A Londoner's Look at the Olympics

By Lauren Green

As a Londoner, I am programmed to only feel irritated by the invasion of tourists in my City. They stand at the top of the stairs by the entrance to all major Tube stations, they walk slowly and they take up the entire pavement on London's busiest streets, therefore only slowing me down. In fact, I'm pretty sure the "open" button on Tube doors is just to help Londoners identify and then avoid out-of-towners.

But then we go and hold the Olympics, meaning we're hosting the World.

Seven years in the making, bearing in mind that we won the bid back in 2005, the Olympics is finally here. Last week the Games officially started and we have been preparing for absolute travel chaos. Yet it appears to be the public transport equivalent of the Millennium Bug. Travel is, of course, busier than usual, but it doesn't appear to be half as bad as they imagined. I'm not cramming into my Tube carriage any more than I usually would in the Summer, and I'm not having to set off at the crack of dawn to make it to work on time. Sure, it's a little busier, but I'm not about to evacuate London because of it. It was envisaged to be a total nightmare, with Get Ahead of the Games (a website so Londoners/London based commuters can check their journey times) being forced down our throats for weeks before the event even started. We even have Boris himself making announcements at stations and on buses to tell us "folks" that we shouldn't get caught out. With the amount of warnings we've been receiving, and the constant reminder of how much this is costing us, it's no wonder that we were hardly enthused by the world's biggest sporting event.

Then the last couple of days last week happened. The day of the Opening Ceremony was almost here and and the day it all kicked off just around the corner. Danny Boyle was either going to make us proud or let us down and wannabe sporting heroes would be shown off to millions. The ceremony itself was a closely guarded secret, and in my opinion it didn't disappoint. The atmosphere before the event changed for the better, and as I left work in Oxford Circus on Thursday I was greeted by at least four helicopters flying overhead, accompanied by the rousing sound of an excited crowd, albeit a crowd that I likened to that of the evacuation scene in I Am Legend at first glance, all gathered around to watch the torch finally hit the home stretch. Children had climbed onto the traffic lights to get a better look, policemen chatted to the onlookers and double decker buses were available for people to get a better view. It was a feeling I hadn't felt before in Central London. Londoners actually liked each other (and the tourists) for one whole afternoon.

Friday's ceremony was a hit in many respects. The eccentricity of the British proudly went on display and, seemingly, without a hitch. The Best of the British was demonstrated, with globally renowned Brits the definite highlights. The Queen, James Bond, J K Rowling (and a 40ft Voldemort,) Mary Poppins, Shakespeare, Mr Bean, Kenneth Branagh, Paul McCartney, the NHS and Brunel among some of the features of our little Isle that Danny Boyle laid out before a raptured crowd. From what I can tell, it was received well around the world, but no doubt there will be some calls of "I don't get it". Well, we do have our own bizarre humour/style after all. The Olympic Rings being created out of Britain's Industrial Revolution, with the smoke chimneys emerging from beneath the stage, was a personal highlight of my own viewing experience. That and a sky-diving Queen.

Unfortunately we couldn't follow through after our blazing start, our first day marred by a couple of sporting failures and empty seats. I have an unfortunate feeling that many Brits will find the Olympics slipping by them. Many workers in London might not see much of the Games at all, we'll only catch the highlights and see that we're sadly rather low on the medal table. Here's hoping the Closing Ceremony matches the Opening and makes up for all these little glitches, especially if it's only the ceremonies that most people come together to watch and not the actual sports themselves. Though, whether I see many of the events or not, fingers crossed for Team GB.

I wonder whether we'd take more notice if the Tubes were busy.