For a weekend that hasn’t actually been that busy, I somehow haven’t found time to blog regularly (or at all). I’m really enjoying watching the Olympics, especially seeing as I recognize the places where it’s being held (I love the idea of beach volleyball in Horseguards’ Parade) and there’s a certain sense of patrotism associated with it being on home turf. And how about the opening ceremony, eh? There’s been the old naysayers, “Beijing was a million times better”, but I honestly thought that Beijing was… alright. It didn’t blow me away, didn’t appeal to me, didn’t really show me anything much. I’d rather be associated with the Queen, James Bond, the NHS, Mr Bean, children’s literature and the creator of the internet than getting a 7 year old to sing but telling her another girl was going to take the credit and appear, because the actual singer wasn’t “pretty enough”.
I loved the tribute to the NHS; I thought it was beautifully done, and the lights on the beds were so skillful. How about those puppets too? The giant Voldemort rising into the sky, the beds flying up – everyone was amazing! I loved the way they lit the Olympic torch too; I thought that was brilliant and really captured the motto of these games – inspiring a generation. They’re the next generation of Olympians we’ll be seeing in 4/8 years time, and to have them featured was brilliant. Danny Boyle really showed his genius with that opening ceremony. I loved the children from the four nations singing national songs (although I’d have liked Cwm Rhondda to be in Welsh 😉 ) and the Industrial Revolution section, with those drums and that music, was phenomenal, and Pandemonium was certainly an apt name to it. Every bit of it – including the memorial to the war dead, the moment of silence with the poppies – was well done. I didn’t really understand the significance of the interpretive dance as a memorial of the 7/7 bombings; I think they could have done something a bit better there, but I’m glad they included a tribute to it, because it has been an important part of the journey since we won the right to host the Olympics seven years ago – the day after we had such jubilation, there was sudden shock and sadness, and it was right to commemorate that.
In other, non-Olympic related news, I can jog! Not incredibly far, but it’s a start. You can sponsor me at http://www.justgiving.com/madison-matthews , please do if you can because it’s such an important cause! Training’s going well, I need to start getting some songs on my mp3 player to motivate me but I have a brilliant training partner in my other (better) half, who is also doing the half marathon (www.justgiving.com/dafydd-williams09) and he’s keeping me going, as is a steady supply of Mini Milk ice creams!
Rehearsals for the musical start a week tomorrow and I’m pretty excited for that, could do with making a start on learning my lines though. Three weeks of rehearsals sounds like a long time but it flies by, especially when you have music and dance rehearsals too, and you’re trying to put it all together! Still, it takes my mind of results day, which is less than three weeks away now!
On that note I shall leave you, with a vow to blog more frequently and my thanks for continuing to read and follow this blog, even though my sporadic updates may be a bit annoying! Your continued readership is much appreciated.
the life of a moomin 