Olympics

andy

<font face="Arial, Verdana" size="2">Two days of sun and I'm suddenly ready for the Olympics. </font><div style="font-family: Arial, Verdana; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; ">I even got a little bit excited by seeing the Belgian Hockey Team arriving on the Eurostar.</div><div style="font-family: Arial, Verdana; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><br></div><div><img src="http://a3.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/c0.0.403.403/p403x403/552370_10150911015587261_1105369766_n.jpg"></div><div><br></div><div>And I had to hunt down the track in the jessica ennis advert that's been on every ten minutes.</div><div><br></div><div>

miss annie

I got a bit excited about it, then had to spend most of today sitting on a disrupted, broken down London Overground listening to announcements declaring no service between Canonbury and Stratford and no Central Line between White City and Stratford. There were American and Australian visitors on the trains, horrified about the horrendous service and the extortionate ticket prices and I felt mortally embarrassed. There is no way our transport system will hold up for the Voldesports (event that cannot be named).

Fin

I'm with you Andy, VERY excited!<br><br>There are lots of Dutch volunteers from their Olympic House at Ally Pally in the area. Think they must be staying at the B&Bs on Seven Sisters Road, load of them in The Twelve Pins on Saturday night.<br>

Arkady

I don’t care about sports or athletics of any kind (save, at a push, for Women’s tennis) but even I am faintly enthused. I passed through Stratford at the weekend, including Westfields, and there were loads of athletes and there teams about. It was all rather jolly. The Olympic Park itself is stunning, and will be a brilliant asset post-Olympics. Sadly, those of us without tickets won’t get to enter the park until this time next year!

yagamuffin

Will there really be no entry to the park until next year?<div>I have an auntie coming over from Canada at the end of August and I was hoping to be able to go for a wander around there.</div><div><br></div>

Arkady

I'm told no.  It will take ages to remove all the temporary structures.<br>

yagamuffin

Boo and hiss. These LOCOG Nazis really are quite annoying.

Arkady

Are any local pubs showing the opening ceremony?<br>

vetski

@Arkady, I think the Old Dairy is - sure I saw something on Twitter. 

helen

I think you can buy day pass tickets into the olympic park for during the paralympics. even if not showing any now the trick is to keep trying every couple of days and you should be able to get in for a wander about and to see stuff on the big screens<br>

Arkady

Did they ever release any?  As I understood it they said they might, but then never did.<br>

Beek

Tickets are being released every day... This morning there were £20 tickets for the Opening Ceremony...<div><br></div><div>You need to make a login and password here to view what's available...<div><br></div><div><a href="http://www.tickets.london2012.com/">http://www.tickets.london2012.com</a></div></div>;

Arkady

But are they releasing day tickets, as opposed to event tickets?<br>

Beek

When you buy a ticket for an event, you get access to that site for the entire day (called a day pass). Not seen any day passes for sale...<div><br></div>

Arkady

As I thought.<br>

emine

I've been excited for seven years! Going to see the torch later I hope. Wish they were coming through Stroud Green. 

yagamuffin

I found the site with the tickets on yesterday but can't remember where!<div>Olympic Park tickets are available for £10 that allow you in to the park but not any venues. Access to the Orbit is another £15 (and you MUST have a park ticket).</div><div>They only seem to release these for up to a week in advance however and they aren't available on days when athletics is happening.</div>

Arkady

If you find that site again please let me know!<br>

Mirandola

<P>I don't get the opening ceremony It's the only pointless bit of the whole thing. All the rest of the Olympics gives you the chance to watch people who are spectacularly good at doing [x] and have spent years training to do [x] better and know that all that work has to deliver perfectly at exactly the right moment or no-one will remember their name. If you're really lucky you could see something that should be impossible like Lezak' s closing leg in the 4*100 freestyle in Beijing. </P> <P>And instead people get excited over some godawful pageant with less inbuilt drama than a primary school production of Bugsy Malone and with all the allegorical ponderousness of the School of Athens with Danny Boyle standing in for Raphael. </P> <P>Tsk. </P>

miss annie

I'm very fond of the School of Athens, mostly for the portraits of Raphael's contemporaries. I particularly like Michelangelo, gives one a sense of how large and physically strong he was.

vetski

Discovered the other day that one of my friends will be in the opening ceremony - she's kept it very quiet. She says she's going to be a tree...can't decide if she's kidding or not!

ADGS

Tomorrow it will take me longer and cost me twice as much to get to work, because my bus route will be blocked by people re-enacting a ritual invented by the Nazis. I've been against the Olympics since the bid was first mentioned, so it amazes me that I'm still daily finding new depths to the horror. Even friends who are in the opening ceremony have been messed around so much they're now having second thoughts about the whole ghastly business. Even the allegedly central bit about astonishing achievements (which has in reality long been downgraded to a fig-leaf for the institutional profiteering) is rendered pointless by them being such authenticity bores about drugs &c. I might be interested in seeing the proving ground for the superhuman, but this is too dull to be that - while still encouraging hopelessly limited people to devote their whole lives to one repetitive task, thus messing them up as surely as any chemical cocktail, especially when they lose.  

Mirandola

@Miss Annie, Alrite. Resurrect Raphael and I promise to get excited about the opening ceremony.

harpistic

Quite a few of my friends are involved in the opening ceremony, it's all very hush-hush of course but they all keep saying it's going to be amazing - I've also heard the same from several people who were at the rehearsal this evening. <br><br>At any rate, finding somewhere to watch it will beat fighting the crowds after work on Friday! <br>

checkski

@ADGS.   Hear hear. How refreshing to hear such an uncompromising account of the whole ghastly business. ADGS and David Starkey are my heroes of the week. [DS is a nasty piece of work, so I am unlikely to agree with him again, decent liberal that I am!]. You fans and followers of the Olympics of should think twice before getting drawn into to such a sinister, fascistic enterprise.

Brodiej

<P>Watching sporting activities really is a nasty business isn't it. Good grief, some people really are quite miserable. If we question our purpose in life, then regretably most of us go to work to make money for other people. At the very least, an olympic athlete works towards being the best they can be. I know who has a better purpose, and who will feel fulfilled in life when they achieve or perhaps who will feel better if they don't.</P> <P>Bring on the games, its going to be brilliant! And for all the people that aren't fans, it'll be over soon and you'll never have to put up with it again. </P>

yagamuffin

@Arkady Found 'em!  <a href="http://www.tickets.london2012.com/browse?form=search&tab=oly&sport=8269&event=919&venue=&fromDate=&toDate=&morning=1&afternoon=1&evening=1&show_available_events=1">http://www.tickets.london2012.com/browse?form=search&tab=oly&sport=8269&event=919&venue=&fromDate=&toDate=&morning=1&afternoon=1&evening=1&show_available_events=1</a><div>Only seem to be £15 evening tickets for Saturday and Sunday at the moment, I'm sure more will be released soon though </div><div><br></div>

Arkady

Thanks for the link, but those are tickets to the Orbit which require a separate park pass, of which none are on sale.<br>

yagamuffin

There were park passes available the other day. I *think* they are only releasing them a few days in advance which probably means they are currently sold out. I'm just going to keep checking to see when more are available.<div><br></div>

Ali

It is great cycling in the center hardly any traffic except for taxis and buses.  There is new cycle bus lane at St Martins in the fields  as you enter into Trafalger Square.  It is so much safer so I hope they keep it. £130 fines are making Taxi drivers behave themsleves for a change !  White hall is the same hardly any traffic, it just feels wierd but fantastic at the same time !

andy

@checksi Fitzgerald wrote that "t<span style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; line-height: 16px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">he test of a first-rate</span><span style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; line-height: 16px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "> intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function".</span><div><br></div>