Well considering that London won the bid to host the games on the condition there would be a lasting sporting legacy, as well as regeneration of an area to benefit the whole community, that it will more than likely end up as a large commercial development area will sadly make the original promises and pledges worthless.

I would hope that the sporting venues that are staying (aquatics centre and velodrome) ARE run as a commercial venture so that people can turn up and pay to use them, like every other sporting facility. (Actually, this one can run either way, a lot of sports facilities are council run and subsidised…) I would hope that it brings in commercial development which invests in the area, provides jobs, homes etc for people.

On the one hand you’ve got people moaning about it being a vast waste of taxpayers money, on the other hand as soon as anyone suggest commercial development to bring in money, they’re against it! Can’t have it both ways.

TSY – no, I haven’t. Have always enjoyed track and field, used to run for around 10 years and helped out at school and local athletics club. But my principles are very strong on this issue and my contributions on the post-viral thread will make it obvious.

I am pootling again so don’t say I’m stressy. 😉

Ahhh… see my guess was that you werem’t enjoying watching others exercise whilst you couldn’t do likewise yourself.

What are your principles on this then?

On any given day STW has more than it’s fair share of miserable sods. But this thread is great for identifying the most miserable of them all.

Well done to all of them, you truly are STW’s most miserable sods.

God help anyone who knows you.

What are those black boxes infront of the spectators? (i,m guessing the obvious answer is speakers but i thought i would ask anyway :-).

I’m guessing they were the pixels in the opening ceremony

cinnamon_girl – Member
….we may even see some proper anarchy

I guess that’d be the comfortably orf middle-class middle-aged shire-living anarchy: maybe an untrimmed hedge or two, a crooked floral border, unfilled bird feeders, rowdy ball games on the green and an unkempt shrubbery 😆

GALFFS….

Yes I’d love to hear about these principles too. What is it about enjoying a London Olympic Games that bars entry to ethical nirvana?

I’m guessing they were the pixels in the opening ceremony

Most seats have a little ‘paddle’ with a 3×3 grid of LEDs on them. They’re computer controlled so they can display pictures across the whole seating area. You can see them if you look at this somewhat large panorama I took:

Nah, that wouldn’t bother me!

I feel the country is in a total mess and the Government isn’t facing up to its responsibilities. Am having to shell out for medical treatment that the NHS won’t do, countless others are suffering in differing ways, and it’s not going to get any better.

It’s insulting that money can be spent so frivolously.

And breathe …

Anyway, how are you doing? What are you training for just now?

I guess that’d be the comfortably orf middle-class middle-aged shire-living anarchy: maybe an untrimmed hedge or two, a crooked floral border, unfilled bird feeders, rowdy ball games on the green and an unkempt shrubbery

GALFFS….

Oh dear, resorting to insults. 🙄

mikeconnor – Member

I understand the velodrom and aquatics centre are permanent, but the future of the stadium is uncertain. it will be sad if it is not preserved for the purpose it was intended. i think it would make an excellent athletics stadium for venue for a lot of silly Kevins to ride around being righton whilst keeping out of the way of the grown-ups of London.

I would hope that the sporting venues that are staying (aquatics centre and velodrome) ARE run as a commercial venture so that people can turn up and pay to use them, like every other sporting facility. (Actually, this one can run either way, a lot of sports facilities are council run and subsidised…) I would hope that it brings in commercial development which invests in the area, provides jobs, homes etc for people.

On the one hand you’ve got people moaning about it being a vast waste of taxpayers money, on the other hand as soon as anyone suggest commercial development to bring in money, they’re against it! Can’t have it both ways.

i am personallu looking forward to being able to visit the velodrome for sporting events, and to be able to use it myself. I hope this will be the case. i accept that a certain amount of commercial involvement is necessary. I have no problem with that. Hopefully the commercial development of the area will bring in jobs, but will they necessarily be for local people? Most of those employed in nearyby Canary Wharf for example are people from outside the area, who commute in. I would like to see a lot more investment in local education and healthcare, rather than just more ‘luxury apartments’. If there is to be this much lauded ‘lasting legacy’, then it should begin locally. There is massive potential in that area, and it’s vital that this is considered. i am fearful this will not be the case however, as past efforts have not had anywhere near the beneficial effect first claimed. i’m struggling to see how it will be different this time.

cinnamon_girl – Member

Oh dear, resorting to insults.

No, just gently prodding your middle class sensibilities old thing 😆

i am personallu looking forward to being able to visit the velodrome for sporting events, and blah blah blah

We’d better alert the media. You could dove-tail your concerns into the next parade of numpties cluttering up the intersections of the city.

It’s insulting that money can be spent so frivolously.

I thought that we (the nation) had made a comittment to host it. It’s not like we could ask everyone else to ‘bring a dish’, is it?

I don’t disagree with you re the Gov’t. It’s the Torys being Torys. Maybe we need some more strikes?

I don’t disagree with you re the Gov’t. It’s the Torys being Torys. Maybe we need some more strikes?

Tragically I’ve just found out the nearby Little Chef has been converted to a Starbucks 🙁
My plan of organising a run to it, eating an Olympic breakfast then seeing who can get the furthest without throwing up has been fatally scuppered.

The Hockey stadium is a temporary kit and off to Brazil as soon as the Olympics finishes.

The stadium may be a temporary fixture, but the 2 pitches are going to be moved up the road to Lea valley park so local clubs will be using them after the games. I’m disappointed that they didn’t stick to the original downsizable athletics stadium plan, but at least some sports will genuinely benefit from the games legacy at grass roots.

My plan of organising a run to it, eating an Olympic breakfast then seeing who can get the furthest without throwing up has been fatally scuppered.

Dont diss the ‘limpic brekkie! thats proper athlete food that is

No, just gently prodding your middle class sensibilities old thing

Sorry to disappoint mate but no ‘middle class sensibilities’ will be found on my person.

Try harder.

.

Are there any flies on you, c_g? 🙂

Yeah I know I can be a right grumpy cah sometimes! 😳

cinnamon_girl – Member
Yeah I know I can be a right grumpy cah sometimes!

yeah, me too – sorry for the dig 😳

Don’t apologise for being grumpy.

Anyway, another thing that grates about the games is the underlying ethos that because some of our nationals (even the plastic nationals) can excel in a sport, that somehow this means that everything is all right with the world and is a cause for mindless celebration. I’m uncomfortable with that sort of chauvanistic undercurrent. Perhaps the long shadow of Berlin 1936 still looms…

So what you are saying is that because the world is far from perfect, we cant enjoy seeing the finest athletes striving to perform their very best. That the very definition of miserableism and I’m not going to live like that.

You can enjoy what you want. I’m sickened by it all.

ohnohesback – Member
You can enjoy what you want. I’m sickened by it all.

Sickened?….jesus christ, some people really need to learn about perspective.

At the weekend i went out to an old lady who had been tortured for a few hours (burned with boiling water, waterboarding etc etc) until she handed over her jewellery and remembered the code to her safe….its on the news at the moment….that was sickening.

ohnohesback – Member

You can enjoy what you want. I’m sickened by it all.

Are you Morrissey?

I struggle with long sentences, but….

I was/am a big skeptic about many aspects of the olympics, but I always said I would enjoy some of the actual sport (which is what it was originally supposed to be about, eh?).

While enjoying the British success, I do find that the BBC (and most of the rest of the press TBH) has more than a hint of nationalist propaganda about it at the moment – and it’s as if any problems have all been washed away on a tide of patriotism.

Grum….maybe the press are hoping some feel good factor and inspiration from the Olympics will help in the economic recovery after the game? (tenuous i know) but sometimes a country needs a kick up the arse to snap it out of the apathy present at the moment.

I think it’s all pretty good. I would have enjoyed it almost as much which ever country it was in because it’s great to see all the different sports on the telly. This Olympics I got to go and see a couple of events, which was nice. A bit of successs for the home team is good and it great to see athletes giving there all from any country. Great to for all those people who worked hard to make it happen or who are working now being part of a successful event.
It been great to know that it’s making miserable moaning gits even more miserable and unhappy.

It been great to know that it’s making miserable moaning gits even more miserable and unhappy

Delighting in the misery of others…How very British 🙂

Thanks I was hoping for a gold medal in delighting others anti olympic misery. 🙂

that somehow this means that everything is all right with the world and is a cause for mindless celebration

Don’t be so sodding ridiculous.

People do need to be happy from time to time. Which is why we have movies, books, art, sport, that kind of thing.

Well i’ve not read all of this but I can gather the usual suspects and indeed a new one (hello mikeconnor) are telling us all what is fundamentally wrong with the olympics. Personally i’ve really enjoyed it and i dont normally follow the olympics and its been good conversation with family, friends and people at work, non of whom would be normally interested. I dont buy into the idea that we are a bunch of slack jawed drones that need to be spoon fed and constant stream of media hype. I just think we have spent the past few years being constantly told how bad EVERYTHING is and this has provided some real exitement and good news. Of course it wont ultimately change the world on many levels but its two weeks of “holiday” from the daily grind. As for the money, well its a lot of cash that could have probably been more wisely spent but I’m never convinced that £xxx amount spent here would have gone automatically to a “better” cause. I often say to my wife that we work hard for our money and i’ll be buggered if it all goes on bills and the stuff that sustains us, and that from time to time we should spend some cash (ususally very small) on what we like to do. Whats the point otherwise?

Well i’ve not read all of this but I can gather the usual suspects and indeed a new one (hello mikeconnor) are telling us all what is fundamentally wrong with the olympics.

There you go, assuming something without even bothering to read it first.

I have no problem with the sporting side of the olympics, in fact I’m loving it. I do have concerns over the furture so-called ‘legacy’ of the games, as do many others, particularly those living in east London. Forgive me for not burying my head in the sand of corporate sponsored blinkered nationalism.

Good ho! I made no assumptions mike unlike you who seem to be implying something about me I was just forwarding my experience of it all. I did read what you have said (and you appeared critical of people spending all day on this forum yet were on my post pretty quick!). I’m not going to apologise for being happy at the team GB performance, they have done well (as have all the atheletes), I’m a big boy, fella and dispite what you may think i am perfectly capable of looking at the event as a whole. But carry on i really dont mind.

blimey. what a bunch of moaners.

Been to a few events, diving and track. Seen world class athletes and had a fantastic time. Watched some on the telly, enjoyed the fact that GB have won a few medals.

Have got on with my life.

Havent forgotten that the world is not perfect.

Have kept a sense of perspective about the whole thing.

Have paid for it, a mars bar a week for 7 years (dirty londoner)

Do think there will be a legacy (is there a correlation between the sheffield games and yorkshires current crop?). If nothing else renewed pressure on govt to spend more on school sport.

Really think you should step down out your ivory towers, switch off the internet and try and enjoy the lympics. Youve paid for it afterall.

Lighten up.

Re gottapickapenny: Australia & Greece not doing very well this time despite recent Olympics so will be interesting to see for the future in GB.

Watched loads on the tellybox as struggled to get tickets. Was at the ladies boxing earlier today though to see Katie Taylor win. What an atmosphere for that one and will be again tomorrow:

P8080985 by blackhound59, on Flickr