Opening Ceremony of London 2012

This evening was the opening ceremony of the London Olympics. I watched it by myself as Sam was out at an Olympic party in London and not coming home until the morning.
The ceremony started at exactly 20.12 with a fly past by the red arrows, with red, white and blue trails.The bell signally the start of the games was rung by the British guy who won the Tour de France - not sure of his name.

Scenes of rural England gave way to the industrial revolution, followed by lots of other elements that have helped to created Great Britain today. All this activity led to the forging of the 5 Olympic rings above the stadium.

The next scene was a little odd with James Bond  flying the Queen into the stadium in a helicopter

the Queen seems to have a sense of humour lol.








The NHS was represented next, accompanied by music by Mike Oldfield. Doctors and nurses dancing - with children bouncing on beds!

 Then off to Neverland and weird dreams - Lord Voldamort and the child catcher from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang! In come lots of Mary Poppins to chase away the dreams - a fertile imagination at work here.
 A tribute to British films followed - with music from Chariots of Fire -  Mr Bean had a key part in this!

Then a mention of family life, the weather  leading into four decades of British music and dance. These were linked with text messages and the gadget generation. I loved the pogo punks! This ended with a tribute to the inventor of the WWW. Sir Tim Berners Lee. I am not sure why all the announcements were in French first - very odd!
 There was a pictorial remembrance of those who couldn't be there - due to the London bombings I think but I got a bit confused at this point.

The traditional welcome of the athletes followed this - each county marched entering alphabetically, but starting with Greece as is traditional. Each team had a copper 'petal'.  There was a very tall woman holding the Australian flag but not as tall as the Chinese guy was was seven foot. Some teams looked like air stewards - others were in national dress. Bermuda were in their shorts and Italy in Armani! One country appeared to be wearing flags. There were some countries I had never heard of - shame on me! There was some strange commentary which got worse as we worked through the alphabet, but the music was good -especially the drummers who kept going for hours.
The UK, as hosts, were last and got the biggest cheer! They were wearing white and gold outfits - a bit spaceman-like.

Each country's flag was placed on the grass mound.

 The Queen declared the games open and the Olympic flag was raised. The torch has travelled 8000 miles and was brought to the stadium on the last leg by David Beckham on a speed boat lit by fireworks.

 Steve Redgrave took the torch to the stadium past the construction workers who built the stadium then handed it to some young athletes who lapped the stadium with it. These seven young athletes lit the petals in keeping with the games slogan - Inspire a Generation.



 The copper petals form the cauldron - each one, once alight, rose to join and make one flame. Fireworks then erupted around the stadium and the games have officially begun!

Sir Paul McCartney closed the ceremony with 'Hey Jude' - his voice is not what it was, but the crowd took up the refrain! All in all it was quite an enjoyable ceremony - if a little prolonged.