When the Cheshire emerges...

If anyone has learned anything about me recently it's that I love sport. More as a spectator than a player (although the world game's what I play), and particularly a slave to the biggest events.
The Olympics is the ultimate. It's always captured me as something special, with the sports showcasing true patriotism and sportsmanship. London 2012's been an improvement on Beijing because of the time difference - I was working or at uni throughout the 2008 games which didn't help much. But while there have already been some great moments and I'm loving it, hasn't London served up its drama so far?...
The Opening Ceremony

Didn't watch it all in the end, although I saw highlights on TV. Woke up to have just missed Greece and then Australia walk into the stadium. While disappointed about that, I'm not really a stickler for watching it anyway. I never saw Nikki Webster's gig in full back in 2000.

I was really underwhelmed by the choice to have the kids light the cauldron. Initial reaction was along the lines of: "Really? That's it?" To be fair, no-one saw it coming. It was simple, and preluding to a new generation. But after first thinking it was a nice gesture I got really angry because they hadn't earned that right when there were so many athletes that could've done it. I think it's a copout that organisers pretty much said "OK, we can't pick from you seven so you each pick a kid and it'll be this awesome symbolic thing."

Not a fan.

Days 1-3

Day 4's started now, but so far Australia has, for our standards anyway, failed to deliver. Feels a bit like Beijing where we didn't find our ground for some time. Tomic and Stosur out in the tennis, ironically leaving only Hewitt in for the hunt. What a fighter he's ended up being. Cadel Evans out of the individual time trial from fatigue, two falls in our equestrian team...
Then the pool.


The men's 4x100 freestyle relay. They came fourth. OK, so that wasn't good when they were expected to win. But that's the luck of the draw. Then poor Matt Targett had to front up in the 9 studio TWICE to break it down. It was all the coverage could latch onto and it was way too much. They asked so much of him and yet he handled it so well. Meanwhile, glad Nick D'Arcy's on a plane home, Christian Sprenger's reaction to his silver win was so amazing (and unfortunately overshadowed by the relay bombout), while I felt for Emily Seebohm in the other extreme to coming second - because I would've blubbered exactly the same.

The coverage

This is really bad sportsmanship because I appreciate the challenges live TV would create, but really, I want to punch Leila McKinnon in the face. Her adlibbing is not up to scratch and watching in the mornings is awkward. The whole production's not up to scratch. Among numerous glitches we've already seen Alicia Coutts' semi-final race played instead of the final where she won bronze in the morning highlights (with McKinnon's "Oh it's the wrong race!" heard as it finished), her not being told what camera to look at... and then rehashing so much of the same thing when we could be seeing more live coverage, perhaps of a different sport. Like HANDBALL. Not everyone wants Australia to be in every single event shown.
I am glad James Brayshaw's got a gig with the rowing though. He and Giaan Rooney by the pool save this from 9 being completely boring. Oh, hang on, this is 9 we're talking about. Don't know if they can save themselves from that.

Damn, all I can think about is how much I'm missing Bruce McAvaney's calls right now.