Spot the Flame
Yet another thing I missed over the weekend was the 'glorious' arrival of the Olympic Flame in London. Though as far as I can tell, it wouldn't have mattered where I was, I wouldn't have seen said flame as the number of police/security/sinister-looking-men-in-blue-tracksuits surrounding it totally obscured the view.
I did get to see the BBC's later coverage though, which I thought was a triumph of pragmatism. They had clearly designed it weeks, if not months, ago - with specially-composed theme music, uplifting stories of young athletes overcoming personal tragedy, frankly naff dress rehearsals by Grecian Nymphs, the lot, and then had to change it all when the day was spectacularly hijacked by protesters. I thought they interwove what was supposed to happen with what really went on beautifully, sitting precariously on the diplomatic fence with one eye on democracy, the other on being allowed by the Chinese to cover the Olympics later this year.
Even more interesting was ex-Blue Peter presenter Konnie Huq (never heard of her, m'self - well after my time...) on Today this morning talking about those sinister men in blue. She said she saw them scuffling with the police themselves earlier in the day and that no one knew who the hell they were. They barked orders at her, manhandled her and sound extremely heavy-handed in their treatment of everyone, including our own boys in blue. Presumably Chinese Secret Service. Sounds to me as though they were a hell of a lot scarier than the protester who pinched her flame.
Dazza tried to get down to Greenwich to get a glimspe of the flame arriving at the O2. It was a total waste of time acccording to him:
"It was so nice of 'them' to decide that the residents of this Fine Borough weren't important enough to warrant a view of said Torch. Not even a grinning/waving Ellen MacArthur to greet the 'Fans' who had lined both sides of the river. I would have thought that this would have been the best chance anyone would have got to see it without the ring of Chinese Blue, the Police Yellow and then The Black ring obscuring all but the hardiest of snappers..."
Dazza got a photo. Of sorts. Put a cross where you think the flame should be.
Did anyone actually see anything? I guess at least it made China look really bad everywhere except China, whose state-run TV station got a nice story about tractors instead.
Maybe this will inspire other countries.
I did get to see the BBC's later coverage though, which I thought was a triumph of pragmatism. They had clearly designed it weeks, if not months, ago - with specially-composed theme music, uplifting stories of young athletes overcoming personal tragedy, frankly naff dress rehearsals by Grecian Nymphs, the lot, and then had to change it all when the day was spectacularly hijacked by protesters. I thought they interwove what was supposed to happen with what really went on beautifully, sitting precariously on the diplomatic fence with one eye on democracy, the other on being allowed by the Chinese to cover the Olympics later this year.
Even more interesting was ex-Blue Peter presenter Konnie Huq (never heard of her, m'self - well after my time...) on Today this morning talking about those sinister men in blue. She said she saw them scuffling with the police themselves earlier in the day and that no one knew who the hell they were. They barked orders at her, manhandled her and sound extremely heavy-handed in their treatment of everyone, including our own boys in blue. Presumably Chinese Secret Service. Sounds to me as though they were a hell of a lot scarier than the protester who pinched her flame.
Dazza tried to get down to Greenwich to get a glimspe of the flame arriving at the O2. It was a total waste of time acccording to him:
"It was so nice of 'them' to decide that the residents of this Fine Borough weren't important enough to warrant a view of said Torch. Not even a grinning/waving Ellen MacArthur to greet the 'Fans' who had lined both sides of the river. I would have thought that this would have been the best chance anyone would have got to see it without the ring of Chinese Blue, the Police Yellow and then The Black ring obscuring all but the hardiest of snappers..."
Dazza got a photo. Of sorts. Put a cross where you think the flame should be.
Did anyone actually see anything? I guess at least it made China look really bad everywhere except China, whose state-run TV station got a nice story about tractors instead.
Maybe this will inspire other countries.
Labels: Events
posted by The Greenwich Phantom at
11:48
6 Comments:
I suppose if I had gone to The O2 I could have got a shot of Dame Kelly doing the honours.....Did you notice on the news that the Chinese Guys actually seemed to tell her where to put the flame to light the cauldron? As if she didn't know, or was it that they were thinking she might try and put it elsewhere????.
On a different tack.....does anyone know who it was that arrived by sinister looking Big Black Helicopter in the grounds of ORNC around 17.00 Sunday? As I was waiting for the 'flame' I saw it come down and land just behind the Domes of the College. I worked it out that either it had come down in front of the Queens House or where the ice rink was......any suggestions????
Wow, that's probably the closest any spectator got to the flame without being arrested.
As I mentioned on the Phantom's previous post about this, I tried to find out where we'd get a view of the flame arriving at the O2 (or rather, where the press would get a view of me protesting in the background!), and it was a complete no-go. I did a recce on the Saturday and a sympathetic policeman told me that I'd be better off in central London - basically the flame was going to be hustled off the boat and into the Dome asap. The 3000 tickets for inside the Dome were taken some time ago (presumably by the Chinese government, Chinese students, and the hired heavies) - and my friendly bobby said that for personal safety reasons, he definitely wouldn't advise trying to infiltrate and protest inside, as the pro-Beijing lot would greatly outnumber any pro-Tibet supporters and I'd get lynched.
All in all, a damp squib. Bit like that flame...
And does anyone know what was going on when what seemed like a dozen Chinooks flew over East Greenwich this morning? My son and I counted 13 (though some could have been earlier ones returning, or just turning round, it was hard to tell...)
I only saw 2 but they were flying around in circles, passing overhead several times......Looked like they were playing chase...good to know that the MOD are spending their Millions wisely!!!
The invisible flame on a small boat bobbing down the Thames was a bit of an anti-climax.
It would have been so much better if the torch had travelled from Canary Wharf to the Dome via the Blackwall Tunnel.
@dazza
I was wondering about that helicopter too. Maybe it was one of the stars or the director of the film that's being shot over there at the moment.
@kratch
Apparently the airspace above Greenwich is used to put helicopters in a holding pattern while they wait for permission to fly North over London.
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