posted Aug 24, 2008

I am an optimist, I am sure everything for 2012 will be superb when it is finished - including the Logo.

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posted Aug 24, 2008

well that's it, com'on London!

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posted Aug 24, 2008

Pah, that was a mediocre closing ceremony. I could have put something better together in my basement. Nothing that a brass band and a red arrows flyover won't top.

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posted Aug 24, 2008

"Some people cannot accept the truth, just like about the English soccer team being not good enough."

LOL. I think you'll find a majority agree with that final point.

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posted Aug 24, 2008

For Tom F. - I have never been to Peking or China and would not understand their presentations, but it has not detracted from my enjoyment.

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posted Aug 24, 2008

Yeah big thanks to you guys for the commentary. Without you I'd be stuck in Japan with only judo, wrestling, baseball, volleyball and meandering interviews with Japanese bronze medalists for company. Thanks and thanks again. You will never know how much better you made these two weeks for me.

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posted Aug 24, 2008

Why on earth not Henners270591?

And how sad are you, seeing only the race of the participants?

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posted Aug 24, 2008

Funniest thing all week is reading the comments on here. Trouble is, as an English expat living in China, tomorrow I've got to try and explain the double decker bus and the privot hedge.

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posted Aug 24, 2008

"Most brits think if someon is bring critical, then hes not brit" - then you clearly know nothing about the British. We moan too much and are too critical - look at this board!

People like vicade get very defensive if anyone makes comments about China, but like coming on here to abuse the British. HOpefully it makes him feel better.

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posted Aug 24, 2008

GOOD LUCK to LONDON 2012 and i hope they have a nice and safe games and dont bore us with mainstream pop culture x-factor trash and focus mre on cultural values and history that china has shown us.

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posted Aug 24, 2008

Was that a REAL disabled person in London's 8-minute extravaganza? And if not, shouldn't the Western Media be full of nothing else for the next two weeks?

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posted Aug 24, 2008

Was that it?
£2.7m for eight minutes?
£5625 per second?

.. how can so little cost so much?

Flights for Jimmy, Beckham, Lewis, a small child and some dancers, say £20k
One bus, red, with paint job and pneumatic lift, say £150k
Some bushes, say £500
Some cossies and brollies, say £10k
A bus stop, say £200
A football, say £15
Fees (hmmm, got a bad feeling about this) for Beckham etc, the rest?
ALL the rest?
£2.5m??

Sheesh ..

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posted Aug 24, 2008

Is it over yet...? It sounds truly awful, and I don't dare look. I might throw up, and the carpets are new...

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posted Aug 24, 2008

It has been one of my greatest memories of all time.

Thank you, Beijing!

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posted Aug 24, 2008

It's been an incredible Olympics for me - I'm not usually that interested in the Olympics as a whole but China have given it the effort it deserves.

I must say, the BBC have handled it so brilliantly - hooked my attention from the start and kept it, I've done nothing for the last two weeks...

We don't need to try to outdo the Chinese, they have a completely different culture to ours. What we should do is make sure the whole 2012 experience reflects the people who will be representing us (and have done in the past) at the games. It will be amazing if we look to Team GB - people of many different origins and races - for inspiration.

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posted Aug 24, 2008

I can see lots of us saying it but, come on Ben, take a bow and print something ! A memorable games made very special for many of us by you guys. LET US THANK YOU !!!!

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posted Aug 24, 2008

Just a quick word of warning to all the countless people who are now going to start coming out of the woodwork to moan about how we are going to do in 2012. Remember you’re going to have to keep up this winging, whining and complaining for four years. So you better try and pace yourself, the last thing you want is run of out of “moans” by July 2012. In the meantime the rest of the nation will continue to look forward and be excited by the London Olympics. But best of luck with all the “moaning” though, hope it makes your life more enjoyable.

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posted Aug 24, 2008

Giant....

Does that mean we can listen to 5live overseas again without that awful robotic drone telling us about rights to broadcast etc
...................................................

That must be the only great thing about the end of the games. Can't wait to hear 5live again - am getting withdrawal symptoms!!

Can I also say was great chatting with you all. Maybe talk to you again during the ashes.

Ta ta

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posted Aug 24, 2008

The comments about London buses, zebra crossings and umbrellas being 'naff' are so wide of the mark. Too us British, and especially to Londoners, they may seem very humdrum in comparison to the exotica displayed by the Chinese.

But the fact is that the Chinese and much of the rest of the world see red buses and zebra crossings as exotic, and as representative of London. Just ask the tourists in London, who have their photos taken in front of phone boxes, buses and Big Ben.

It may not be the way we see ourselves, but it's a cultural shorthand, instantly recognised by other nations, and was therefore a useful piece of iconography to take advantage of for what was only an eight minute slot.

As for Beckham - he was part of the team that won the Olympics for London. So give the guy a break. As for Boris Johnson - he is a character, and far more representative of Britain than the grey and dour Ken Livingstone.

And if we indulge in the kind of 'not as good as the Chinese' mentality exhibited by some of the comments on here, it really will be a poor Olympics.

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posted Aug 24, 2008

We could copy China's idea of presenting the big inventions and discoveries that our country has made in our opening ceremony...But we'd be there all week!
That's right, some patriotic pride!

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posted Aug 24, 2008

Was that it?
£2.7m for eight minutes?
£5625 per second?

.. how can so little cost so much?

Flights for Jimmy, Beckham, Lewis, a small child and some dancers, say £20k
One bus, red, with paint job and pneumatic lift, say £150k
Some bushes, say £500
Some cossies and brollies, say £10k
A bus stop, say £200
A football, say £15
Fees (hmmm, got a bad feeling about this) for Beckham etc, the rest?
ALL the rest?
£2.5m??

Sheesh ..

=======================================

lol i wondered about that too

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posted Aug 24, 2008

To see the reactions of Jimmy page and David Beckham there just shows how the Olympics are the best show on earth. And it will be the same in 2012

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posted Aug 24, 2008

Cheers BBC

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posted Aug 24, 2008

606, the multiple streams, the livetext have made watching the Olympics a much better experience than in the past. If I missed anything it was usually available on the BBC site. How did we watch it in the past?

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posted Aug 24, 2008

OMG

Boris was a mess! he didn't know how to stand. His suit didn't fit, he was pulling funny faces and was an embrassement. Surley someone could have smartened him up just for a few minutes

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posted Aug 24, 2008

Are these people married?

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posted Aug 24, 2008

The Chinese put on a wonderful Games. Well done to them. But isn't it rather like listening to a Wagner opera - glorious, seductive music, but we can't forget that there's an anti-semitic subtext; China's Games were glorious and enormous and expensive, but we can't forget that they're there to glorify their communist society, with all its bigotry and human rights offences.

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posted Aug 24, 2008

this is what I think

1. WHY THE HELL IS DAVID BECKHAM HE HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH OLYMPICS!!!!!, and to be honest he has not really helped england football. there should be more emphasis on people like Chris Hoy, Kelly Homes, Sir Steve redgrave!!!

2. To be honest i felt the Chinese popstars were better than our ones, more energy and fun.

3. HOwever, the Bus was impressive and the way it folded down, until david beckham appeared.

4. the Logo is not so good.

5. I WANT TO PUNCH SEB COE IN THE FACE. ( unless things start getting sorted)

6. WHY THE HELL IS DAVID BECKHAM THERE, i dont care if the chinese know him

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posted Aug 24, 2008

THanks to Beijing and the Chinese, for the best Olympics I can remember. Thanks to the BBC too, greta coverage.

My only moan was at any event where dancers/cheerleaders came out, the camera retreated to the background and we never saw any of it. Why so PC, BBC? At some events like the beach volleyball it meant we were staring at the background half the time!

Anyway, a great couple of weeks.

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posted Aug 24, 2008

Thanks BBC. I know that it's just not possible to please everyone but (a few dodgy moments on 'Games Today' aside) I think that your Olympic coverage has been truly outstanding. Well done.

Thanks for the forums and the people on them too. Very entertaining. It's been a great two weeks!

Here's to 2012

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posted Aug 24, 2008

Go take a pill. Or perhaps several.

How can you seriously say we have no culture?

How about Shakespeare, Geoffrey Chaucer, Jane Austen Thackeray, Charles Dickens, the Brontë sisters, Thomas Hardy, Conan Doyle and Anthony Trollope, H. G. Wells, D. H. Lawrence, Virginia Woolf, EM Forster, George Orwell, Graham Greene, J.R.R.Tolkien....Beatles, Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Queen, the entire Britpop collection etc.etc.....We invented most of the sports now played at international level; football, cricket, rugby, tennis, golf and so on....then there is the English language....we pretty much invented the modern world from the Industrial Revolution to the computer and the world wide web....


----------------------------------------------

I am already falling asleep. Shakespare and charles dickens in the olympics ceremony?

yu are one big joker

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posted Aug 24, 2008

Actually I agree with devonmarc.
Didn't like the new logo when it came out - much preferred the flowing ribbons of the bid logo; but it's already growing on me, and I'm beginning to suspect that we'll quite like it by the times the Games rock up

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posted Aug 24, 2008

Who would have thought there would be so much negativity?

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posted Aug 24, 2008

"How can you seriously say we have no culture?

How about Shakespeare, Geoffrey Chaucer, Jane Austen Thackeray, Charles Dickens, the Brontë sisters, Thomas Hardy, Conan Doyle and Anthony Trollope, H. G. Wells, D. H. Lawrence, Virginia Woolf, EM Forster, George Orwell, Graham Greene, J.R.R.Tolkien....Beatles, Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Queen, the entire Britpop collection etc.etc.....We invented most of the sports now played at international level; football, cricket, rugby, tennis, golf and so on....then there is the English language....we pretty much invented the modern world from the Industrial Revolution to the computer and the world wide web...."




I love you.

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posted Aug 24, 2008

Why does London seem to think bus stops and zebra crossings are unique to London? They have them all over the world. What I honestly can't see is 40,000 Londoners volunteering their services for two weeks for free. Out of that miserable lot they'll do well to muster up ten volunteers.

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posted Aug 24, 2008

Privet hedges aren't representative of Britain. Most people have ripped them up and concreted over their front lawn to create space for parking...

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posted Aug 24, 2008

Vicade, suck it up, you sad little boy.

I'm done with you, as I suspect everyone else is.

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posted Aug 24, 2008

in four years time, these ceremonies, as amazing as they were, will be just be a vague collection of images. fireworks, performers with lighted suits, people flying on wires and the oddest collection of costumes and colours you'll ever see. the london interlude was refreshing. its great to eat chocolate cake and a bit of whipped cream on top is good, but after a gallon, your eyes glaze and you want something simpler. fantastic games but they threw in everything they could possibly imagine. london will be just as memorable but in different ways

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posted Aug 24, 2008

~My only moan was at any event where dancers/cheerleaders came out, the camera retreated to the background and we never saw any of it. Why so PC, BBC? At some events like the beach volleyball it meant we were staring at the background half the time!"

-----------------
Do you really think there are BBC cameramen there? It's the host broadcaster doing all that stuff.

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posted Aug 24, 2008

Not sure about the umbrella's guys - the Japanese commentator said something along the lines of "ah umbrellas - London is a city with much rain!"

Also my Japanese wife said "is Led Zepplin English?" (young enough to remember them first time round!)

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posted Aug 24, 2008

also who was the violinist she was hot

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posted Aug 24, 2008

No Aussie's on here at the moment? I guess they must all be busy licking their wounds or ceating more excuses why we BEAT THEM in the medals table!!

... or maybe they're putting together a package with which they'll hope to lure away our cycling and swimming coaches! hahahaha!

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posted Aug 24, 2008

We invented most of the sports now played at international level; football, cricket, rugby, tennis, golf and so on....then there is the English language....we pretty much invented the modern world from the Industrial Revolution to the computer and the world wide web...

----------------------------------------------

you are good inventors no doubt but terrible players.How many of the sports you invented are you best at today ?

Laziness.it is good to invent but what do you do with your invention? where do you go from there?
NO WHERE.Lazy Lots.

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posted Aug 24, 2008

Oh my god, it's Jackie Chan. This IS the best games ever....

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posted Aug 24, 2008

eek!Amoose - I think there were different feeds as they went to a background camera and had a BBC reporter talking over it / in front of it. Anyway, a small point in a great games.

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posted Aug 24, 2008

eek!Amoose (U8559896) each country will have control over what they want to show to their viewers.

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posted Aug 24, 2008

vicade - your an idiot. nuff said

Brilliant closing ceremony. I wonder if the UK had a $40 billion budget, if we could top that? The Chinese people have really put on a show.

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posted Aug 24, 2008

Sorry, Aussies GB 47 Oz 46 - Lets hope we have a great Ashes series, keep the banter going, and good luck to both sides

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posted Aug 24, 2008

Vicade - are you by any chance a second or third generation UK immigrant. Your attitude is boringly familiar. If the British are such lazy louts and the culture so empty, may I suggest that you buy a house in China and spend the rest of your life soaking up their marvellously rich history and culture.

You'd not be missed.

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