Blog: The Victory Parade

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In my house we've had a FANTASTIC summer of 'Lympics. We'd INVESTED in it EARLY (pretty much since Bejing) due to the ENTHUSIASM and subsequent INVOLVEMENT of Mr S Hewitt, and ever since the Torch arrived in the UK it's been a fantastic display of JOY, EXCITEMENT, and all round loveliness. As everyone and her uncle has said, it's been like a bizarre SEA CHANGE, especially in LONDON where people have found themselves being NICE, also HAPPY and SMILING. It's been a) WEIRD b) ACE!

The Athletes In My Village and I have both been rather dreading it ending, and so decided to do our best to see it all off in style. We'd both planned to go to the MARATHON on Sunday, but as I was still in bed poorly she went on her own - and found it to be AMAAAAAZING! Thus we were determined to go to the Victory Parade on Monday and, as I was now HEALED (and I'd booked the day off, so was DEFINITELY not going to spendit poorly!) that is exactly what we did.

We rolled up outside St Pauls over an hour early, with Olympic t-shirts, packed lunches and a camping stool. Middle-Aged people, ROCKING! The atmosphere was great - we CHATTED to fellow Londoners AGANE, everyone seemed happy, and nearby was a vast mob of schoolchildren, getting EXTRAORDINARILY EXCITED! It was gorgeous, and it seemed a bit ODD, like Darkseid wandering into a Spider-man comic, when some City Bankers came and joined the crowd. "NO!" i thought, "Wrong Universe! Go back to your place, this is LYMPIC HAPPY WORLD!"

Reports came in via ubiquitous smart phones that the parade had got started, and soon it was heralded by motorcycle police... HIGH FIVING the crowd as they sped past! The mounted police did the same, almost as if they'd seen how much everyone had liked The Games Makers and wanted IN on the action. If THAT is a legacy of the games - security and police people finally realising that TREATING PEOPLE LIKE HUMAN BEINGS is a better way to work - then it'll have paid for itself a hundred times over.

Next we saw the LIONS at the front coming towards us and then - OH MY LORD! - there was Mo Farrah! About six foot away from us! And Jess Ennis! And... ALL OF THEM!

HELL'S TEETH I have never seen so may AMAZING people all at once - it was like a living breath MONTAGE of all the best bits. I don't think I've ever been such a STATE before either, as I spent the next fifteen minutes CRYING and GRINNING and WAVING and CHEERING like a WAZZOCK as the entire wonderful experience of the past six weeks went by, waving and grinning back. "IT'S HER OFF THE TELLY!" my BRANE kept screaming, and by the time the Games Makers themselves came by I was just a waving/smiling/shouting/weeping hunk of EXHAUSTION. We saw ACTUAL Ellie Simmonds! Hannah Cockcroft! Johnie Peacock! THE LOT!

Eager to keep it all going we had a couple of goes trying, and failing, to get to Trafalgar Square, before deciding to make one last attempt on at least seeing the final flypast by going to Green Park. This was an EXCELLENT THING. We arrived to find a BIG SCREEN and not many people at all, so sat and had a cup of tea to watch the end of the parade and wait for the planes. Usually we watch the flypasts in our back garden, ducking back into the kitchen after each lot goes over to see them described as they get to Buckingham Palace, but this time we did it the other way round - getting the descriptions and then going "OOOH!" as they flew overhead. I've seen The Red Arrows a MILLION times, but still: every time I see them I think "IT'S THE RED ARROWS!!!! ZANG!"

And with that we went home, watching the rest of the ceremony at tea-time on the tivo box. During this I realised i am officially OLD ("Ah, the Pet Shop Boys! This is PROPER music, not that Coldplay nonsense!") and experienced the rare emotion of almost feeling sorry for David Cameron, as Boris Johnson WIPED THE FLOOR with him. I mean, I know Boris is a hateful right-wing nutter who would utterly destroy the country (and thus, NOT a leg-end) but that WAS a funny speech. Mind you, I'm sure POL POT could get a LARF every now and then, doesn't mean you want him getting his hands on the NATION.

And so, with thoughts such as these, we ease ourselves gently back into normality. Next morning the news said that the TUBE, which has worked so COMPLETELY for the entire summer, will be going back to being "repaired" (or "mostly shut" as it's also known) this weekend, and the summer slowly drifts into memory. It's sad that the whole thing's over, but it's also a little bit of a relief - now we can safely pack this whole summer away, safe in the knowledge that it DID all work out, nothing horrible DID happen, and it was all a beautiful experience that we can look back on and think "that actually HAPPENED, and I was a tiny little part of it."

Just don't show me a picture of Seb Coe, or Clare Balding, or The Weir Wolf, not yet. I fear i will BLUB!

posted 13/9/2012 by MJ Hibbett

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