FDLondon

Must say that I agree totally with Athensfan's view of the placard bearer costumes; and I think many of them would too. They really weren't particularly flattering or 'wow'... although I guess you could argue that the attention at that point should be on the flagbearer rather than the placard bearer. Part of the problem with the OC is that there were big cuts made to it timewise; there are bits of Green and Pleasant that were supposed to happen in the main show but ended up only being seen during the preshow (e.g. the football morphing to rugby and all the animal tending) and other segments being tweaked up to the final weeks as they worked with timings. I'm not sure any of those helped with cohesion! Incidentally - the flaming bikes that appeared in the Paralympic Closing were originally slated for the Olympics Opening along with the BMXs that were a late cut.

Likewise; the Croydon return address made me chuckle a little. It appears that there were a few different varients; mine makes specific mention that I was a Ceremonies volunteer - are the Gamesmaker ones specific to your team role or just generic?

I think all visitors will see some of the host broadcaster's output in any case since that's what will be on in most bars/restaurants and in most 'live sites'. It would be good if they could also find a way to see 'their' team more though. Perhaps a future broadcaster with 24 HD channels could use some of them (when there's no live action on them) to show particular nations; they could use that country's highlight show from the night before which would get round having to spend time producing lots of shows but still allow that country's spectators to see more of their athletes.

Wow! I hadn't realised that. I'd assumed that it had disappeared after a week or so. Thanks for pointing that out!

It wasn't quite as strong an effect; but was still definitely in play although possibly primarily more on the Jubilee line that anywhere else. I know certainly if you were wearing accreditation (or pins) people would often try to catch your eye and have a chat about why you were wearing it. I ended up in quite a few interesting conversations that way with families en route to/from the Park in the Paras.

I go to the Diamond League at Crystal Palace on a semi-regular basis (every year that I remember to get tickets before double-booking myself!) and there are quite often some paralympic track events on the Friday night. I think we had 3 races this year.

We were 'mechanicals' for the Opening as a nod to Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream and the fact we were utility cast; being asked to do different things whether on field or during the show in stands. After that we reverted to a more traditional 'audience leader' naming convention although the Mass Production team still slip up occasionally. It has been a lot of fun. We don't get much opportunity for on-camera glory but we get to actually see the full show, chat to everyone and then hop down onto the field at the end for the impromptu party that generally kicks in. But our names still appear in each programme and I have 3 costumes hanging in the wardrobe now!

The athletes parade did over-run by just under an hour; partly because it was quite slippery underfoot so people were perhaps taking it a little slower than expected. We finished the last dress rehearsal at 2315 on Monday night. I can feel every minute of that extra hour this morning in my shoulders after waving my torch overhead to keep the audience gee'ed up. Still... it was worth it; I'll post some pics later if anyone's interested. The audience were great; some did have to leave to catch trains if they lived outside the extended Tube network or if they had kids with them who had conked out. I tried to keep some kids awake by dancing with them in the aisles and giving them the torch to wave for a while. Ceremony-wise, it was a lot more traditional and a definite nod to the theatre. The sculpture at the end seemed to surprise most people as it suddenly appeared while they weren't looking. Ah... the magic of inflatables, huh! Most seemed to think that it had been pulled in from somewhere bizarrely. I enjoyed it... but preferred the main Olympic Opening slightly. It's a pity that the album released doesn't include the Athlete's Parade music since I have to say that I was quite enjoying dancing along to it and wanted a copy for the gym!

Yup; it's at 8.30... a month on from the Olympic Opening and it gets darker just that little earlier! Preshow starts at 8 again for those in the Stadium; the request is to be seated (at least initially) by 7.30pm.

From reading that quote I have finally figured out how to interpret or of the segments that has bamboozled me in rehearsal where obviously you don't get all the video/audio!

Olympian - keep looking even when you're in London and, make a sign saying that you'd like a ticket that you can put around your neck. We saw quite a few people during the Olympics hoping for a ticket on the main drag into security who seemed to be having some success. It seems that there were a few (particularly with prelim rounds) who had had friends drop out at the last minute and had a spare ticket with no other way to sell it.

This is a bit of a non-story; those in the Paralympic Ceremonies were told back in early July that there would be no Paralympic public dress rehearsals (just as there was none for the Olympic Closing Ceremony) and that was why they had been given tickets for the Olympic Opening dress rehearsal so they could at least go to the Stadium in advance. But it obviously wasn't clear to everyone since we all got that email the other day to explain why again. Personally, I prefer having at least one rehearsal with an audience so they can test the participation elements more effectively!

Now you've mentioned it, I recognise it. At the time, I was too busy blubbing!

I do like Taio Cruz's Dynamite. It used to make me think of gym classes but now it reminds me of the Closing Ceremony. And I like Written in the Stars. I thought the second George Michael track really killed the mood in the stadium for a while too. Wish he'd just stopped at the first one! And I really thought that we'd get Duran Duran singing Rio if they were truly going for cheesy!

This really made me chuckle this morning on the way home from the Closing Ceremony... it may have been the fact that I'd been up for 24 hours but I don't think so! New wayfarer signs at Stratford station

At the Stadium tonight and the Muse video started up and I noticed the first bit where the years count down was running in reverse with the years running to 2012 The the video montage starts but now it is all made up from 2012 clips. Sure it will appear online soon if it's not up already.

I was slightly miffed about our tickets tonight at ExCeL for taekwondo. We had B tickets - £65 - which, to be honest, seemed pretty average. We were on the 'wrong' side of the arena, more than halfway back in the rows and not 'on' the mat from the side view. Still, we could see and figured it was lucky that we hadn't got a C or D ticket and been even further back. Until we were on the DLR home and the chap next to us had his ticket showing on a lanyard, he'd been to the same event on a D ticket (£30) and had been in our row except that he was 10 seats further along closer to the mat. How on earth does that work?

But it is a truly great feeling to see 'your' country win! I finally saw a Team GB gold tonight and it felt amazing! Very happy that you were able to see three of them!

I've loved being able to pick and choose the Olympic channels. You can easily record an event you are going to so that you can rewatch bits when you get home or pick a particular sport and immerse yourself in it. My only negative - and it might just be that I've missed it - is that once again, they've missed the opportunity to give the less covered sports a bit of a push on the mainstream channels. It was all swimming and all athletics in the evenings with only highlights from where Brits had done well - no real handball, water polo etc action which I think was a shame. Then again, I've been out more days and nights than I've been in so it may be that there's been more of this than I realise. It's just that when I've had the TV on, it's been the major sports featured.

Does anyone know the deal on how to get hold of the tickets for the second match of a longer session? When I left on Saturday evening, they scanned my handball ticket so that one of the fans hoping to get in could use it. There was quite a long line of people waiting; good night for it though since they did end up with lots of Brits leaving to watch the athletics action on Park Live. So... do you go to the venue, queue and pay for the ticket somehow there? Or do they go back to the box office to be resold? Any ideas?

I think that's to try to stop extra crowds of people from going shopping and adding more congestion on the Tubes. There are no checks once you get to Stratford to check that you have tickets... Incidentally, if anyone does want to nip into Stratford City for anything before they go to the Park and you're coming in on the Jubilee line, the easiest way to get in is to hop on the DLR to Stratford International and then walk through that entrance into the Mall. Much shorter than the convoluted queuing system they send you on if you try to go in via Stratford itself.

So jealous of the athletics, CAF! Should be a brilliant day - I'll be in the Park for handball - and possibly sneaking out after the first game to watch the end of the heptathlon and the 10,000m on Park Live!

Here's my pic of it on the Stadium screens at the hockey last night. The screens are tough to see in the daylight unless you're at exactly the right angle; it was only as darkness fell that you were really able to see it

They have carried the shard lines through to the videos that they play in the venues. At Fencing tonight, they had little animations of runners moving towards the logo and leaving the interlocking shard lines in their wake. Looked quite cool. The flags and pictograms outside the venues look fabulous. The Fencing venue looked very bizarre - not entirely sure what that look was about!

I have a spare diving ticket for the Women's Synchronised Platform finals on Tuesday 31st at 3pm. It's a band C £95 one and it's in block 406 - in line with the diving pool. Let me know if you're interested before I have to risk 'touting' it in Stratford on the day!