Imagine it. Four or five years ago, g and I were walking down our street in London talking about what the future may hold. Moving? Children? Jobs? Then, I added another…dual-citizenship? G bristled a bit and said ‘no, surely we won’t be here that long’ and we agreed to disagree. A few months later, g reopened the topic and the rest is history. So, here we are 6 years on, and it seemed somehow fitting that we submitted our application for dual citizenship on the eve of the Olympics’ opening ceremony. I won’t say that we felt as though it was in our honor…but it did make us proud to be almost British.
So many stateside friends have written to check on us this week and to see if we have tickets. Thank you! And thank you to the IOC for their months of warnings regarding the anticipated crowding problems during the games. Want to know a secret? For us, traveling now is actually more pleasant than traveling in the tube or overground just about any other time of the year. I’m sure some are affected, but we haven’t been. We’re still scoring seats!
Why? How? I have a theory. The British are lovely and oh so polite. So, when given the prospect of having their city taken over by others who are not quite so lovely or polite, they decide to leave town. As they have now. Christmas is also one of our favourite times in London because it is extremely quiet. We feel as if the cafes are our own. So is the case now with the games in town.
And, we did manage to get tickets. We’ll spend next Sunday afternoon at the games, we’ll see water polo in the Pringle chip aquatics centre and are excited for it.
My only lament about the games is the way in which ticket sales were handled. The chances of getting tickets in last year’s lottery scheme were minuscule. We were the only ones (so as we know) of our friends to score tickets, despite many applying. Now, to see the stadiums 1/4 to 1/2 empty makes me sad. How this happened, I don’t know…but it’s a real shame. Alas…we’ll go Sunday, stay tuned for photos!
What did you think of Friday’s opening ceremony?