If you’re not very interested in sport, then I apologise for the recent content of Pegs on the Line. And I suppose, in advance, for this post. But then the Olympics aren’t really sport. Well of course there is sport, but there’s a lot more to it.
A few years ago, when considering my ever-so-vague plans to move to the UK one day, I decided that to be there for the 2012 Olympics in London would be pretty cool. Those vague plans remained just that and while I thought perhaps I might end up in London at that time, it wasn’t something I worked towards.
Then, after a quick decision just two days earlier, I found myself sitting in a pub in the London suburb of Shepards Bush watching the Queen jump out of a helicopter.
Watching the opening ceremony in London surrounded by Aussie’s might seem a bit silly, but the Olympics is, ultimately, country against country. So to me it was fitting. While a few references to British culture were lost on the audience, most went down a treat – Mary Poppins, Mr Bean, Mike Oldfield and Paul McCartney. It helped that Aussies love British humour. Some countries must have been utterly baffled by the odd guy at the piano.
The next day Claire, a friend from Tassie, and I caught the train to Richmond to check out the men’s cycling road race. The sight of the crowds staking their claim along course brought back memories of the Tour de France, which finished the week before. The competitor list was also familiar – most having competed in le Tour. We hadn’t got moving early enough to see the riders pass in the morning, but instead saw them come back through about 3pm.
During the wait we got talking to some British cycling fans who were very keen to see Mark Cavendish do well. The infrequent reports we had while on the course suggested Aussie Stuart O’Grady was part of a breakaway but Cav, the rest of the British team and the remaining Australians were back in the peloton. That was still the case when they went by.
The riders had 15km to go once they passed us so we headed back to the main street to find a pub to watch the finish. We came across a gathering of people outside a house and peered in to find the owners had opened their front window giving the crowd a view of the TV in the living room. It was there we learnt Alexander Vinokourov had won. He rode for Team Astana in le Tour and was one of the riders to watch the Euro 2012 final in the hotel bar with us back in Liege.
I later heard about 1million people turned out to watch the road race. The large turn out would have been partly because it’s one of only a handful of free events and also the huge boost cycling has received thanks to Bradley Wiggins’ le Tour win.
Back in the city we walked to Hyde Park to visit the live site. Part of Hyde Park has been sectioned off and filled with five huge screens to show various sports. Entry is free although it involved one of the most thorough security checks I’ve experienced.
Rain was forecast for the weekend, but we didn’t see any sign of that while we stretched out on the bark. On top of the live streaming of events, there will 
also be two performances each day. Tom Jones was originally due to perform on Saturday night, but he was sick so instead we got Will Young, a winner of Britian’s Pop Idol series 10 years ago. I was pretty disappointed Tom wasn’t singing, even if the first I’d heard of him performing at all was the sentence “Tom Jone’s isn’t singing anymore”. But Will Young was entertaining, certainly enough to have me nearly doubled over in laughing fits. He started the gig in a horrible Hawaiian shirt with the promise of a second outfit later. I thought anything would be an improvement, but I was proved wrong when he stripped down to a white singlet and undies.
With my trip being so last minute I wasn’t in a position to get tickets to any events. The only ones left aren’t cheap and the release of more tickets after the “seating fiasco” occurred when I was back in Scotland. But being in London was good fun anyway. The Brits have adopted an extremely patriotic approach to the whole event – it’s Team GB first, London 2012 second – but just as their enthusiasm in Paris for the last day of le Tour was great fun, it’s hard not to get caught up in it here.
As for the city becoming a commuter’s nightmare? Not so much. The Tube was perhaps as empty as I’ve ever seen it. The signage was been improved, although it was pretty good anyway, and you can’t look puzzled for more than three seconds before a volunteer asks if they can help. Nicely done, London.
