FD London - Mine's a Pint of London Pride

[FDLondon]

Had a very lazy morning in the house watching the rowing and athletics on TV; I hadn't realised how exhausting the Olympics can be! Plans for the gym this morning went completely out of the window! From reading some of the press bloggers, it seems that I'm not alone in feeling knackered at attending evening events while maintaining the day job! But it did also let me download my pictures from the last two nights...

The beach volleyball has probably been the most 'fun' venue so far (and possibly ever!). It's slightly cheesy but the 'host' is entertaining from someone who is never seen; completely OTT but really gets the crowd into the party spirit while not interrupting the play. The fact that they sell wine and champagne by the bottle here might also help that party atmosphere! Love the way that even the rakers get brought into the event by celebrating their efforts - well rehearsed as they move in unison though!

The first two men's games weren't massively competitive - wins in straight sets. Highlights in terms of atmosphere included the Americans in the audience starting their 'U-S-A' chant only for many Brits to drown them out by deciding to back the underdog Czech Republic by singing their name in a football chant. Had the neutrals amongst us in giggles as the two chants battled!

The lucky losers round included the women's GB team which created a brilliant atmosphere although sadly they weren't the lucky losers. About half the crowd left after that about 11pm; partly for transport reasons (the Tube is running late but most train companies aren't if you're going further afield) and presumably because some had work the following day.

The final game - the men's lucky losers - was the best though for those who stayed.. Some absolutely amazing rallies where both teams brought the ball back into play after the other looked like they'd scored a point. As we approached midnight, it went into a third set... which the Germans eventually won. Brilliant play though! We finished around 0020 so was very glad that I'd brought the bike to this event since it meant I could leave virtually from the gate and got home in the same time as it would have taken me to get to a bus stop!

As promised - Nelson's funky Olympic hat! Only appreciated by those with binoculars or good zoom lenses!

Some people have really made an effort with their outfits!

The 'party dancers' who come out during timeouts to dance with the crowd

Even the Queen came out to watch

And Big Ben strikes midnight

[FDLondon]

As mentioned above, the Park was really busy on Friday afternoon. The queueing system at Stratford was a little bizarre since it seemed to sweep up people and herd them off in opposite directions at times which 'added' to congestion rather than stopping it. Splitting the flow earlier might have helped at times.

Great atmosphere though with Park Live being particularly busy. When I first saw it, I did think that the lawn areas weren't all that big and that's definitely the case. The hosts are doing their best to protect the wildflower meadows by stopping people barging in to sit in them but it's a tough ask at times for them. The mood in the meadow when the cycling started was immense; the shouts of encouragement as Pendleton went for gold were huge and the cheers for the men's pursuit was deafening. Everyone stood for the anthem as the medals were presented and sang out loudly... great atmosphere!

Stayed to watch Adlington's bronze medal and then headed in for the basketball. The British women hadn't won a match and came so so close in this one. The game went to overtime with a French 3-pointer as time expired. And then they lost in OT with almost exactly the same play to put them a point down. They did go for a late basket which they made... but it had been released just a millisecond too late so didn't count. The atmosphere was great though; the 'host' was a little more forced than the beach volleyball so not as much fun. Kiss-cam was more fun than I expected though - some of the reactions were brilliant with the guys really being more enthusiastic than their female partners!

Then the US came out to play the Czech Republic. Wow! It was a different game; it looked like the grownups had come out to play.

Saw the most brilliant half-time show though; and I was at the Janet Jackson Super Bowl half time show! They were a troupe who did tricks while skipping; yes, it sounds worse than frisbee dogs but it was amazing. I came home at 1am determined to find my skipping ropes! They had double ropes going with up to four guys almost breakdancing while jumping rope with their hands...

I do love some of the extra entertainment they have going on. There were ribbon dancers earlier at the basketball who were pretty good too - and the London ballet company dancing at the fencing the other day.

Basketball arena was looking cool as we left it

As did the rest of the Park

One benefit of being at one of the later events in the Park was that the route back to Stratford wasn't too busy so made it from Park to home in under an hour!

Now.... back to the Park for the handball! Do feel free to comment and ask for any more info or pics so I know I'm not typing into a vacuum!

[Gangwon]

Great atmosphere though with Park Live being particularly busy. When I first saw it, I did think that the lawn areas weren't all that big and that's definitely the case. The hosts are doing their best to protect the wildflower meadows by stopping people barging in to sit in them but it's a tough ask at times for them. The mood in the meadow when the cycling started was immense; the shouts of encouragement as Pendleton went for gold were huge and the cheers for the men's pursuit was deafening. Everyone stood for the anthem as the medals were presented and sang out loudly... great atmosphere!

Park Live looks great! I'm enjoying the pics, keep 'em coming... and enjoy your handball!

[FDLondon]

My only class A ticket and this is the view?

A helpful Gamesmaker is investigating!

[baron-pierreIV]

My only class A ticket and this is the view?

A helpful Gamesmaker is investigating!

OMG!

[FDLondon]

Sorted!

Two-fold action. Asking broadcaster to reduce the height of the lights and then the ticketing team coming to check all OK. Good job and good game so far. Iceland 16 France 15 at the half

[FDLondon]

Have come out to Park Live to watch Mo Farah along with 20,000 others. Atmosphere on the hill is electric!

[FDLondon]

Wow! I am sure the hill at Park Live is now a few feet lower after thousands of people jumped up and down screaming as Mo Farah came down the straight. What an amazing end to the night! Was far too excited to take good pictures - this shows some idea of how many people were just in Park West - and I was halfway down the hill so there's equal numbers behind me!

So... back to handball! I've never seen a handball before but I certainly hope that won't be the last one. What an amazing game it was. Just so fast! In so many pics, the ball is a blur and you have to play - spot the ball! Was really end to end stuff and stayed within a score or two throughout. The French had an amazing turnout... at points, you could have thought that we were at Paris 2012 although Iceland eventually prevailed!

So... you'd have guessed Iceland from the player names... right?

You may have to play spot the ball with some of these... watching the contortions of the goalies is entertaining too!

And a few more...

And finally, one that didn't quite work out but definitely sums up my feelings leaving the Park tonight!

[FDLondon]

Sorry for the lack of updates; it's been a little busy but I have a night off so here goes on the updates...

After all the excitement for Saturday, it would have been good to have a lie in but it wasn't to be. I had a costume fitting for my Closing Ceremony outfit which took quite a while to get to and then I met up with another Ceremonies pal to go to the Park. We had tickets for the women's basketball but the primary reason for going was to see the 100m final from the Park and see some more of the park while we hung around waiting to get in.

Here's Gloriana - she was a gift to the Queen for her diamond jubilee and led the Thames Pageant. And she rowed the flame downriver earlier on Opening Ceremony day. It's a pity that they've moored her with a really ugly background of industrial bins and parking but this pic isn't too bad!

I'd been meaning to go around to the Great British Garden for a couple of trips without making it there (it's round past bridge D to the Stadium). It had yet more different wildflowers along with a small pond and a fabulous willow walk.

There are games for kids to play here (eg giant Connect 4) and they hand out cards for kids to write good luck messages on which are then tied to the willow withes.

Then we went to the Panasonic 3D theatre near the Copper Box. Kate Middleton (as was) walked past as we were waiting but was so surrounded that there were no pics. The 3D theatre was showing highlights of the Opening Ceremony which as fun to see from yet another perspective; the industrial revolution workers looked seriously dwarfed by the chimneys in that version! That was followed by the highlights from the day before; which meant that Sunday was a great day to go and relive Britain's Golden Saturday!

We went for a wander to the far end of the Park alongside the Riverside Arena to the velodrome.

Someone was playing in the bandstand although sadly no-one was really listening!

We started playing around with pics on the way back towards the main bit of the Park

One small complaint; it's great to see the mounted police around the Park

but I really wish there were some Gamesmakers assigned as poop scoopers! It's also mildly unnerving at the end of the night when the police line up on their mounts with the route out being between the horses. It's probably too many warnings as a child not to get too close to a horse's rear in case it kicked!

[FDLondon]

For the past few events, the rules were that once you left a venue, you couldn't get back in again. So we skipped the early basketball match so that we could watch the 100m game and then go in to watch the Brits play Brazil and miss the major traffic home. It turns out that on this night, they'd suspended that rule but, of course, we didn't know that. So instead, we took advantage of the lack of queue to go to the Coca Cola beatbox.

Once we got over our British reserve of the very enthusiastic Coke 'flames', the beatbox was a bit of a laugh although making the 'beats' was a little laboured in places and not really loud enough to hear over the cacophony of other noise in the Park. We made our way around the circuit ascending up to the roof where we got a pleasant surprise. They were taking pictures of you and the torch with the Stadium in the background that you could download and keep. £15 for the official printed pic had seemed a little steep so this was fun to get the moment!

Then it was back through the centre of the beatbox to collect our free commemorative Coke and toast the flames as they performed. They did have some rather funky lightshades that closed and opened as people below 'toasted'

It was getting dark and closer to 100m time so we headed for Park Live which was already getting pretty busy

The noise was amazing when they got to the line and even louder when Bolt crossed first - lots of 'Bolt' moves done in the Park!

Mass rush to the basketball arena to see the British women take on the Brazilians. The game had been delayed by 15 minutes to allow people to go and get back in again

The Brits were already eliminated (see Friday's events!) so this was their last appearance but from the exuberance of the crowd, you'd have thought they were trying for a decent quarterfinal seeding

But the Brits were outclassed entirely by the Brazilians (who also hadn't won a game) and didn't play as well as they had against France.

The tricky skippers were back at half time which I've videoed but the file is massive so can't put it up. So you'll have to make do with the 'quarter-time' dancers

Since Brazil won, the arena was lit up in green and yellow

It was after midnight as we left the Park so they were trying to hurry us along so just had time for a quick picture of the falling words

[FDLondon]

Yesterday, it was time to go back to ExCeL and watch some table tennis. It was the women's team final; China v Japan.

This match could have been in Beijing 2008 since there were so many Chinese in the crowd; unusual given how many Brit-heavy crowds there have been.

The Japanese managed to get a game in each match but never seriously threatened and the Chinese won 3 matches to 0.

The good thing about the event finishing early was that my colleague and I were able to get up to the Tap East pub before Chris Hoy went in the keirin final. We got there just as a big comfy sofa came free in front of the TV and were able to cheer him on with a beer! I met a chap from the ODA who'd been in charge of putting in the gas pipes for the cauldron which was an interesting chat!

A night off tonight to prepare for the home straight! I have taekwondo finals tomorrow night, water polo semi-finals on Friday night, athletics on Saturday night and then the Closing Ceremony on Sunday night. I'll try to update as much as possible on at least the first 3 as I go!

[kevzz]

Great pics and blog FD. You had the best seat for that handball from the look of it!

You made me realized there's some parts of the Park that looks really interesting but I totally missed eg. the coke pavilion (too long a queue) and that British Garden with the message wall!

[Daze]

Where is the Message Wall? We didn´t found it...

[FDLondon]

This one is in the Great British Garden; if you go to bridge D at the stadium, it is to the right of there. There are other ones to sign directly but thInk they are only in the Athletes Village.

At ExCeL tonight, arrived as Ireland were celebrating their boxing gold

Now at Taekwondo and I have at least one British medal to cheer. Fingers crossed that Jade Jones can make it a gold one!

[FDLondon]

Sorry guys - life got a little manic so 4 days of updates over the course of the evening as I sort through a thousand of so pictures and try to make sense of the past few days. I said on another thread last week that if the second week of the Games was as good as the first week, I wasn't sure I'd survive.

Well... in the past 5 days, I've seen two GB golds live and danced around like a maniac at the Closing Ceremony crowned by getting home from said Ceremony at 9.30am this morning still dressed in costume. There's nothing quite like a trip on the Underground while dressed in an orange bowler hat!

Anyhow... that's all for later... let me take you back to Thursday 9th August and ExCeL...

As mentioned in the last 'live' post, the bars around ExCeL were packed with Irish fans celebrating Katie Taylor's gold medal. The Brits were also celebrating Nicola Adam's win and the vibe around the place was buzzing, particularly since Jade Jones had just come through her semi-final so would be fighting for Britain's first taekwondo gold later in the night.

I do some Body Combat (shadow punches and roundhouse kicks) classes at the gym but somehow I didn't think that was going to prepare me for watching Taekwondo live and so it proved.

The first bouts were the repechage to decide who would fight for bronze and we had a Brit in the mix for the men's bronze medal. The crowd were the typical Olympic mix of about 20% knowledgeable to 80% enthusiastic. Much of the bout went over our heads since it was so fast-paced and tough to see the intricacies of when a kick or punch had actually landed.

One thing that made us smile was the formality of the competition. For a sport in which the main objective is to knock your opponent's head from its neck, it's surprisingly polite! Each request for a video review was done with appropriate bows from the coach to the referee and then again from the referee to the reviewer.

Some very very flexible athletes when you see their contortions... a few pics from the early bouts

This was Stamper's attempt on a bronze but he never really challenged for it. He came across as quite passive overall and it just didn't really click for him sadly.

Then it was time for the crowd to really start making a noise...

It was a cagey match; with so much at stake, neither competitor was giving much away to start with. Hou, the Chinese fighter, seemed content to sit back, keep it low scoring and then try for one high-scoring kick later. She was penalised for this strategy though much to the delight of the crowd

By this time, there were seconds to go in the fight and while Jade Jones was ahead, one good kick to the head from Hou could still have won her the game. My heart was racing as the arena roared Jones on so that we could celebrate a GB win with her!

And then it was over!

Jade Jones' (and the UK's) first Olympic taekwondo gold medal was in the bag. The crowd erupted with screams of delights and camera flashes as Jones celebrated in style

The moment of victory

Going to shake hands with the Chinese coach

Celebrating with her coach

Watching my first GB medal ceremony - priceless (oops... wrong card!)

Just one downer at the Taekwondo really - our tickets were band B for this one and from the post on Thursday, you can see that they are fairly well back (about 2/3ds of the way up the stand) but we'd figured that was how it went. However, on the DLR home, we met another fan who had his tickets displayed around his neck. He'd been in the same section and the same row but with his seats 15 numbers further towards the centre of the mat... but he'd had category D tickets at half the price! That could have left a slightly bitter taste in the mouth but the money was small, we'd still seen a gold medal so really... we couldn't complain!

[FDLondon]

Fast forward to Friday; had tickets to the men's Water Polo semi-finals. I left work slightly early and we nipped into Tap East, a great local bar, for a drink before heading into the Park. Security was generally a walk through process so we spent that time in the bar since there was better beer there than inside! There was often also a great crowd of people in there; over the course of the Games, I chatted to Gamesmakers (officials, transport and event services), ODA bods (the guy who put the gas line in for the Cauldron), athletes (including a couple of medallists) and coaches. Just a great cross-section of Games fans - and a TV showing whatever the current main event was. Oh yes, and I did I mention 200 varieties of beer!

So... I knew the Water Polo was another temporary venue but was pleasantly surprised by how substantial it was. All the seating seemed to have a good view of the pool and the rake of the seats meant that views weren't obstructed by heads.

First impressions, I love their robes!

And secondly, having watched this with one of my female pals, this could become one of our favourite sports! I love this picture of the Italian team taking a variety of routes into the water!

I've never been so interested in 'time outs' in my life!

The strategy reminded me a lot of handball although not quite so fast paced since they had to get through the water. But the tactic of gradually passing the ball around at speed and then shooting did seem familiar.

One thing that did astound us was how physical it was. The centre forward player seemed to spend half his time battling underwater and we began to wonder how close to drowning he had to be before a foul was called!

A few action shots...

Italy won! Woo hoo.... although they'd go on to take silver in Sunday's final

One great thing about the Water Polo was that it finished early enough that we could nip back to the bar for a quick drink before getting home at a more or less sensible time. It was, after all, going to be a busy weekend.

[FDLondon]

And then it was Saturday; it was a busy but poignant day. It was my ticket buddy's last event and we knew that the Games were really drawing to a close. But, we had another day to enjoy it and try not to think that it would soon be all over.

I spent the morning running around getting last minute 'additions' to my costume for the Closing - suitable makeup and accessories mainly! And then we headed to Stratford and the Park. It was the longest wait we'd had for security (a slow shuffle rather than a walk) but the army soon opened up another couple of machines and normal service was resumed. We were still through in under 5 minutes... we'd just got used to it being less than 2!

The Park was busy but not ridiculously so although the queue for the champagne bar was a tad offputting so we skipped it. It wasn't long before we decided just to head into the Stadium and go for a wander. The volunteers have never really stopped people from wandering around inside the venues; they were never officious about checking tickets too rigorously once you were inside. I'd been around the Stadium several times but my buddy hadn't so we did a circuit and took a few pics of the cauldron etc.

The first events were women's high jump; I gave up on that as a kid when everyone else grew and I stopped at 160cm. I enjoy watching the high jump though since as a spectator you can feel that you're being 'useful' by clapping the athlete as they get ready for their run up. We were at the 'right' end of the Stadium for it tonight so were able to participate. It is quite impressive when you see how high they can power themselves off the ground!

I did love the little remote controlled Mini that ferried the javelins back

The other big field event was the men's javelin which obviously was taking place at the other end of the stadium although from our seats, we did have an excellent view of where they were landing! Some of the contortions that we saw the athletes go through looked painful... I'm sure shoulders aren't supposed to bend that way!

And our eventual Trinidadian winner in action....

Of course, the main event for most of the Brits in the crowd was Mo Farah running the 5000m to try for a second gold. He was only the 11th fastest man in the field this year so nerves were high but the roar whenever his name was mentioned as 'upcoming' was huge.

The crowd getting a glimpse of Mo in the tunnel (the exit is delayed because of a medal ceremony)

Mo comes out to a massive cheer despite no announcement being made. No idea why he needed such a big rucksack... he's so slight looking, we were a little concerned it might pull him backwards!

A few jogs up and down, the athletes are announced, the crowd roar encouragement and we're nearly ready to get underway. Mo's training partner, Galen Rudd, gets a big cheer too.

And then, they're off...

Mo starts near the back which makes those of us who haven't realised that it's a really slow pace quite nervous. He looked tired in his heat after all

The javelin and the high jump are continuing but, to be honest, most eyes in the Stadium are on the 5000m. As Mo rounds the track, there's what looks like the most natural Mexican wave unfurling ahead of him. The crowd stands, roars his name and sits as he carries on... it's an amazing sight and sound to behold and take part in. When he moves up in the field a little, it amplifies a little more.

Early in the penultimate lap, Mo takes the lead and the noise in the Stadium ratchets up another few notches. The wave has stopped. Everyone, it seems, is now on their feet and screaming encouragement.

The final lap - and the noise in the Stadium is deafening. As he comes around with 150m to go, I am jumping up and down and screaming. I swear it's so loud that I can't hear my own voice. My heart is beating at 200bpm and taking pictures is the last thing on my mind! So... there's no picture of the moment Mo crossed the line first, of the audience embracing each other in happiness or video of the applause and shouts of congratulations. My legs were shaking and my throat was hoarse. OMG - what an amazing experience! Gosh... I need a break just thinking about it all again!

[FDLondon]

After escaping from the press of photographers, Mo started his lap of honour draped in a flag and with the entire Stadium going nuts

He walked around and stopped to shake people's hands throughout his trip around the track which only endeared him to the crowd even more!

But, of course, that wasn't the end of the evening on the track. We had the women's 800m to go and the women's 4 x 400m relay. The USA dominated in the relay and won by what looked like more than 50m.

The 5000m medal ceremony was supposed to be at 8.30 before the 800m but it didn't happen. Just lots of other ceremonies so it became obvious that it was going to be delayed to be the last one of the night. But first, we had to run the men's 4 x 100m relay. There was huge excitement in the Stadium again as the teams came out as people anticipated a great run between Jamaica and the USA. Usain Bolt came out and since were just above the anchor leg, he was hamming it up to our section of the crowd.

The race gets underway. One thing I like in this picture is that you can see the 'athletes' section of the Stadium with all the brightly coloured tracksuits cheering on their teams...

The US and Jamaica were virtually neck and neck as they came into the final transition. But the speed of Bolt and Bailey in the final straight was ridiculous as they left everyone else trailing but Bolt was the stronger of the two.

And - wow - it's a world record! I mean, can this night get any better?!?!?!

Another lap of honour with lots of crowd entertainment from Bolt and Blake.

Now... because they want Mo's medal to be the last one of the night and the relay runners need to go through all their checks, there's quite a bit of time to sit around as they eventually run out of other medals to present. So we're looking around the stadium and what should I spot but the London Eye for the Closing hanging from the centre of the field

But then we finally make it to the medal ceremonies. First it's the 4 x 100m relay which is followed by Bolt trying to start off a Mexican wave.... it takes 4 or 5 tries before we get it around the first corner. Each attempt is followed by him putting his head in his hands and then trying again.

And then, it's the moment that we've all been waiting for. Mo comes out to get his second gold and the adulation of the crowd. And boy, does he get it. The crowd belt out God Save the Queen as the flag raises

And then people start heading for the exits; after all, the Closing Ceremony crew are desperate to get in and start work and we're already a little behind schedule! But wait, there's a bit more. The stadium host grabs Mo for a chat and then brings Bolt in too. They thank the crowd for their support and the host is just about to ask another question when Bolt whispers something to Mo, grabs his arms and runs with him to the podium

Bolt does the Mo-bot while Mo does the Bolt... a great impromptu ending to the night!

Saturday night was definitely one of the main highlights of my Games; it was my most expensive ticket and so so worth it!

Just one more day left... and it would be a long one; I was up for 27 hours! So to do Sunday justice, I'll finish my Games homework (thanks for that phrase, Sir Rols) tomorrow evening!

[FDLondon]

Let's finish this off...

Waking up on Sunday morning was bitter-sweet. I knew it was going to be a great day but equally I knew it was going to be incredibly sad to see the Games come to an end. I took the Tube to Stratford and picked up one of the free Metro newspapers; looking at their cartoon cover and reading about the Closing Ceremony actually brought a tear to my eye and I realised that I should have packed some tissues since I'd likely be in tears before the night was out!

I met up with some of my rehearsal buddies for breakfast at 9am before we headed in to go to our holding area at Eton Manor. We picked up our lunch bags and checked that our costumes were all there and who'd bought what to accessorise it! Then it was time to go up to the Stadium for our only in situ rehearsal. We were supposed to start around 1 but the Technical team weren't quite ready to go; something wasn't safe and it had to be fixed. So my buddies and I sat and watched Elbow do a sound check, the human cannonball do a test run before they brought the cars out onto the ramps.

It wasn't until 3.30 that we actually got started... so obviously there was no time to do an entire test run; and most volunteers were rushed off back to the holding area so that we could get changed and back in time for the actual show. By this time it was after 5 so we collected our programmes and certificates (thanks for taking part), grabbed our sandwich bag and rushed to get ready. Here we are on our way back towards the Stadium.... yes, we were rather bright!

I think the original plan was to have the set fully built before the audience got into the Stadium but with the delays, that didn't happen so they were still rolling out the props while the audience were coming in. And as you can see, not all of the set from earlier in the day made it back out (eg. the Tube track and train that you can see coming through the Eye in the first pic)

The IOC crowd were in a much more relaxed mood for this Ceremony; a few pins were handed out and everyone that I spoke to said that they'd greatly enjoyed London's Games. Once again, they got a picnic meal but this time it wasn't in cool lunchboxes; instead it was in two plastic globes.

And then it was time to get the show on the road... obviously, I've got no pics from the bits where I was actually leading my audience or dancing with them but I managed to get a few between moments even if that did quick putaways of the camera at times!

Emeli Sandé starts things off on the back of a truck...

The rush hour starts and Churchill pops out from the top of Big Ben

The street parties start off

The Stomp dancers and then Ray singing Waterloo Sunset

The flag bearers and their escorts enter the Stadium to huge applause and a standing ovation... to which we were summoned to ask people to sit down so that the LEDs could kick in. Not sure if the cue to get them to sit down was early because nothing happened with the LEDs until the Symphony took place... but then since the athletes took so long to get into place, it would have felt like a long gap anyhow. One problem with the 'international' crowd was that some of the more British music (Park Life and Wonderwall) did slightly go over their head; we could hear the rest of the Stadium singing it and waving.

And the final medal ceremony takes place. Medal ceremonies really were one of those things that surprised me about attending events; I couldn't believe how many didn't hang around to watch what were really quite emotional occasions and, one of the main purposes of the Games!

And then it was time for the Symphony of British Music...

[FDLondon]

I think everyone was hoping Kate Bush would appear and people looked mildly bemused at the pyramid being built; remember there's no commentary to explain what was happening.

Imagine got everyone onto their feet and swaying while John Lennon 'appeared' on stage

George's Freedom kept the mood going until he started that second dirge that sucked the life out of the place... not least since George doesn't have enough energy to dominate a massive stadium on his own.

Bowie's Fashion started us back up again as more started going on again for the Stadium to watch

And then Annie Lennox seemed to fill the place back up... I'm not sure what the Valkyrie theme was supposed to represent but it looked and sounded fabulous!

The LEDs had been anchored into their stands by cable ties so no waving them around this time for the audience; but they were creating some stunning images on them

I liked the Jessie J, Taio Cruz and Tinie Tempah segment. Those songs play a lot at my gym and it was easy to get everyone dancing to them... the Austrians and the Spaniards get top marks for joining in.

I'm not a huge Spice Girls fan but the cabs driving around were fun and again, the crowd were dancing away

"Always look on the bright side of life" was another piece that didn't work quite so well in a non-Brit segment although two of my Japanese guests found the failed cannon hysterically funny

And then were wowed by the real one

I enjoyed the Muse song but I'd almost preferred hearing it with the accompanying video - particularly after it had been updated to show the 2012 highlights - in the venues normally so for me it fell a little flat. But doing our Freddie Mercury 'Deyos' and Brian May was rather fun...

[FDLondon]

Since they'd been ultra-secretive until we got there and saw our running order, I'd always secretly hoped that they'd go uber cheesey and bring in Duran Duran to sing Rio before the handover... but sadly not!

The Rio handover went down really well in the Stadium. The street cleaner bit got a few chuckles and then the music, drumming and dancing started. We also had a bit of a jam with them at the end which was a lot of fun!

It was good to see London's generosity to the handover in terms of giving them the entire stage and letting them use the LEDs to show waves on the beach that then morphed into the Rio skyline with the Jesus figure on the mountaintop which you might just about make out in this pic- and the first round of many sets of fireworks were awesome!

Then the cauldron started to move and the phoenix came to life (apparently it was built by the same people as made the forged rings for the Opening)

Darcey Bussel and the flame dancers really helped create some real emotion around the flame being extinguished. Many of the 'flames' were also volunteers rather than pros which I'm not sure came across on some of the TV coverage

And yes, as predicted that morning, I cried as the cauldron was extinguished...

But then suddenly we were back up on another high as the Who exploded into song and everyone (and I mean all my dignitaries) got up and danced and took pictures as the stadium exploded with red/white/blue papers and the fireworks went off

I have some cool video of the fireworks and papers falling but it doesn't really translate into a 'still' very well! Once again, we couldn't leave until everyone else had so there was some jamming with the Rio handover crew before we headed back towards Eton Manor... and then back again towards Stratford to leave.

By this time, most of us had missed our Tube connections and were heading for bars to party but we couldn't resist a final pic at the Stadium

The bar was a surreal experience. Lots of bowler hatted people (including those with the light bulbs), several red-clad flag escorts, quite a few ballet flames, a few Opening Ceremony bods who'd come back to rejoin their pals and the Kazakhstan boxing team complete with medals. The throng started to leave once the Tubes started running again and then there was time to grab breakfast (in the place we'd started Sunday in) before we headed home - to arrive there 26 hours after I'd left. Knackered doesn't being to describe it; we were falling asleep over breakfast!

Um... so does my volunteer Oyster Card take me to Rio?

[Sir Rols]

Thanks for all your reports during the Games FDLondon - it was great reading your insider's views. And so glad it was such a great time for you!

Hope the withdrawal's not been too hard!

And glad you posted a pic of yourself at the end - always nice to put a face to the names we read so often in posts here!

Thanks again.

[Citius Altius Fortius]

Yeah, I agree - thanks a lot FD - it was great to read your "insight" blog!

[Olympian2004]

Thank you for blogging, FD - and also for sharing your insights into the ceremonies so far! That said, I hope that you'll stay around and not leave now that the Games are over or as soon as the Paralympics are over. It's always nice to see such friendly and enthusiastic members here. And I suppose we need your ceremonial expertise also in the future.

[kevzz]

Wonderful pics of the closing ceremony. Thanks FD for the posts, really enjoyed them. So glad you had a blast!