Olympic Fever!

Almost 7 years to the day since it was announce in Singapore that London had won the right to host the 2012 Olympics, the Olympic flame was carried through my city. It is completing a journey of 8000 miles. I am not sure if that includes the bit from Greece. The journey isn't being completed in my city I hasten to add, just about half way through.

Now a few of you may be aware that I can be a be a bit of a miserable git when the want takes me. I was very pleased that London had won it's bid, largely because it wiped a very smug smile of a bunch of Frenchmen. I had decided though that I am used to seeing the games on TV. And the coverage is very good. My experience of track and field events in the flesh is that a whole bunch of stuff is going on all at once and if you are looking the wrong way you will miss it. Indeed during my first real game of footy I was constantly disappointed at the lack of an instant replay!

So when the chance to enter the lottery for tickets was announced I didn't bother. I was relieved I didn't. Of the two families I know that did they got nothing. The  trick it seemed was to bid for lots of stuff. The problem for me was that you couldn't pick and choose which ones you accepted. You gave them your bank/payment details and your given sports and you would only realise you had won something when your account was emptied. 

Then there was the problem that many of the events are, naturally enough being staged in and around London. Not exactly next door! I have got some soccer events nearby and I might just try getting into one. They are being staged in Newcastle, Sunderland fans will not enter the ground unless Sunderland are playing there - so half the local population have excluded themselves. My son might enjoy it but my daughter....?

So to today. I thought even if I wasn't going to go mad for the Olympics I should go and see the flame. For some reason that still holds some sort of special appeal, maybe because it is free... no surely not! I decided that I would try and take a quality picture I could treasure of the occasion. I thought of the route and felt that the best picture would be of the flame passing under the great shape of the cathedral. 

The weather today was lousy. I dressed up in bestest waterproof trousers and raincoat and set off on the 3 mile hike into the city. I wasn't going by car - nowhere to park. And I wasn't sure of the buses either. I really needed the exercise so hike it was. 

The sun came out.

All hot and sticky I replenished my carbs with a portion of chips from my fave chip shop above. then started the last leg around Durham to my "spot".

It started to rain. And hard. I felt quite smug at that point as I was the only person appropriately dressed for the weather. I reached for my fancy camera (not fancy enough it seems) and went all David Bailey. I framed the shot I wanted. This though, is where my camera skills and camera were found wanting. The shot i framed was probably going to make the flame carrier seem almost invisible. Still it might work I thought optimistically (remind me to tell you about optimism sometime). I set the camera to take continuous photos as long as I kept my finger on the shutter. I had a nice empty disc so i should be able to capture the flames entire journey across Old Elvet Bridge.

Compare and contrast this view with my own later!

The problem I had was that the flame bearer was going to appears very suddenly from the right of the above picture and, unless the bearer had 2 false hips and a walking stick, was going to be on the bridge a matter of a minute at most and my frame was about halfway across. The other problem was that if my camera went into standby mode for any length of time I would have to go through the menu's all over again and then get my picture. I would miss the moment. So for the next 40 minutes or so I had to just press the shutter to fool the camera that I wasn't the blithering idiot it thought I was and had left the power on. The plan was going well. 

Below me was a pleasure craft called the Prince Bishop

The top deck you see here was laid out with two large barbecue grills. As the rain came down I was a little distracted to watch the fella start to light these behemoths of cooking. He took a couple of packets of paper tissues and wedged them in between the briquettes evenly spaced in two rows. That would never get the things going I thought. So, It seems did the geezer on the boat he then took a 5 litre bottle of what I presumed was barbecue lighter fluid and emptied the whole Gawdamned thing onto both grills. He then came to the decision that this was still not enough so he emptied another one! I was ready with my camera but chickened out of taking a photo of it in case it was used in some form of health and safety litigation later on. I was surprised when the whole thing didn't go off like Hiroshima and even more surprised that it didn't even take the boat with it.

At that moment a mother of One of my son's friends recognised me and stopped for a quick chat and we swapped a few comments about remembering this moment for the rest of your life etc. She soon moved on.

It was then I saw a strange thing. A girl had started to cross the bridge but her hair seemed to be on fire.....

OH MY GIDDY AUNT IT WAS THE TORCH!

I scrambled for my camera, which I was protecting from the rain. I lifted it to my eye and saw complete darkness! I had forgotten to keep it switched on. It came on quickly and I framed and hurriedly shot. But the blasted thing only took a single shot. I just had time to get one more off and then a desperate last flick and she was gone and it was all over. Never to be seen again in my lifetime!

This is a cropped version of the second pic I took. Not quite the result i imagined when I set out

Compare it to the original

Was it worth the effort?