look on the Bright Side of Life

Was she a bit obtuse?

That's an acute observation.

Something something something something reflex.

Right.

Good Tri

That was pretty curt.

Feel like I've been put through the grinder.

What a great 16 days.....

I think surpassed all expectations with the games.

After two weeks of travel delight, everyone clearly went back to work today. Add to that the fact that the DLR seem to think that it's still a good idea to run services only as far as Greenwich (because clearly that's a major destination today...), and my morning's commute was utter shit.

Right, the Olympics are over, can the UK go back to being miserable please (at least until the Paralympics start)...I really don't want to arrive back and feel like I've arrived in a foreign country...all the news reports over here have been about how happy, helpful and smiley everyone is in Britain...and it's just so damn wrong.

Now pull yourselves together and stiffen that upper lip, we'll have no more of all that blubbing either, bloody people are behaving like god damned continentals.

It was alright. Watched a few events. Missed the closing ceremony (will the paralympics get their own ceremonies then?)

Yes, it was great to see British folk doing well but I still think the money would have been better going on something else though.

Something that I like more.

I have a feeling that they are keeping that going right up until the day after the Paralympics, which is sub-optimal. First time in weeks that I haven't managed to get a seat in my preferred space.

Could have been worse. Britain could have won the World Cup bid.

The IOC might be tossers but at least they're not actively cackling-supervillain-grade evil like FIFA. And showcasing fringe sports, competition for the sake of competition and excellence for the sake of excellence >>>>>>>> showcasing a sport that really doesn't need another showcase.

It's ridiculous. Even during the games the traffic levels didn't justify making that change (as made obvious by the fact that every Lewisham train was rammed and every Greenwich train was empty). To keep it that way now is just idiotic.

The short running mainly wasn't for the benefit of Greenwich, but to increase the frequency of Stratford trains while still managing to service most of the South of the river, but I generally agree. I also think (looking at the number of people here who don't have time booked off over the paralympics, but did during the whole of the Olympics as a guide) that it could be carnage in 3 weeks time.

Forgot to mention, but people that drove to Wembley were sneering at us transport-users as they got into their cars and drove away in minutes.

There were nine of them

I agree.
I do have to begrudgingly admit that, all things considered (and as half-disinterestedly viewed from afar, can't speak for London travel/commute hassles etc.), it was pretty uplifting and surprisingly non-shit. Above all, it was fantastic - even to my cynical, jaded eyes - to see British athletes doing so well on the world stage. I mean shit, at least we're still good at some stuff, right? (Even if a fair chunk of this is posh-nobs pursuits such as dicking about with horses dressed to the nines).

I still maintain however that kind of money could've been vastly better utilised, for the genuine, lasting benefit of far more people, if we'd spent it on non-glamorous, boring but *useful* stuff, such as building houses and infrastructure (note: not BS stuff like the high speed rail link though, obv.), and investing much more in our schools. But hey.

The Olympics did deliver though; there's no doubt about that. It could've been a disaster but was a triumph. Well done Team GB.

The political and social reverberations will ring down the next few years at least; perhaps we can collectively garner some new-found confidence and non-baseless optimism of the 'Yes We Can' mentality, and rebuild our country post-banking Armageddon? Avoid the breakup and Balkanisation of the Union? Genuinely increase our standing in the world such that people start to like us, come to visit us in markedly increased numbers, and do business with us again? (Assuming we have stuff to sell). If those things are true, £10 billion seems like a bloody good deal. We shall see; I'll happily eat my words should the need arise.

I'd rather have had another Festival of Britain.

There's also an ART showcase that no one goes to. ART was actually a sport during the 1908 olympics (or 1912, or 1902? dunno, check wikipedia. It was a swedish one. Or was it German? Dunno, check wikipedia.).

Cool story, bro.

I loved the 16 days (closing ceremony apart) which showcased all that Britain can do. A Somali refugee, a girl of mixed race and a lanky long jumper winning medals in a single hour - I just wanted to go down to the Daily Heil offices to see it explode with indignation as what actually Britain is (as opposed to what the papers think it is) peeped through for a while.

I noticed retweeted Guido Fawkes, which I thought would only happen when hell froze over. Basically, the argument was that each medal cost £185m (£12bn / 65 medals). Which is quite expensive. Although if we follow that logic, it does mean we got an entire Olympic Park, transport system and infrastructure for free, which is an absolute bargain if you ask me. But when did Paul Staines ever deal in reality and facts? (And of course, being an ex-bankrupt, numbers never were his strong point.)

I applied the same (twisted) logic to the Olympics that I do to the Royal Family. I'd rather we didn't have to spend money on them, but the reality is that we do, so we might as well make a good job of it. The feedback from outside the UK is not that it was a success, but it was a massive success. Hopefully that can be built on.

Down at the Paralympics in a fortnight, too. £15 for the wheelchair basketball and £10 for an ExCel day pass (any event). And they threw in Travelcards and the hotel was £80 for two nights. Utter bargain.

I just got in from work.

What the fuck am I supposed to watch on telly tonight?

I saw an advert today, I was thrown for a moment or two, and then I realised I had only watched bbc channels for the past 16 days!

Malc

That £185m/medal assumes that the medals were the desired outcome though. Say 200MM people outside the UK watched the games in person or on telly and were impressed by how well it was run (which they should have been, to be fair). Now that's £6 per impressed prospective tourist/investor. A bit different, eh?

It's almost like you can make numbers say whatever you like.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-19241028

Also, Victoria Pendleton is so fit it's ridiculous.

I her sooooo much. I her more than chocolate and sweets.

Lovely Pendleton. Lovely Ennis. Lovely other fit British Olympians.

Ennis is so much fun in that video!

Also: I so would take a kick to the head from Jade Jones.

She's all jumpy and lovely.

Can anyone name all the people in that video? I can't place all of them, just the obvious ones like Pendleton, Ennis, Hoy, and the wotsit brothers.

Jumpy and lovely, you say?

http://www.buzzfeed.com/samir/11-gifs-o ... eke-dancin

Certainly makes a change from Bolt's celebration.

Miss Armistead is coming to Otley tonight.

<Irons red shirt>