Olympics opening ceremony - no spoilers please!

[Glow worm]

As a miserable bar steward, I went for a ride instead last night as I couldn't face 3 hours of it. Blimey it was quiet- and it felt a bit like bunking off school all over again. Saw 3 barn owls and 20 or so glow worms at a nature reserve called Wicken fen which was pretty spectacular in a slightly different way!
Got back around midnight and watched the flame thing light up which was superb and I also liked the winged cyclists. Relieved there were no more flag mix ups- so no bemused Isrealis carrying the Iranian flag!

 

[Nihal]

I like to think of David Beckham spending the rest of his life travelling around the world in that boat, solving crimes.

He does'nt have the balls to do that...........wait,does that sound right???

 

[srw]

Out of interest, did anybody NOT watch it (out of choice)?

I didn't, not out of bah-humbug-ism either. I knew it was on but simply preferred to do something else.

Yes. Followed the first bit on the Guardian's minute-by-minute, then went to bed.

 

[Brains]

we went to the final dress rehearsal on Wednesday, even though it's was a dress rehearsal and there were bits where the show stopped and it was obvious something was due to happen that we were not part of we were amazed and astounded.

We then sat riveted to the TV last night from start to finish to see the final complete show. Spectacular. Arrise Sir Danny!

I was impressed with the Queen jumping out of a helicopter only 100m up and arriving in the stadium without a hair out of place. I hope I can still do that at 86!

 

[yello]

I was impressed with the Queen jumping out of a helicopter only 100m up and arriving in the stadium without a hair out of place. I hope I can still do that at 86!

I'll let you into a secret. She was wearing a hairnet.

 

[subaqua]

its now obvious why the towpath has been shut from the A11 to th A12. nothing to do with security , all to do with a speedboat.

was still good spectacle though

 

[Mad Doug Biker]

Apart from Macca, did anything else happen?

Victoria Pendleton gave a flash.

 

[NotthatJasonKenny]

I thought it was just stunning from beginning to end! A great advert for our country although I think they pushed the multicultural stuff too much in places, that might be a fair representation of London but not the whole of the UK.

Danny boy did us proud though, it was emotional, funny, patriotic and visually stunning! The foundry making the rings and the individual flames rising to form one Olympic flame were beautiful.

 

[Arch]

I thought it was just stunning from beginning to end! A great advert for our country although I think they pushed the multicultural stuff too much in places, that might be a fair representation of London but not the whole of the UK.

Not just London. Leicester, Leeds, Bradford, Manchester, Birmingham... I don't know what the latest actual census figures are, but I think we are, as ever, a melting pot.

I've seen the forging of the ring scene repeated about a dozen time now, and everytime, I have to remind myself that it's not real. Brilliant.

 

[Mad Doug Biker]

Not just London. Leicester, Leeds, Bradford, Manchester, Birmingham... I don't know what the latest actual census figures are, but I think we are, as ever, a melting pot.

I've seen the forging of the ring scene repeated about a dozen time now, and everytime, I have to remind myself that it's not real. Brilliant.

The further north you get the less black people there generally are. I remember when I was at College and there was a guy from Hertfordshire on my course. He simply assumed everywhere was like the south east and couldn't understand where all the black people were when he arrived in Glasgow. There has been a noticeable increase over the last few years, but still, Glasgow is nowhere NEAR what London and the other major English cities are like.

Lots of Asians though.....

Just posting fact, and it bores me silly that I probably need to say that.

 

[Cheddar George]

So glad this was given to Danny Boyle, it could have easily gone to a committee and ended up as a run of the mill fireworks show. Instead we had one mans vision of being British.

 

[Rezillo]

It went a lot better in our household when we found the broadcast on one of the special BBC Olympic channels had a red button option to turn off the commentary.

John

 

[Arch]

The further north you get the less black people there generally are. I remember when I was at College and there was a guy from Hertfordshire on my course. He simply assumed everywhere was like the south east and couldn't understand where all the black people were when he arrived in Glasgow. There has been a noticeable increase over the last few years, but still, Glasgow is nowhere NEAR what London and the other major English cities are like.

Lots of Asians though.....

Just posting fact, and it bores me silly that I probably need to say that.

Hmmm. Ever been to Leeds, Bradford, Liverpool or Manchester?

I thought 'multicultural' included all ethnic minority groups? (Although 'minority' isn't really right. I think Leicester is now a city where there is no single 'majority' group).

Anyway, I felt that the ceremony represented what I think of as British, and didn't think there was any tokenism.

 

[MontyVeda]

Well I'm hugely impressed with what Danny Boyle has done, absolutely spectacular for the first 75 minutes. A celebration of our green and pleasant land, our industrial heritage, our health service, our literature, our films and music and our multicultural heritage... I nearly had a tear in my eye when our boy <spoiler>Dizzee</spoiler> went bonkers.

Then the athlete's parade, it's nice to feel like a citizen of Earth for an hour or so. Interspersed with thinking "Where exactly is Xxxxxx?"

Dunno what the Arctic Monkey's were doing there, or Paul McCartney... or what relevance the songs they sang had to the Olympic games. Surely Noel Edmunds, Maggie Philbin & Cheggers singing I Wanna Be A Winner would be more apt. The theme from Going for Gold or even Spandau bloody Ballet singing Gold would be better than a song about somebody dancing like a robot from 1984 or a bird called Jude for that matter!

The cauldron was fantastic... hope it doesn't melt or fall part after a week!

 

[Mad Doug Biker]

Hmmm. Ever been to Leeds, Bradford, Liverpool or Manchester?

I thought 'multicultural' included all ethnic minority groups? (Although 'minority' isn't really right. I think Leicester is now a city where there is no single 'majority' group).

Anyway, I felt that the ceremony represented what I think of as British, and didn't think there was any tokenism.

North of about Manchester.... Certainly when you cross the border anyway. Things have changed slightly over the years with asylum seekers and what have you, but at school, about the only 'multiculturalism' you came across were the Indians, Pakistanis and Chinese running the local takeaways and news agents!

Black people genuinely were a novelty.

Some people ight not like what I have written there, but it was perfectly true! We just weren't used to black people, and as a very young kid, Moira Stewart scared the living s*it out of me because, with all the makeup and everything, she was like nothing I'd ever seen before!

I am not even going to apologise for what I have said there because I have nothing to apologise for.