"Are you watching the Olympic opening ceremony tonight"? I asked the pale, overweight shop assistant in the computer store last Friday.
"No" he said to no great surprise. He didn't look like he enjoyed sports other than ones that involved looking at a screen and manipulating his thumbs.
He isn't the only one not looking forward to it. There has been some bad feeling in the UK in the build up to the Olympics with the recession and people losing their jobs and being told that money is scarce. Spending billions on a sporting event is bound to upset some people.
Nevertheless it is hard not to get swept up in the excitement and I was in front of the telly with a bag of crisps and a bottle of champagne at 21:00 to watch the opening ceremony.
At first I wasn't sure it would work but thankfully they pulled off something unique.
Men in top hats body popping, hundreds of kids jumping up and down on glowing beds while women dressed at nurses from the 1940's danced around them and pogoing punks with papier mache heads.
It reminded me of those dreams that one has when ill and running a fever, all weird and unreal.
It wasn't the only surreal thing on British telly that week. I was baffled at seeing Michelle Obama on a football pitch kicking a ball into a goalmouth. The goalkeeper was Spongebob Squarepants.
Not something I was expecting to see, ever.
Now that the actual Olympics have started the surrealism should finish and we can get on with the sport.
Hang on, I'm watching womens beach volleyball being played on a patch of sand in the middle of Horseguards Parade in London while the Benny Hill theme plays in the background.
Welcome to Great Britain.
19 comments:
Love it Tony. I, like you was originally sceptical but I've put that all behind me and managed to enjoy the ceremony. Beach volleyball is quite certainly a joy to watch as well even though that Benny Hill theme was most certainly an odd choice.
Dear Tony,
you give me an impression of what I miss - I am only coming to London again in September. My host did not sound too happy about the Olympic games - but of course for a Londoner it must be double stress (when I think of the tube at the 'normal' rush hour in June: I let pass 3 trains that were so full that I thought I was in Tokyo -- then I was squashed in the fourth, equally full).
I missed it but this sounds worth watching. Think it's made it to youtube yet?
I'm only going to say this: Loved the Mary Poppins/Voldemoret smack down, but think it would have been vastly better if it had included American style wrestling! What do you think?
Never watched it at all, sounds pretty good though, I just avoid them no matter where they are, whoopi they are to me.
I shall comment on my post tomorrow (Monday).
Love,
Janie
Beach volleyball (women's) is very important...to me anyway!
Funny Tony. :) Pooldad asked where they were going to play beach volleyball.
Enjoy the games! We sure are. :)
I missed Michelle and Spongebob. Nice to see Yank commercialism across the pond.
Now I must be dreaming. I thought I just read about Spongebob and Micelle Obama in the same post. Oh wait...
Did you see that Boris Johnson had commissioned a painter to paint the scene of the women's beach volleyball on Sat night. BBC actually had a camera shot of the artist above the crowd with his easel.
Poor Boris was trying to be posh but still ended up a bit creepy!
It was surreal indeed.
I did think they went all out for it though and that in these tough economic times, maybe it was a bit much for Britain to have not one but TWO (the Queens Jubilee) Multi-Million Pound extravaganzas. We had the same kind of mass hysteria with the World Cup 2010 - it was impossible not to get caught up in the excitement. But with every high comes debilitating lows. Lets hope there isn't a mass depression after all the festivities.
I saw part of it and lost interest. I've never really been a huge sports fan unless the situation called. If I was at a football game I'd probably yell my lungs out though.
Good post! Followed!
I never got into the Olympics but I heard that it has been disappointing. Michelle Obama rocking a football with Sponge Bob? Now that's something I'd want to see!! lol
Isn't that Beckham with Sponge-Bob and Mrs. Fat Ass? Didn't he get "dissed"? Is that maybe because he went to play football in the US?
I didn't watch the opening ceremonies because I strongly suspected that they would be silly. From what I gather, it was. Although, to be fair, aren't pretty much all opening ceremonies silly? Well, with the exception of 1936 in Berlin. Can't really connect "Hitler" with "silly."
Plus, I didn't want to watch the US team stroll in with berets.
Now THAT would be silly.
NOTE: I may have set an Olympics world record for "Most Use of the Word 'Silly' in one Blogger Comment."
That being said, better to have the Olympics in YOUR country than mine.
We have enough troubles.
Like the aforementioned Mrs. Fat Ass.
Of course your watching womens beach bolleyball! lol
i have been unable to watch the olympics, however today at worked i watched that one indian weight lifter break his arm. was pretty cool
Billions can be spent on sporting events but can the poor and hungry get a helping hand? Hell no! Because you know, sports are more important than starving kids and struggling families.
The only good thing about the olympics is women's beach volleyball. nothing else matters.
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