2012 Summer Olympics - with my daughter.

I searched and searched online for a live steam of the opening of the 2012 Olympics, frustrated by the continuous banned videos on Youtube, I was obliged to wait for NBC's primetime pre-taped showing at 8 pm - "Wow" now that's control and I was stunned and annoyed but I soon forgot about my outrage when finally sitting in front of the television with my daughter and husband, I was instantly pulled in as the balloons popped on each countdown number, 10 - 9 - 8 .... 3 -2 -1 and the ceremony began. A 2 meter tall and 23 ton harmonically-tuned bell was rang by Tour de France hero Bradley Wiggins, and the Shakespeare-inspired spectacle begun with 900 children from the six east London host boroughs, singing.

The actual Glastonbury-Tor

I loved the Glastonbury Tor they created – a holy hill in south west England – and the giant oak where later all nations flags were planted. There was so much happening in the opening scene, a story that was being told and I had my daughter questioning every part, I realized how little I knew of history. Then the pounding of the drums began, and ushered in Britain’s industrial revolution, slowing transforming the stadium before our own eyes, I couldn't take my eyes off trying to see every detail and masterpiece of Danny Boyle, director of Slumdog Millionaire. 

My favorite - well I had many favorite moments such as Bond and The Queen but it was Musician Mike Oldfield playing Tubular Bells, as the tribute to the world of children’s literature begun, that really took me away. Flashback to childhood bedtime stories, my daughter enjoyed it too. It was magical, in a rare public appearance, Harry Potter author JK Rowling started the tale. The nurses seen in the picture were real nurses, not actors or dancers! How amazing it must have been for these people and these children to take part of this grand event. 

My daughter and I had created our own Olympic torches, we took white paper that we drew on with markers, then rolled it into a cone. Four square light tissue papers in colors of orange, red, and yellow, were crunched to look like flames, simply place the four tissues on top of each other, pinch the middle, turn it over, crunch the top and tape the pointy bottom - Voilà! So each time our Country entered the stadium we waved our torches, and I say each time as we have three to root for, our motherland, my country of birth, and the one we adopted. But you know, always the one you grew up in is the one your heart belongs to. 



I didn't care much for all that rock'n'roll history, the boy, the girl who lost her phone .... yawn ... but the tribute to Tim Berners-Lee inventor of the world wide web was very nice. Overall, it was entertaining. We turned the evening into a family event, after a long hard week, it was delightful to see The Queen parachuting down from an Helicopter and hear my daughter scream, "look mommy!! It's Mr. Bean!!" 

After all this entire amazing Spectacle wouldn't have been right without Rowan Atkins, let alone Paul McCartney at the closing.

Fabulous!