This morning, there was a crowd outside Cancer Research UK where people had the chance to hold one of the Olympic torches. The torches are still doing the rounds as Team GB exceed our expectations. Team GB won three Gold Medals on the first major evening of track finals. Team GB also won a cycling gold and two rowing golds.
But despite all those amazing golds, one things did not change: Team GB lost in the football on penalties.
Now that there is no longer any scaffolding to be seen round the County Hall, the Punch Bowl is taking its turn to use some.
There is a “Business as Usual” sign above the “Celebrate the London 2012 Olympics Here With Coca Cola”.
The Team GB merchandise could well have started to fly off the shelves by now.
There was a slow start medal-wise – the newspapers had begun to worry mid-week. For example, The Sun printed a large Gold Medal with the words “Wanted Gold Medal. Historic bronze for our brilliant gymnasts but please, can we have just one gold. Any sport. We’re not bothered. As soon as possible. Please, COME ON TEAM GB!”
Oh we of little faith!!! There has been quite a turn round since then led by rowing and cycling.
You may have seen OX14 and other postal areas in local graffiti. It could be just a South Oxfordshire phenomena – who knows?
Recently there was a little tit for tat postal area graffiti in South Oxfordshire. People from OX14, who represent this postal area, went and daubed OX14 in the OX11 area to the south.
OX11 retaliated back in OX14. The 1 at the end got modified to make it look like it was really done by OX14 people.
The white roller came along and the graffiti was gone.
In the next few weeks a graffiti artist will be helping some young people to do something more interesting. I will show the pictures when it has happened.
Thanks to Luke who sent me some shots of the Olympic Opening Ceremony. They are taken from a video sequence during which a helicopter flew over the Thames from source to London. You had to be keen eyed to spot Abingdon during the live opening ceremony. All I saw was the cooling towers of Didcot Power Station then Henley. But Luke’s screen shots show that there was aerial footage of the town.
Luke says “Incidentally, a couple of months ago we received a letter through the door from the BBC notifying us that they were filming with a helicopter on selected dates and that they hoped this would not be of too much disturbance.”
During the ceremony, footage was also shown of a young Abingdon School rowing team training on the river. Some of those lads could be gold medal heroes in 2016 in Rio (just 1464 days away).
Lloyds TSB, one of the official sponsors, have created their own Google Street View on facebook, following the flame.
In it you can pick yourself out of the crowd to tag or to blur. Also, if you have two or three hours to spare you could see whether the official estimate of 15,000 people lining the streets in Abingdon is accurate. Try lloydstsb 2012 torch view as a starter. Then “Find and Tag yourself along the route.”