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darkshine

Olympics Closing Ceremony

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Ok, so even though it's late, and I'm pretty damn tired, I figure this has to be done right, so here's a post to mark the end of the Olympics 2012 (until the Paralympics start lol).

 

We won 65 medals in total, coming third in the medals table after USA and China.

 

That's - 29 Gold medals - 17 Silver medals - 19 Bronze medals :D

 

I'm leaving out any negatives in this opening message because there were so many good things - and in some ways I preferred it to the opening ceremony because it had a relaxed atmosphere.

 

For me the highlights of the closing ceremony were the people playing the bins and sweeping (not gonna go into interpretative and descriptive details here - if you watched it - you know what I mean - if you didn't - then it shouldn't matter) :devil:

 

I liked Waterloo sunset.

 

Russell Brand was pretty good with the psychedelic bus singing I am the walrus.

 

Fatboy Slim and the giant octopus were great :thumbs:

 

The cannon with Eric Idle sliding out and then singing Always look on the bright side of life - made me laugh after LancsLad psychically posted it in the "what's everyone listening to" post a short time ago - thankfully tonight was a night where it made me laugh :lol:

 

The ballet thing was pretty cool - showed a edgy side a lot of people don't see, even if they only got a polite and short lived cheer and round of applause...

 

Brian May was excellent.

 

The flame obviously - seeing it come down and eventually go out was kinda the thing that made me stop and think about this being over in some ways, and hoping it isn't in others...

 

And The Who did a great job of taking the attention away from that, and god he can still belt out a song.

 

Now I have little need to watch TV again.... gonna have to find something else to fill my time :(:P;)

 

Anyone watch it? Anyone sad it's over? What you gonna do with your free time?

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Well said Darkshine, thought it was pretty damn good. There were a few little flat bits but that was to be expected.

 

The thing which summed it up for me was a comment made by Brendan Foster in the commentary at the start of the marathon, when he said over all as a nation this is possibly our 'personal best' effort. At least in peace time I think he might be right. I can remember a few years back a series of documentries exploring what did it mean to be British. It kind of struggled to find an answer. On Saturday night an individual who sought refuge in this country aged 8 who didn't speak the language when he landed on our shores from Somalia did his adopted nation proud with an amazing performance. The Olympics might not have provide all the answers for what it is to be British but I think it provided a lot of them.

 

Ericle Idle simply highlights great minds think alike, lol.

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Just glad we have the Paralympics to anticipate. I wasn't as impressed by the closing ceremony as I was the opening ceremony; some of the song choices left us puzzled. Nonetheless, it has been an uplifting experience, and my husband and I were grieving over it's end this morning.

 

One of my highlights was this; Tom Daley securing a bronze, but then reacting with pleasure of his rival, Boudia's score 1:53 to 1:55:30 http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01m0f8h/Olympics_London_2012_BBC_Three_Day_15_20.0023.00/ .

 

Loved Farah, and all the other obviouses of course, too.

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Just glad we have the Paralympics to anticipate. I wasn't as impressed by the closing ceremony as I was the opening ceremony; some of the song choices left us puzzled. Nonetheless, it has been an uplifting experience, and my husband and I were grieving over it's end this morning.

 

Which song choices left you puzzled? ;)

 

And yeah, Tom Daley's reaction was nice to see, and Mo Farah having his picture taken afterwards with one of those light bulb hats - I wouldn't mind one of those :photo:

 

What I'm thinking is that I'm gonna save an buy one of those pixel things every month and after a couple of years I'll have enough to create the light-shows in my own home :lol:

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I definitely thought George Michael and Annie Lennox, for example, have better showcase songs in their repertoire. Things got better from The Spice Girls onwards, I thought - I was never a big fan but they are an undeniable part of recent British cultural history, and they're cheery.

 

Grrrr! I should not be on here - I'm trying to get a TMA done ahead of our holiday on Saturday. I should really get lost.

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I think my point about the music was clear ;)

 

As for your TMA - well... that's for you to decide whether you want to spend the time on it - it's your TMA.... I can't talk, I haven't done anything useful revision-wise for the last week... Decided on Saturday to just leave it alone for a couple of days until I get some stuff sorted... I think it's better to make that decision to commit or not and then act on it, rather than lose time in avoidance strategies cuz I know when I pick the books up again, I will have got myself into the right mindset to do the work (that's the theory anyway) :D

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I think my point about the music was clear
Yeah, sorry, it was just it's immediate position after my 'I should get lost' comment that made me smile :D .

 

Tomorrow's the big day TMA-wise. T'other half and I have done very little on our OU stuff over the Olympics, but we'll have to put in some all-nighters before the holiday, starting tonight.

 

What we really need to do now is translate the feel-goodness of the Olympics into motivation rather than anti-climax sluggishness.

 

How's everyone else feeling - motivated or sluggish?

Edited by Mannify

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Super motivated, but have had my physiotherapist tell me to back off and take things easy today, which doesn't help.

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I was a bit disappointed that what was billed as being a symphony of British music (or whatever) didn't feature anything classical - apart from a token appearance by Julian Lloyd-Webber. Was I alone in half-expecting to see Laura van der Heijden?

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Yeah, sorry, it was just it's immediate position after my 'I should get lost' comment that made me smile :D .

 

I think you should address your negativity (says one of the people who has a nice negative thoughts kinda past record) :lol:

 

 

T'other half

 

I haven't heard that phrase for a long time lol

 

How's everyone else feeling - motivated or sluggish?

 

Today has been a challenge, ended up almost flipping out over something really mundanely simple and am now trying really hard to get out of "the whole day is ruined" mindset...

 

Which I am slowly managing to do, bit by bit...

 

I'm still pretty angry and stressed in some ways about the flipping out :angry:

 

But in terms of attempting to get a grip - I have to say the Olympics have motivated me in many ways, reminded me of some things I forget, and it's kinda hopeful I find cuz I feel like things are possible.

 

The thing I find hardest is starting from a position of zero - a zero position where I have low levels of fitness because of the way I've treated my body over the years - now it needs to start from scratch in many ways and I find that frustrating... but Rome wasn't built in a day was it? So if slow has to be the way right now, then I guess slow it will be to begin with.

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I'm still pretty angry and stressed in some ways about the flipping out
People were flipping out plenty in our house yesterday, even people who rarely do. Downer.

 

I have to say the Olympics have motivated me in many ways
Hmmm, well I don't know about anyone else, but it wasn't just a motivator with regards to fitness, but striving generally. Still not sure I can make it a motivation-in-practice, rather than an abstract 'Oooh, wasn't that motivating?'-kind-of-thing, though. Edited by Mannify

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Even though I used the example of fitness at the end of my message - it also applies for many other things in my life - I think each step along the way will get us there, if only we keep making those steps....

 

You take enough of them - and you have to get somewhere don't you?

 

Just try not to go round in a circle :lol:

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