2012 London Olympics. Day Fourteen
Friday 10th August 2012
Evening
people.
It is the evening of Sunday 12th August 2012, I'm watching the closing ceremony with Anna and I'm still buzzing my tits off.
Apologies for falling behind with this but as I wrote yesterday, we are coming to the end of the manic 72 hours for us both.
When I woke yesterday I put the TV on ad I saw the Dutch bloke on the High Bar, only then did I understand why there were so many happy Dutch people around last night. Just how good was that performance? Bloody hell fire.
Did I see that? Did I imagine that? BMX at the Olympics? REALLY? BMX at the Olympics... Did I miss a meeting? What next, "Skateboarding"? "Hanging out on street corners"? "Wearing a hoodie"? "I'm 14 years old and I want to be sulky bastard..."? That would inspire a generation of our lost youth...
Anyway, today was always going to be another free day unless we got tickets for any other events, but after THAT Saturday I've had more chance of flying to The Moon than getting any other tickets. There were many things that I had lined up for our days off. Today Anna choose "Royal River" at The Maritime Museum in Greenwich. So off to Greenwich we went via Tower Hill and the Danes who are STILL asking people to come and join them. I'm STILL floored. It continues to bring shame on English professional footballers and the game in general. Remember a few posts back when I mentioned taking your daughter to the Olympics is like taking a puppy to the park? Nice one Anna.
So, the Royal River. I only mentioned it so that Anna could say that she had seen that Canaletto painting. 90 minutes later. Really. Just how long does it take to look a painting? Really... we were in there for 90 MINUTES! 90 MINUTES... STUNNING! It suddenly struck me that, that painting would have been the HD 3D TV of its day.
On the way home, while we were on the DLR going through the Isle of Dogs we struck up conversation with one of The Volunteers. He was working at Greenwich for the whole six weeks or so. We had such a great yak to each other. We both said how much of a success it had all been. Traffic? What traffic? Problems? What problems? While chatting we both said at the same time "What did you do during The Olympics"... and we both agreed that this, this is our moment, this was/is OUR generations chance to shine. We weren't around 70 years ago. We didn't beat the Nazi's.
It is the evening of Sunday 12th August 2012, I'm watching the closing ceremony with Anna and I'm still buzzing my tits off.
Apologies for falling behind with this but as I wrote yesterday, we are coming to the end of the manic 72 hours for us both.
When I woke yesterday I put the TV on ad I saw the Dutch bloke on the High Bar, only then did I understand why there were so many happy Dutch people around last night. Just how good was that performance? Bloody hell fire.
Did I see that? Did I imagine that? BMX at the Olympics? REALLY? BMX at the Olympics... Did I miss a meeting? What next, "Skateboarding"? "Hanging out on street corners"? "Wearing a hoodie"? "I'm 14 years old and I want to be sulky bastard..."? That would inspire a generation of our lost youth...
Anyway, today was always going to be another free day unless we got tickets for any other events, but after THAT Saturday I've had more chance of flying to The Moon than getting any other tickets. There were many things that I had lined up for our days off. Today Anna choose "Royal River" at The Maritime Museum in Greenwich. So off to Greenwich we went via Tower Hill and the Danes who are STILL asking people to come and join them. I'm STILL floored. It continues to bring shame on English professional footballers and the game in general. Remember a few posts back when I mentioned taking your daughter to the Olympics is like taking a puppy to the park? Nice one Anna.
So, the Royal River. I only mentioned it so that Anna could say that she had seen that Canaletto painting. 90 minutes later. Really. Just how long does it take to look a painting? Really... we were in there for 90 MINUTES! 90 MINUTES... STUNNING! It suddenly struck me that, that painting would have been the HD 3D TV of its day.
On the way home, while we were on the DLR going through the Isle of Dogs we struck up conversation with one of The Volunteers. He was working at Greenwich for the whole six weeks or so. We had such a great yak to each other. We both said how much of a success it had all been. Traffic? What traffic? Problems? What problems? While chatting we both said at the same time "What did you do during The Olympics"... and we both agreed that this, this is our moment, this was/is OUR generations chance to shine. We weren't around 70 years ago. We didn't beat the Nazi's.
We didn't fight in some huge romantic over glorified conflict, but this, THIS, was our moment. Black, Brown, White, Young and Older, all of those generations that had grown up after WWII, this was our moment. It was our time. WE were there and we were part of it. Before we got off the DLR that Volunteer (name known but spelling not) gave Anna a very limited edition badge from the German Equestrian Team. It was such a simple and yet powerful gesture.
We decided that we should do at least one of the Wenlock walks before going home, so we did. We bumped into a woman who was doing the same as me and Anna. Not just the walks but the Olympics. She was with her son. Sometime later we bumped into them again. This time we spent about 30 to 40 minutes chatting as our kids ran around telling anyone passing about the Olympics and the Wenlock Walks. She said, that she was so impressed with the attitude of the Olympics and the people taking part that she was already thinking of doing Rio in 2016... Up runs Anna, were going ain't we Dad...
Eventually back at Tottenham Hale and waiting for our/the last train home some of the staff that had left The Olympic Park filled up the station and joined us in our wait for the last train. In the middle of this was a group of about four maybe five from the badge traders, one of their group took one look at Anna and her bag (which is covered in badges) and gave her two even more limited edition Wenlock badges on their backing cards. Anna looked them in the eye and said thank you and I was left even more floored. She could have kept those badges. She could have put them on eBay (isn't that the done thing nowadays... money... money... money... come back Mrs Thatcher all is forgiven... go sniff yourselves...) but no. She choose to give them to my daughter. I was there. I saw that person’s reaction when that person saw Anna's bag, it was an act of instinct... It is that simple.
God. There is so much more to tell. I don't really know where to start or where I would even begin to draw it all to an end.
Before I go. I'm going to try to catch up with this tomorrow and apologies for cock up yesterday but my laptop crashed.
Noggin xx
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