This is post 2012 ans 2012 was the year that the UK staged the Olympic Games with those amazing opening (mastered by Danny Boyle) and closing ceremonies celebrating the diversity and history of this country resulting is a racist tirade from the Daily Mail denigrating the Windrush citizens who came here and help rebuild this country after WWII , the article on their website was eventually pulled.
The celebrations included our NHS and industrial heritage and each of these ceremonies last a while but these days you can watch them on your big screens.
There is also a plethora of music featuring David Bowie, Queen , Muse and many, many more.
This post is one of those diary posts so that I can easily find this in the future. There was a great TV series on the BBC about the "preparations" which I can't find on iPlayer but I can find "W1A" that morphed out of it with much of the office comedy.
So enjoy your Wednesday and if you have eight hours spare get these videos on your big screen.
I got up this morning and needed lights on everywhere. The days are getting shorter. The Mail and Express blame it n foreigners . Seriously, we're still in summer, the weather has been great , it's Friday which means the weekend is here, so all is good.
This is my 1100th post on here, that's quite a lot , and does provide me with a great online diary of stuff worth remembering.
Recently I started another blog just for me to let off steam here as I do like to keep this one positive,and there are still lots of great things to be positive about. The UK are doing well in the Olympics and the EU actually tops the Olympic table , or it would do if we were part of it.
Anyway, as I said it is Friday, the weekend is nearly here , the weather is great (although skies at the moment are grey) so everything is in place for maximum enjoyment.
I know this isn't a particularly memorable post but 1100 is not a particularly memorable number really.
The Rugby World Cup has kicked off in style. Whether its's because the UK has it this year or what I don't know , but it is brilliant to see a sport not riddled with drugs cheats , rule cheats , bribes , back handers , the deaths of thousands in countries not fit to play the sport.
I cannot pretend I know all the rules , and did get out of it fairly young , having seen so many lost teeth in clashes , though I felt the same about boxing . You do need to be hard to play rugby. I remember many years ago being at a garage and the the sky went dark . Bill Beaumont got out his car and made me look small and you know how big I am.
After the curtain raiser with England getting the better of Fiji , today we had the competition starting in earnest. And the matches are anything but one sided , well mabe the Irish dismantling of Canada , but Tonga vs Georgia should have been closer and Japan took South Africa on a knife edge in one of the biggest shock results , and the competition has hardly started.
The excitement is there and you can see they want to play the game and the first thing on their mind isnt their image rights.
Another thing, Newcastle are staging some matches , and for the Olympics there was a blackout on
everything that wasn't official sponsored , none of that for this competition.
As I pen this France lead Italy 25-10 , Italy have come back from 25-3 down , and while I expect France to run out victors , they aren't having it all their own way.
I know this isn't my normal sort of post , although in a way it is because events like this get your adrenalin going , and that makes you happy , and it is great to see good friends getting out and enjoying the games.
I wont be having a bet because I don't know who is going to win, the only thing I'm sure of is it is going to be a great tournament and looking forward to taking in some matches with friends.
Paloma Faith has recorded a new version of World in Union , I cant say I am that impressed prefer the Holst original , so I've included the Swing Low below below which is slightly better , but niot much.
The London 2012 Olympics coincided with Jamaica's 50th Anniversary of Independence from Great Britain. There were some stunning performances by Jamaican athletes notably Usain Bolt , and a clean sweep in the mens 200 metres from Bolt , Yohan Blake and Warren Weir.
However I was very disappointed when I heard the Jamican National Anthem which seems pale and flacid given the islands rich musical culture of the last fifty years , though its possibly the equivalent of expecting Great Britain to replace the National Anthem with something by Muse or Queen (Knights of Cydonia anyone ?).
I think One Love by Bob Marley would make a great National Anthem though sneakily I think even better would be Carl Malcolm's "Bonanza Ska".
Any congratualations to all Jamaicans and thatnk you for enriching our lives with your athletics and music !! Heres' some alternative National Anthems :
I wasn't really bothered about these Olympics . I've seen financial chancers make fortunes from buying up decaying housing where the Olympic Park now stands , and local businesses threatened by local governmnet jobsworths , when the laws were meant to prevent big businesses from profiting when they havent supported the Olympics.
Although this is ridiculous , opposite is the Barclays Cash Machine boarded up and bin bagged at St James' Park Newcastle. All that does in incovenience customers and show the Olympic Committee to be apparent arses !!
The media has been willing the whole thing to fail and despite my misgivings it has gone off well. But it's a telling fact that so called "private enterprise" , G4S , have had to be bailed out by the military (effectively a nationalised industry). Sometimes private enterprise works well and sometimes it doesnt , governments need to realise this.
I wonder how many people these days realise where the nomenclature of the Olympics comes from . Have they ever heard of Mount Olympus , Zeus and the like? Though I applaud the Olympian spirit and the work many athletes and competitors put in to realise their dreams , very little has piqued my interest however .......
... I had zero interest in the opening ceremony , until I saw it. Danny Boyle has come up with a show to match the Olympic Spirit including Shakespeare , Mr Bean , and the forging of the (Olympian) rings (Is there one to bind them all) . This was something that everyone should see , sports fan or not , though some of the imagery did set me in mind of Peter Jackson's visualisation of Tolkein's exloration of language and folk lore. Theres some highlights on the BBC site here
Well the 2012 Olympics are upon us and in case any one was in any doubt the signs in every city throughout are proclaiming it's "London 2012" . I thought generally that the world was some sort of democracy , didn't Thatcher and Reagan rescue us from the Red Menace. Joe Stalin , State Censorship , Nanny State Control , Nazi scare tactics and the like?
Well look what we have here . The original Olympic Ethic allowed all to compete . Wars stopped for the Olympic Games and competitors were given free and safe passage to and from the games. These days David Cameron's arms dealer cronies would be demanding compensation for ost revenue if that happened.
Peopl have trained for years to realise their their dreams , generally in the true Olympian spirit , but it is becoming swaped with Nazi / Communo stype restrictions on fans and market competitors.
Want an Olympic Ticket , Let's face for most of us this will be the only time in our live we can see one. But we have to run the hurdle of the lottery , and can only paty by Visa !! Surely that's as bad as the banks fixing interest rate . What if I don't have a Visa card , what if I want to pay by cash.
Then Coca Cola , Visa and MacDonalds are grabbing all the advertising space to the exclusion of everyone else. I thought this was a fairly free country.
Another thing the NHS has been committed to providing free treatment to anyone who is related to an Olympic competitor . Who sanctioned that Mr Cameron ? I though the NHS was meant to be hard pressed.
I won't be watching the Olympics or taking any interest in it whatsoever. It's been hijacked by corporates and freeloaders, and that makes me annoyed for the competitors and fans who DO embody the true Olympic spirit.
There's a sigh outside St James' Park Newcastle that proclaims "London 2012" . Anyone watching on TV will think the stadium is in London!! How wrong is that:
