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The Olympics!!!

Gin&Tonics

Practically Family
Messages
899
Location
The outer frontier
Now that road cycling is over the Olympics are over for me.

Running, Jumping, and/or Throwing Things don't float my boat.

I wish they would bring in a different soccer format, too. Indoor, five-a-side or something similar. Not more of this (astonishingly low quality) 11-a-side stuff. Can't wait for Rio and Rugby Sevens. It will convert a LOT of people to rugby. Very exciting sport.

bk

Rugby is an awesome sport.

I love the shooting sports, but they're rarely ever televised, and if they are, it's at some ridiculous hour of the morning when I'm sound asleep.
 

lolly_loisides

One Too Many
Messages
1,845
Location
The Blue Mountains, Australia
I remember when Sydney hosted the Olympics. I lived in the inner city & initially I felt the same way as Edward does about the London Olympics. I hated the intrusion it made in my every day life, but the things I remember about living through that time was that the public transport was brilliant, there were more trains & buses, they were on time & operated 24 hours a day, and while I have zero interest in sport I did end up going to see an olympics fencing match (it was great fun) and the marathon ran past my apartment. The biggest cheer from the locals was for the athlete that ran last.
 
… the things I remember about living through that time was that the public transport was brilliant, there were more trains & buses, they were on time & operated 24 hours a day

Yeah, I wish it was like that here. Locals have been asked, essentially, to not use certain lines. I will say, I travelled from Heathrow at rush hour on Tuesday 24th, and both Piccadilly and Victoria lines were empty. Very surreal.

However, I waited at Heathrow for 20 minutes for a Piccadilly Line train. London's strategy to enhance travel for the Olympics is to blame the locals. That somehow by using your normal route to work, you are being unhelpful. There are no extra trains or buses.

bk
 

Edward

Bartender
Messages
25,111
Location
London, UK
HA! Good luck expecying anything like that in London. The tube is already overcrowded and TFL have been spending weeks telling us season ticket holders to stay away during the Games. Tubes are running about an hour later whike they are on... wish this was normal, but while management continue to be more interested in cutting costs and jobs than offering a service.... Unlikely.
 

Edward

Bartender
Messages
25,111
Location
London, UK
Yeah, I wish it was like that here. Locals have been asked, essentially, to not use certain lines. I will say, I travelled from Heathrow at rush hour on Tuesday 24th, and both Piccadilly and Victoria lines were empty. Very surreal.

However, I waited at Heathrow for 20 minutes for a Piccadilly Line train. London's strategy to enhance travel for the Olympics is to blame the locals. That somehow by using your normal route to work, you are being unhelpful. There are no extra trains or buses.

bk

Hopefully it will at least hurt Certain People come 2016. So far to be fair it is nothing like as bad as I expected, probably because the Games here (as in Beijing) has hurt regular tourism badly. My sole consolation is that not only will this all be over in a couple of weeks never to trouble us again in my lifetime, but it should also kill any chance the Brits had of ever hosting the world cup. Some consolation for the colossal waste of money and time on such pointless nonsense. Probably not for those people whose homes were compulsorily purchased abd knocked down to make way for the Games, though.
 
It's madness. Maybe 10% of people have the freedom to "just take time off and go away". It's all your fault, poor people. What do you mean, you "need" to get to work? How dare you get in the way of our rich foreign visitors? Don't you know, this is all for your own good? Do you really want the pepper spray?

No, I'm afraid you can no longer drive down that street. What do you mean, you "live" here and "need" to get back to your house? There's a table tennis star due to come past in 3 hours: the street is closed. We need this lane for all those people of "The Olympic Family" who can't be arsed turning up to the stadiums, leaving thousands of empty seats. Do you really want the pepper spray?
 

Edward

Bartender
Messages
25,111
Location
London, UK
It's madness. Maybe 10% of people have the freedom to "just take time off and go away". It's all your fault, poor people. What do you mean, you "need" to get to work? How dare you get in the way of our rich foreign visitors? Don't you know, this is all for your own good? Do you really want the pepper spray?

No, I'm afraid you can no longer drive down that street. What do you mean, you "live" here and "need" to get back to your house? There's a table tennis star due to come past in 3 hours: the street is closed. We need this lane for all those people of "The Olympic Family" who can't be arsed turning up to the stadiums, leaving thousands of empty seats. Do you really want the pepper spray?

Absolutely. It's times like this I wish we had a Second Amendment. I'd enjoy Olympic Tourist Season a whole lot more if we could shoot them.
 

dhermann1

I'll Lock Up
Messages
9,154
Location
Da Bronx, NY, USA
The irony of course is that in a city of 8 million, a few thousand people seldom produce that much of a glitch in traffic flow. Yankee Stadium in New York has 50,000 come and go about 3 times a week with nary a burp in overall traffic movement.
They had the archery in the Lords Cricket Grounds the other day, and horseback riding (dressage) at Greenwich Palace, and it was pretty cool to watch.
 
Our satirical cartoonists are, of course, having a field day. Martin Rowson of The Guardian is a particular favourite:

Yesterday. Nice cameo from M. Romney.

Martin-Rowson-27.7.2012-013.jpg
 

Edward

Bartender
Messages
25,111
Location
London, UK
(For anyone who's interested, the Monumental Fur Cup is one of Chancellor G. Osbourne's Krazy Kartoon Chums, along with Fat Cat, Growth Sloth (both appearing above) and others who don't appear in Rowson's most recent efforts.)

Today:

30.07.12-Martin-Rowson-on-007.jpg

Heh. That is good. Shame the Graun has buckled under as much as it has, though.
 

Feraud

Bartender
Messages
17,188
Location
Hardlucksville, NY
They are complex entertainment spectacles that do not translate well online because they require context
Thank you NBC for considering the viewers idiots! Here's a brainstorm..if you don't edit something we have the context... Morons.
 

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