Olympics

miss annie

<p>I'm not a sporty type and had viewed the Voldesports as humbuggery, a colossal waste of time and money... until I went to Ally Pally last night and watched the torch arrive, the cauldron being lit and then the flame being captured in the lantern. It was fantastic to feel the atmosphere, huge amounts of people are really excited and now so am I. </p><p>It's here, we can't change it so we might as well just join in and enjoy the fact that the world is looking at our glorious, beautiful city and wishing that they were here. If you don't like the sport there is some other brilliant free stuff going on all over the city as part of the summer celebrations. I'm especially looking forward to having a bounce on the life size inflatable Stonehenge when it comes to Ally Pally next week. If nothing else go and have a look at the big, red bus doing press ups outside the Design Centre - I defy you not to smile!  <a href="http://www.ianvisits.co.uk/blog/2012/07/24/a-double-decker-bus-doing-push-ups-in-islington/">http://www.ianvisits.co.uk/blog/2012/07/24/a-double-decker-bus-doing-push-ups-in-islington/</a></p>;

Idoru

miss annie: that bouncy Stonehenge looks like *so* much fun! <br><br>andy: two? That's nothing! I usually have three or four. <br>

vetski

The bouncy Stonehenge is already at Ally Pally - it arrived last week and is there until (I think) 10th August. The warning signs - no high heels etc. - also include 'No human sacrifice'. Spoilsports. Not sure if it's banned for legal or health & safety reasons. If they change their minds, I have ready a list of people who need sacrificing.<div><br></div><div>The bus doing push-ups is brilliant!</div>

Ilovegreyhounds

I didn't go on it but we had the bouncy stone henge yesterday for our torch relay celebrations in NW London. It was amazing!

vetski

OK, maybe it didn't go to AP last week...but tweeters said it had! *must be less reliant on Twitter...*

Ilovegreyhounds

Yup, it was in Wembley

miss annie

<p>Here we are...</p><p><a href="http://sacrilege2012.co.uk/">http://sacrilege2012.co.uk/</a></p>;

checkski

<P>@andy.  You mean there are always two sides to every question? Gosh. I'm gobsmacked. I never thought of that. How original. Our host plainly has a first class brain himself.</P> <P>Or thinks he has.</P>

andy

@checkski You are always reliable in never missing an opportunity for a pernickty finger-wagging lecture about the utterly obvious. If nothing else, it suggests a certain discipline and firmness of character. 

miss annie

Today I went to Stratford. I saw people from many countries milling around in their team shirts, including a couple from the Cook Islands spectactularly begarlanded with flowers. I have never seen so many smiling, happy folk in one place before! I had a look at the Olympic Village and the stadium, Westfield is a great spot for viewing everything and has the emptiest, calmest John Lewis ever, I love it.

andy

Did you go on the Javelin? If you have tickets, your railcard is apparently eligible on it.<div><br></div><div>Another tip, the paralympics tickets come with 1-6 railcards worth £15. So if you need one of them, there were still quite a few £10 tickets left.</div>

vetski

Javelin's cool, I went on it for the thing we (the WI) did with the Beeb about Olympic transport. 'Begarlanded' is definitely a word that should be more widely used!

ADGS

Brodiej - "<span style="font-family: 'lucida grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', tahoma, sans-serif; line-height: 20px; text-align: left; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">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."</span><div><span style="font-family: 'lucida grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', tahoma, sans-serif; line-height: 20px; text-align: left; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">No, just with the consequences. Remind me, which was the last European country to host the damn thing? Greece, wasn't it? Where they've still got all the white elephant buildings, deserted but for feral dogs, which did their bit to completely tank the economy.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: 'lucida grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', tahoma, sans-serif; line-height: 20px; text-align: left; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><br></span></div><div><span style="font-family: 'lucida grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', tahoma, sans-serif; line-height: 20px; text-align: left; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">That said, I will be checking out the bouncy Stonehenge, and I like the press-up bus on Upper Street. But, I'm not giving Seb Coe's Sport's Day TM any props for them - we've had similar, and indeed better, urban art weirdness before (remember the Sultan's Elephant?) without having to waste billions on sporting tedium into the bargain.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: 'lucida grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', tahoma, sans-serif; line-height: 20px; text-align: left; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><br></span></div><div><span style="font-family: 'lucida grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', tahoma, sans-serif; line-height: 20px; text-align: left; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">Oh, and I saw my first Olympians last night - the Dutch sailing team. They came across like the sort of 'Yah! Crazy!' people who put one off European youth hostels. </span></div>

checkski

<P>@andy. My last statement of the utterly obvious was that you think you have a first class brain. Haha. For it's obvious that you do. Linguistically, you are a peacock. The gaudiness and vulgarity of your prose is about absolutely nothing.</P> <P>OK, so we have established that we don't like each other. With more relevance to this site, I  do indeed state the obvious. I feel I have to , because hardly anybody  else does. This thread is typical. In a stream of over-excited drivel, only one other person criticises the role and purpose of the Olympics. The shallowness and hedonism of most sg.orgers makes me sick, as ever. </P> <P>I should bugger off,shouldn't I? If there were a better local forum, I would. But SG.org is all there is, so, until you remove me, I feel I have no choice but to remain and shout the utterly obvious. Well, someone's got to. </P>

Brodiej

<P>@checkski. Your level of maturity is not disimilar to that of a toddler. This is a forum, do not expect everyone to agree with you, and given how you make your points....don't always expect people to be warm and cuddly. A few simple retorts about some olympic comments and you're suggesting that its time for you to leave the forum? I think you're a bit better than that.  </P> <P>@ADGS. I respect that you're not a fan, and won't try and make you otherwise. I don't think we're going to end up like Greece though are we. The park gets decomissioned, we get a green space and few permanent sports arenas that are good for national sports. It has cost a fortune, and in retrospect maybe its the worst time ever to be hosting it, but now its here im excited and for change i feel very very proud of my country.</P>

Mirandola

Re history, isn't it beautiful that Jesse Owens' four golds are what survived of the 1936 Olympics? And Tommie Smith/John Carlos/Peter Norman of the 1968 one?

checkski

<P>@Brodiej. You feel 'very  very proud' of your country, because of this ghastly Olympics charade? And you have the audacity to call me a toddler? I am 69, for your information, and, judging by your posts, old enough to be your great grandfather. It's people like you who make me wonder what I'm doing here. Nobody so far has mentioned bread and circuses. Panem et circenses, as the old Roman gentleman put it. Give the masses the latter, and they won't notice they haven't got much of the former. Don't you see, Brodie, et al, how you are being hoodwinked? Boris the showman got himself re-elected precisely because of his talent for this kind of thing. His brutal indifference to 'bread' issues seems to be shared by you and others. ..</P> <P>Oh come on, somebody, won't you join me in these 'utterly obvious' observations?  Or  am I once again to be the only so-called toddler on these boards? If so, I will leave it there, for fear of bringing on a heart attack!</P>

vetski

Poor old Juvenal. That's all most people remember him for!

Mirandola

It's very unfair. I loved Juvenal back in the days when I could read Latin.  

Arkady

I don’t care for the sport, or for the other bread & circus aspects much, and despise the nationalist jingoism. But it has been an enormous catalyst for regeneration at Stratford, and there is no reason to think that it will end as a deadzone; it is stunningly landscaped and will have excellent travel options – it will be a very desirable area to live. I’ve seen the counter-arguments (ADGS put me onto some of them), but don’t buy them. They mostly seem to be made by people who think that degenerating toxic warehouses have some kind of intrinsic merit relative to, you know, new houses, schools and facilities. When I was volunteering for Thames21 I talked to people who were brought up around there and who were absolutely seething at the patronising attitude towards them by the Ian Sinclairs of this world. They don’t want their children growing up in a shithole ghetto with few opportunities for advancement like they were.

vetski

Until Feb I hadn't been to Stratford for many many years, and was amazed - in a good way - at the transformation of the place. Hugely positive, as @Arkady says.

emine

<div><div><div><div>I'm not keen on the money, or the dubious deals and sponsors (who actually haven't paid that much towards it as far as I can see). But... the Olympics, and all sport - except cricket and cheese-rolling - is marvellous. </div><div><br></div><div>I bet most of the people on this forum earn more than the vast majority of Olympic athletes. These are some of the last people on this planet who do what they do because of sheer love for it and what they go through - the years of discipline, sacrifice, tedium - is fascinating and inspiring.</div><div><br></div><div>Thoughts of Ali, Kelly Holmes, the Arsenal 2003/4 team, Eddie the Eagle and many others have all lifted me get out of all sorts of lows and laziness. Power of sport innit. Despite the wastefulness, committees and evil capitalists who have brought them here, I am glad these humans exist, and that they're in our city.</div></div></div></div>

Mirandola

What Emine said. Though you're wrong on cricket.

vetski

Right on cricket. Wrong on cheese-rolling!

Mirandola

<P>Isn't it a waste of cheese? </P>

emine

Yes! And cricket is a waste of time. So much time!

vetski

No - the cheeses are still edible afterwards, you just have to brush off the grass!

Brodiej

<P>@checkski. I knew you were of an age which makes your drama queen antics so much more bizarre. I look to my elders as a voice of reason, and their ability to advise and comment based on experience. I don't always agree with them, but i respect them. In your case you're just wandering Stroud Green judging everyone and saying they're wrong. ADGS has made rational arguments about his/her position, but has stopped short of threatening to leave the forum because not all people aree with what he/she has to say. Can you see the difference? No tears and tantrums.....or daft quotes.</P> <P>I avoid the politics of the Olympics because its best viewed for what it is and always has been.....an awesome sporting event in my country, in my city, with inspiring atheletes with a global audience of 1 billion people. </P> <P>Good day to you sir</P> <P>@ everyone. Cricket can be great. Start off with T20 and you'll warm to it. Im still getting my head around five day tests and how that all works. Never understood how a bit of rain can determine whether you win/, lose or draw a game.</P>

miss annie

I have no understanding of cricket, it's a complete mystery to me but Test Match Special is second only to Jarvis on 6 music as my favourite programme.

andy

What @emine said, entirely. Except about cricket. That bit was deranged.<div><br></div><div>@checksi - I don't dislike you, I don't know you. But your posts are consistently those of someone who prefers whining on the sidelines to trying to do something, however imperfect. Why not go here: http://vanillaforums.com/plans or here http://uk.ning.com/ and teach me a lesson. I have no more skills or resources than you do and I'd love you to show me how to create this utopian online community that clearly exists inside your head. I'm sure it will be ace. I look forward to learning many lessons from it and incorporating them here, or at least hearing your excuses why you're not going to do it.</div>