The unplanned watching of the Opening Ceremony London 2012

Last night my husband and I had planned a quiet night out – a walk on the beach and a coffee …. thanks to our helpful neighbour who was coming round to be with the.   We knew we would miss quite a bit of the Opening Ceremony but there was bound to be edited highlights later.However our 7 year old (who had dramatically thrown up earlier in the week without much warning) had other ideas even though he hadn`t realised we were planning to go out.  When he came down stairs looking pale and complaining about his tummy we knew we would be postponing our plans.

So we settled down instead to watch the Opening Ceremony of London 2012 with our daughters and one of their friends.  I expected to be mildly impressed – there had been lots of speculation about who would light the cauldron and Danny Boyle was in charge of the show, but had my laptop ready to do some pinning on Pinterest as the evening went on.

Within a few minutes I was hooked. What a spectacle! It took the teens a bit longer to get into it ….. maypoles, industrial chinmneys and Victorian gentlemen dancing in their top hats.

The kids and NHS staff dancing and jumping on beds were intriguing and twitter lit up with some hilarious comments “so that’s why there has been a shortage of NHS beds etc” but there seemed to be a genuine unity and pride. We tend to prefer to be cynical as a nation.

The defining moment of the night however was probably when 007 Bond (Daniel Craig) went to meet the Queen at Buckingham Palace and they got into a helicopter and the quirky British sense of humour was apparent. I jokingly said maybe the Queen and Bond will seem to drop down on ropes into the Stadium …… I wasn’t far wrong!!!!

 

When Mr Bean appeared in Orchestra playing Chariots of Fire it was hilarious … perfect comedy.

 

I relived my youth in the music section and although the kids really wanted One Direction to appear they enjoyed laughing at the crimes against fashion!

Have to admit the part when all atheletes from all 204 countries came in wasnt the most interesting but as this was primarily about sport we cant really begrudge them their moment. It was a bit like the Eurovision Song contest ….. we seemed compelled to watch it …..but the BBC commentary waned a bit. They churned out random facts including one about one nation (can’t remember which) being the only country competing with ONLY ONE VOWEL in it`s name!!!!

When Team GB arrived in their Jedward white and gold tracksuits we lost the upperground on passing comment on other nations outfits. Someone tweeted that we could always melt down the tracksuits to make a few extra gold medals!

The lighting of the cauldron was spectacular and it would have been a perfect way to finish, and I loved the music, including Northern Ireland singer Alex Trimble from Two Door Cinema Club

….but no….

It is a national celebration so it was time to roll out the ageing Beatle and have a sing along …..unnecessary in our opinion. What did you think?

I just took a few pics on my iphone but below are some links to some wonderful images

The Guardian pictures of the Opening Ceremony

London 2012 Opening Ceremony in pictures by MSN

Pics of Opening Ceremony from Digital Spy

So, are you excited/interested/bored already by the Olympics? After the Opening Ceremony there is definitely more interest in our house.

Taking part in the BritMums Olympic Blog Hop