Hula Hoops. Very Proud Of The Queen.

No, the Queen was not so impressed by the aging Grace Jones in her PVC outfit at the Diamond Jubilee Concert that she decided to take up hula hooping – though after seeing her as a Bond Girl and skydiver, I suppose anything is possible.  

My title was left as a comment on the post in which I invited you to tell me what you were eating, drinking and doing during the Olympics Opening Ceremony. You responded in your units.  Some of them alcoholic.

Before I get on to that, I want to add three items to my list of highlights:

• The choir of hearing-impaired and other children who sang the National Anthem so beautifully.
• The honour guard of 500 workers who had built the stadium.  They lined up in the tunnel as the torch entered.  A wonderful touch.
• And finally, the news that for the first time, every single one of the 204 countries had female athletes in the team.  Fabulous!

This is what my family was doing:

I did tell you I would be drinking wine and eating peanuts.  However, we had no wine so I had a rum and coke instead.  I didn’t feel like peanuts but Spud’s suggestion at twenty to midnight that we all eat ice cream was promptly acted upon.

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I will let everyone else tell you what they were doing, in their own words.

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Debbie in London‘s Prof:

…went out for Chinese, but the queue was so long we thought he might miss the start of the ceremony, so he bought a few supplies and came home instead. We dined on ham sandwiches (mine with mustard and the Prof’s with Branston pickle, crisps, nuts (peanuts for him, pine nuts for me) and grapes, washed down with coke zero. Living it large! The other member of the family, 21 last week, was so interested in the ceremony he went for a bike ride, sat in his room for a bit and then was in bed by 10.30pm. What can you do with the youth of today?!

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We have really enjoyed the ceremony, though I am finding it hard to believe there are this many countries in the world. Do you think anyone can make up their own country? I am a little suspicious, never heard of several of them 😉

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Many people were unable to watch the ceremony because of the time difference. For some in the States it was because NBC (Al says it stands for Never Been Clever) filled the show with adverts and let commentators talk over the rest.  

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It took an American, Michael Carnell, to point out to me that there was a dearth of Doctor Who.  Can’t believe I didn’t miss him!  Just shows how good a show it was.

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Some non-British viewers were confused by the NHS section; but that’s possibly because they don’t understand the affection in which the National Health Service is held in this country, even while we complain about it.  Imagine a long and bickering marriage, rather like mine and the Hub’s, to get the idea.  

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It wasn’t only non-Brits who were a little confused: Pseu, an NHS nurse herself, said:

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Wasn’t convinced by the archaic nurses. Was that to suggest that the NHS is old fashioned and needs to keep up with the times?

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I don’t believe so.  Danny Boyle celebrated all that was great about Britain; I think the old costumes were just to show how long the NHS has been around.

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The Shrewsdays had the best idea of the night:

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Ann McGuffy was misguidedly patriotic:

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For me, it is Vitamin Water & fruit…and the good old USA!

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She’s a loyal reader so we’ll let that last bit pass.

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Viv in France was most civilised:

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The dregs of last night’s bottle of a glorious Biuzet, and a handful of grapes shared between us.

Quilting & Drinking

I’m not asleep, honest!

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Sammy Dee in Manchester had a similar idea, though her approach was different:

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Drank far too much White Grenashe.

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Maire in Texas demonstrated how civilised Southern Ladies can be:

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I was drinking iced tea with ginseng and honey…

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although the effect was slightly marred:

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…and eating pretzels.

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Boomiebol claims it was:

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the Olympic excitement…and not the wine drinking got me typing all wrong

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when she was:

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munching on kettlecorn popscorn, cashew nuts and wine.

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I think most of us felt that same popscorn for Paul McCartney, who went on far too long with Hey Jude.

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Siggie of Maine, who has a disobliging cat, was willing but not able:

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…would love to say I had malted milk balls…American Malteser’s….but had red white and blue star shaped marshmallows to eat while watching Sir Paul sing “Hey, Jude.” My drink of choice is water with a wedge of lemon…but only had lime seltzer in the house to drink.

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Pseu again:

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we had supper in front of the TV: stuffed chicken breasts, mashed potatoes and peas on a tray, with a glass of Chardonnay. Followed up with a slice of Scout’s chocolate birthday cake.

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She impressed me with this:

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Cycloman’s not with us as he’s down in the thick of it, starting his volunteering in the basket arena this morning.

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Wow!  The volunteer response has been incredible, according to the press.  It is exciting to know the husband of a friend I haven’t yet met is taking part.  Well done, Cycloman!

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Laura at Fresh From My Desk:

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was a bit busy ripping up that lovely bright orange shag carpeting from the home we are renovating.  Nothings says GO USA like a face mask and old carpet.  Errr…maybe a flag and sparkler would have been a better choice…

Another NHS nurse…?

Aquatom had:

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 a few drinky-poos (wine and lager) and a bag of Monster Munch. I also have some onion rings and bacon fries…

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Grannymar was knitting.

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Wee Scoops had the genius idea to take a photo of where she was at 20:12:

At 20.12 I took this pic while I think I was missing the start. In the back seat with the daughters having given up my seat to son of sanstorm to prevent backstage bickering. We were coming back from our holidays.

She made it home in time, thank goodness!

Loving the show. Love the spoofery. But for the athlete bit I have settled down with some hula hoops.
Hope you’ve enjoyed the show!

Thank you so much, all of you, for sharing photos and menus.

How wonderful it is to know that we all participated in the same event while spread around the globe; or at least thought about each other while doing something else.

Wee Scoops to close:

Hula Hoops.  Very Proud of the Queen.

And so say all of us.