From a Friend In London

(Arthur passed along this lovely letter from a friend of his in London, and I inadvertently sat on it for several days.  So he (Arthur) went ahead and published it, along with his remarks, on Daily Kos, under the odd name of "arthura."  Guess that'll teach me.  I love the "London Spirit" of this letter.) 

Perhaps you know that we have the Olympics in London!

Before the Games started we were warned about travelling in London with 1.5 million visitors for the Games. So being obedient Londoners we listened to our Lords and Masters and OBEYED. Especially since we all know that one small mishap brings the whole road, rail and tube system to a halt. Road digging; gas works, etc were banned. We washed the buildings, swept the roads and put Olympic rings on everything and sold GB flags. And we've called ourselves Great Britain again, rather than United Kingdom. Schools were on holiday in any case, so parents took them abroad; City businesses made sure that all their employees worked from home; art shippers planned all their collections for before/after the Games and no one dared to travel on the Underground because WE HAD BEEN WARNED. The rest of us were too snobbish about the Games to buy tickets (especially since they had all been sold in the first ballot back in the Spring) and scorned to try to buy them elsewhere. So we all, absolutely ALL of us, stayed away from Central London.

Therefore, naturally, you can get a seat at rush hour on every underground or the bus. Driving round London is like driving at 3am on a Sunday - roads empty, everyone courteous, crime rate has dropped like a stone and there is no one about - they are all in the stadium or lining the cycling or marathon routes. They had the triathlon in Hyde Park: free..... swim across the Serpentine lake in Hyde Park - mind the swans - (!), get out and ride a bike for 1000 metres round Buckingham Palace; ditch bike and run round Hyde Park... crowds 10 deep cheering on and on ..... so 2 unknown Britons won gold and bronze. Everyone is so excited that almost every seat for the Paralympics is sold: 2.5 million of them. London is a dream - we all smile, laugh and thoroughly enjoy ourselves. We have absolutely surprised ourselves with how much we are loving life and revelling in the Olympics going well. We are out on the roads watching the road cycling, the marathons and everything else round London. The south coast of England - with the sailing - has headlands lined with people with flags and binoculars watching every move and people are holding Olympics parties to watch t.v. and have a drink and celebrate. We have become very, very un-British. Everyone is deafened by the support at the swimming, basket ball, athletics, etc. in each stadium the cheering is deafening. Visitors are stunned that the British could be like this. One, just ONE, demonstrator threw a bottle onto the track behind some of the male runners .... unfortunately for him he was sitting next to a judo competitor and behind him was a weight lifter!!! The weight lifter thumped him and the judo expert pinned him down til the police extracted him - to cheers.

Then there is the sole Saudi Arabian lady runner - minutes behind everyone else - was cheered and clapped home with true celebration because everyone here knows that it was the first time that a Saudi Arabian woman had been allowed to take part in the Games - and it was the taking part that mattered. Meantime a Saudi team won silver for horse riding to their immense delight and a bold 27 year old UK man who won gold in the trap shooting (shooting clay pigeons) was hugged by a prince from Abu Dhabi - he (UK) had lost his £9,000 UK team support funding a few years ago when he stopped coming first and at a shooting meeting in Abu Dhabi, where he learned this, thought 'Why don't I ask' - so asked the previous Olympics gold winner prince if he thought he could help! Yes, said the Prince, £9,000 immediately, but I wish to teach you HOW to win. Three years later .... gold for UK. And the horse owners of the winning dressage horses had refused amazing prices for their horses from foreign buyers - and so it goes on.

We have Games fever in other words..... Newspapers sell more; 11,000 tickets are put on sale daily and there is an absolute fight for them. Everyone is glued to their tellies and talks non-stop about it. 7,000 people took part in the opening ceremony - all volunteers, not paid, but doing 150 hours of training and practice and it was flawless with wonderful "in" jokes - and how they persuaded the Queen to meet James Bond (Daniel Craig) I don't know - but wonderful that she agreed! And none of these 7,000 people told the press what the opening show would be, or even told their families. The flame was called "Betty" in references and they practiced lighting it at 3.am in the weeks before the Olympics - and only 3 people knew what it looked like.

In the meantime Olympics Art is in full swing: Stonehenge as a bouncy castle: a life-sized model of Stonehenge made in trampoline material and painted grass and stone colour. It was in the north for two months in practice - designed by a leading contemporary artist - it is now touring the parks round London during the Olympics and goes off to the Continent after. It is the most amazing hit! You can bounce against the stones and on the 'grass'; you can run and jump and children adore it. Secretly, all the adults love it too....... So we have to confess - we are all enjoying ourselves. And, every country has a 'House' in London - could be a pub taken over for the two weeks; a restaurant, a building or whatever. And that House is a showcase of everything belonging to that country - music, food, books, etc and their team visiting. We have Czech House in Islington and queues of locals trying to visit every day. These Houses are an amazing hit all over London ..... Czech House has an adapted London bus doing press-ups outside their building!! All the Houses are really amazing places to visit.

The Games take place about 4 miles as the crow flies from my house. For the opening ceremony I could hear the cannon like sound of the fireworks; my house shook and every night to the east the sky is lit up with the brilliance of the lights from the Stadium.

We have become blasé about winning Gold. We are of course behind the USA and China. But we are THIRD. Well above France - wonderful - considering that M. Hollande, new Premier, said he thought France would be triumphant and that (in the first two days) UK was not doing well .... When you think about it, we should be FIRST - we are much smaller that USA or China and yet we've cleaned up on everything! This is the astonishing fact of holding the Games and what it does for everyone. The athletes somehow feel they are entitled to win! We'd like to bottle it and feed it to everyone! And all the European leaders are loving it - they wing their way into town to present medals, or congratulate teams, or just be present when their athletes are winning and are using the occasion for a quick political chat and then off back home!

This is fascinating and I'm sure people/newspapers/pundits will be discussing it for years..... we are now analysing why we are winning so much, and so easily in some instances; why people are gagging for more tickets and cheering so loudly. It is of course the feel-good factor. Why, they ask, could 7,000 keep a secret and do something wonderful for no money and the love and fun of it for the opening ceremony, yet bankers are paid squillions and bugger up everything. How can one tap into this incredible yearning to be part of something joyful. To be together in celebration. To love something in an uncomplicated way and just to enjoy everything. And to surprise ourselves by being proud that it has all happened so smoothly - and even the rain stopped. So we've all stopped being cynical and are sorry for those who took themselves off on holiday........ More fascinating is that more winners from every nation of gold, silver or bronze are bursting into tears with the thrill of it all than at any other Olympics and somehow we've all done the RIGHT THING!

We have even forgiven The Times newspaper today with their front page picture of the Dutch riding team with their Germanic names - shown winning GOLD .... Unfortunately, it was the UK winning gold and the wrong photo and caption shown! Red faces all round - but we will just laugh and move on.

So we have an absolutely fascinating two weeks in London and we are all amazed at ourselves!! Something so different it's hard to describe.


Best wishes,