Wednesday 8 August 2012

Going for gold

In the run up to the Olympics over the last few months (years, even) I've been largely indifferent. I disliked the logo, even more so when I discovered my debit card was graced with an image of it until 2013 and in a very stereotypically British fashion, I had come to expect nothing but hopelessness and disappointment. However, the friday before last I had the night off work and nothing much else to do so I settled myself down in front of my laptop and put on the Opening Ceremony. It helped that I'd heard rumours that Arctic Monkeys, one of my favourite bands, would be playing but otherwise I wasn't expecting much. Despite this, like the rest of the nation I was bowled over. I had been expecting them to rival the Chinese effort at Beijing, which would have been remarkably hard to do, but instead Danny Boyle took it in a completely different direction. It took advantage of our rich history over the last 200 years and the trademark British wit was well placed with appearances from the likes of Mr Bean and the Queen parachuting in. At moment it felt like there was almost too much going on but on the whole, I was really impressed by it. It has set the precedent for what has been one of the most successful Olympics ever for Team GB.

London 2012 opening ceremony

Anyhow, shortly after catching Olympic fever like the plague, me boyfriend's dad rang and invited me to come down to London to watch the Olympics, which was really lovely. Hugo and I went to watch the Volleyball at Earl's court and it was so much fun. I know sweet FA about Volleyball but it was pretty easy to grasp. It is a shame that Team GB lost spectacularly to Australia but the Brazil v. Russia match was a pretty tense one!

Men's Volleyball at the Olympics: Australia vs. Great Britain

Outside Earl's Court


I haven't been home all Summer and I took advantage of a free weekend to get home and see the parents for the first time in over a month. The weekend was spent pretty much consuming all the contents of the fridge (so. much. cheese.) and loafing on the sofa watching the Olympics. 'Super Saturday' was great, I'm so glad Jessica Ennis won after all the pressure mounted on her - here in Sheffield the John Lewis store has adorned it's shop front with a 30ft picture of her! My severe case of Olympics fever means that I will probably go and find the gold letterbox at some point this week as well.

John Lewis in Sheffield


I also finally got to see the Ballgown exhibition at the V&A but I think I'll allow another post for that.

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