The Olympic Opening Ceremony is underway
and will last for six months.
Meanwhile, Hugh has been to a registry office in Beijing, (hear that tonight) and he's also sent some words and photos to illustrate last night's report from the velodrome in Lanzhou.
"Auspicious day for getting married.
It's the day the Olympics start.....
....and it's the 8th of the 8th, 2008. 8 is a magic number in China.
16.400 couples registered to collect their marriage certificates today.....
......including 3,000 couples just at this Beijing register office.
And back at the track...the velodrome in Lanzhou.
Ma Yan Ping, champion cyclist who was in the Chinese Olympic teams in Athens and Sydney. She is expecting her 'Olympic' baby on August 13th.
16 to 18 year old mountain bikers with their eye on London 2012.
I asked if they wouldmake it to London. There was a chorus of 'Yes!'"
Listen to PM
© MMIX~RS~q~RS~~RS~z~RS~52~RS~)
CommentsSign in
You need to sign in to contribute to this page. If you're new to BBC Blogs, creating your membership is quick and easy.
As always Hugh, great photographs!
Complain about this comment
'Underway' is an interesting example of how English changes (following on from last night's spelling item). It should be (or has been) 'under way' (2 words) till now, but is becoming one word. It's almost got to the point where it's an 'accepted variant'.
Complain about this comment
"accepted varient" is that like a hybrid car?
Complain about this comment
I'm confused. They've just had an astronaut, a giant Earth and Sarah Brightman appearing on top of it...
...but she didn't sing "I Lost My Heart To A Starship Trooper"! What a missed opportunity.
Complain about this comment
Is "accepted varient" an accepted variant of 'accepted variant'?
Complain about this comment
I'm watching the ceremony on iPlayer - very nice, but it's a shame I can't fade out the pointless and banal commentary!
Please, let us watch and listen to the event, not have to endure the inane social and political drivel being spouted over the top
Complain about this comment
But if a tree falls and there's no press to report it....
;-)#
ed
Complain about this comment
This is one day I'm glad I've got to be in the office (at least for three more days), so I can miss the opening ceremony of the Olympics. Pretty soom we'll alll be urged to start counting down to some sporting hoo-ha in london in a few years time....
Complain about this comment
...and now a pipe band is playing "Scotland The Brave" while the Maldives team walks around the arena...
This is very odd.
Complain about this comment
I am going into hiding for the next 2 weeks.
1. I have a low 'overkill' threshold when it comes to TV and radio programmes being hyped and discussed all over the place
2. I'm not interested in watching sport
3. I don't care whether 'Team GB' (argh!) wins anything
4. We only have 4.5 terrestrial channels to choose from, so I can't even lose myself in repeats of M*A*S*H and wall-to-wall cookery programmes on digital
... I foresee a lot of long post-prandial walks and meteor-watching ahead.
:o(
Complain about this comment
We're going camping for the next 2 weeks ...
Complain about this comment
Thanks for the reminder, fifi
xx
ed
Complain about this comment
Fifi, never mind. Here - have a nice cup of Mazawattee tea. :0)
Enjoy!
Complain about this comment
No, no, don't be nice to me!
[sniffles]
This periodic obsession with sport drives me nuts and makes me seriously consider jacking in the TV licence and going full time with the band!
If it's not golf, football, rugby, more football, cricket, the occasional dart, athletics, yet more football ...
[draws breath]
... it's the Olympics where they put all the other sports together and add some new ones!
[stomps off in the huff]
Complain about this comment
(and a nicer looking huff I've yet to see, Feef) :-)
Complain about this comment
Fifi,
I feel exactly the same about sport; once the opening ceremony is over, it's DVDs and very selective radio listening for me for a fortnight.
(watching...)
George Bush seems utterly unimpressed by the appearance of the Iraqi team.
Those poor cheerleaders lining the track are beginning to look tired out, but still they dance.
The Hungarians seem to have been eating messy jam sandwiches...
Complain about this comment
When does the beach volleyball start
Complain about this comment
Stop making me laugh, FFred (15). I'm trying to be grumpy here!
* stomps off further away this time *
;o)
(drat)
Complain about this comment
Feef, of course you can storm off in a huff. If that's too soon, you can go in a minute and a huff....
(c) Groucho Marx - Duck Soup
Complain about this comment
The Swiss team has just this minute rolled into the stadium........
Complain about this comment
Can it be magic for us here, too, please? I could do with a little stardust ...
Complain about this comment
Fifi - I can thoroughly recommend an allotment. It's an ideal place to get away from sport (no telly or radio), and that's where I'll be camped out for the next few weeks. Now, where did I leave my tent...;-)
ps. Do I need to flounce off here?
Complain about this comment
On the other hand - there are some who would love to have the chance to watch the best in the world competing in their favourite sport (such as cycling), but won't be able to because it is on digital/sat./cable. :o(
Can't get satellite (big trees in the way), local transmitter still not upgraded so no digital signal and too far out in the sticks for cable.
harrrumph...
Complain about this comment
Can you play allotment volleyball?
Complain about this comment
UTT, Sounds perfect!
Slainte!
ed
Complain about this comment
TIH 5, Is hybridcar and accepted variableness of hybrid car?
Complain about this comment
Not unless you consent to wear the regulation strip:
Skimpy shorts, beergut-hiding baggy teeshirt, and wellingtons. Plus the team Speedos on head.
Anything else just looks ridiculous.
Complain about this comment
peteispo 6, Amen to that. They think they are more important than the event.
Complain about this comment
Sorry, my (27) was addressed towards Thunderbird's (24).
;o)
Complain about this comment
fifi 10, Wot, no freeview box?
Complain about this comment
Sid 11, We did our camping in June-July.
Complain about this comment
David (30): No, not even that. We'd need a new aerial and don't really want the hassle. We just muddle along with the thingy in the attic.
Complain about this comment
Ed I - you're welcome to pop round any time! ;o)
Complain about this comment
UTT, I presume you have wireless broadband...
;-)
Complain about this comment
(27) you bin peking again?
got to hand it to them though, they really fireworks awfully well!
Complain about this comment
DO, doh!
Complain about this comment
Fifi 32, Is that why you have 4.5 channels? Ch 5 upstairs has lines running through it like prison bars and the freeview box won't get it at all. Everything else, yes. We have a better aerial for the TV downstairs, so everything works fine. I don't want to come across as rolling in money, because we certainly aren't. Both TVs are old with small screens. I know people who can't get Ch 5 at all because their aerials point in the wrong direction.
Complain about this comment
Eddie, Why do the Chinese laugh so much when they talk?
Why, oh why, oh why, can't BBC newspeople pronounce Michigan? It is (for the umpteenth time) MISH-I-GAN, not MITCH-I-GAN!!!
Complain about this comment
D_M, (38) I know!
My sister lives in MAH-GET, NP, mind you the B52's have now all gone so there isn't a lot going for the place.
Complain about this comment
DI_W 39, What did I say in 38? It has been tut tutted at.
Complain about this comment
LOL......You were commenting on how to pronounce Michigan correctly!
as in MISH-HE-CAN?
Complain about this comment
David (37) : Yes, we 'nearly' get C5! My SO bought an independent aereal (9.95) to plug in when we're watching 5, and we just switch it over when we need to.
The famous C5 tuners-in (remember them?) managed to turn up when we were both out at work, and left one of the cards promising to return and tune us in at some later date. We stopped holding our breath when we started feeling dizzy.
And in the little bit of Scotland where my Mum lives, there is no C5 at all, for anyone. Imagine! no CSI.... no Laura Norder.... no Megastructures.... no NCIS....
Complain about this comment
No C5 here. I thought it was one of Clive Sinclair's madder ideas
Complain about this comment
DI_W 41, Careful, or you will be modded. Not Mitch-i-gan.
Complain about this comment
Fifi 42, Oh no, no CSIs NCIS (my favorite), no L and Os. Of course, if you have freeview, they are available on other channels.
Complain about this comment
DI_W 41, Maybe it was other bit about the, er, people laughing when they talk. Musn't offend anyone.
Complain about this comment
Upthe Trossachs @ 23, some of us would love the chance to watch our favourite sport ... Do you happen to know whether they plan to show any fencing from this year's Olympic Games, or will they ignore the whole sordid sport the way they generally seem to?
Complain about this comment
So the opening cemetary is under way. I say never trust air you can't see. okay, who wants to take bets on which event will be the first for one of the contestants to drop dead from oxygen starvation due to the pollution?
Complain about this comment
Only just getting the hang of blogs so initially posted comment below in wrong place! The Olympic opening ceremony was truely awesome and spectacular. Who can now be in any doubt that the 21st century will belong to the East.
It would be just great if the Beeb could dig out of their archives the historical documentary series, 'Storm from the East'. Dealing with Gengis Kahn to Kublai Khan. The latter founding the Yuan dynasty and who placed his sumptuous court in what is now Beijing
Complain about this comment
After we'd behaved so badly they called us Foreign Devils, there was some unpleasantness over opium, wasn't there?
That is probably what the Glass Box white lines are, good old British opium, as grown in India.
Mao had to free himself of the addiction that all China suffered from and ensured our dominance in the lucrative coastal cities.
A good drug like that, taking 150 years for the addiction to cure! Rare to find. Still, tobacco is good in it's way.
Then the Japanese, our allies now, gave them some unpleasantness in WW2, I'm told.
All those Idle Women and Hilda Gibsons finally pulling their weight in the Cultural Revolution!
Why don't these people tell us about their history, for goodness sake!!
PS Whatever are we going to do about ours in 2012?
Complain about this comment
Sid (2) er, I think it was just a tpyo....I agree that under way is right....but maybe they will merge, like...under pants?
peteispo (6) Yes! Why not? A 'clean feed' would be easy, with the Interactive Button. The best commentators say very little. Unless they're on the radio.
The Stainless Steel Cat (9): so it wasn't just me wondering what that awful persistent drone was...it was the dreaded pipes....audible for a lot longer than the Maldives' parade...stand by (standby?) for Xinjiang the Brave played on a Uighur Dotar at the London Opening Ceremony in 2012?
Complain about this comment
PM leader (51) re your ps - I only caught the edited hightlights of the ceremony due to the annoying need to work. From what I did see, there is only one thing we can do about 2012 - PANIC!
Not sure why Ken Livingstone was there - he can't approve of the human rights thing - but still - his comment was presumable to calm suicidal 2012 organisers. I suggest we do the whole thing for the smallest possible budget to prove that it could be fun, and maybe restore a sense of proportion for future generations. Get some advice from Manchester Commonwealth organisers perhaps.
tod
Complain about this comment
Sorry pml - you were 50 not 51
Complain about this comment
as a very pedantic footnote, I always thought it was "under-weigh"
Complain about this comment
View these comments in RSS