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Natternic
01-07-2012, 05:04 PM
Hi, has anyone been to see or planning on going to see the Olympic torch in your area? with or without mindees ? Im trying to decide whether to take my 6 year old son to see it in procession. We are however going to a finale event for it in a huge park.
What are your thoughts?

watgem
01-07-2012, 05:07 PM
we saw it without mindees because it arrived at 6.30 am but it was well worth the early start defnitely go to see it with whoever you canxxx

Helen Dempster
01-07-2012, 05:09 PM
yep, definitely going to take my own DS and mindees to see it on the 20th July - it won't happen again :) My DS's school have been very good, they're allowing the kids to go into school at 11am that day, so the parents can take them to watch if they choose to (as too many kids for the school to take) :clapping:

loocyloo
01-07-2012, 05:09 PM
i took 7 yr old Dd and her best friend ... we got there 2 hours early :rolleyes: and waited. chatted to other people and had a nice time. then there was a bit of a parade and the torch went past and that was it! i was expecting a bit of anouncing/geeing up the crowd etc! and perhaps a bit more after the torch!

it was a bit 'blink & you'll miss it'. the girls enjoyed it and talked about it lots.

i would have liked to have gone to one of the lunchtime or evening events, but it wasn't possible.

Bluebell
01-07-2012, 05:19 PM
I agree with loocy-loo - a bit of a feeling of 'was that it?'
if we'd walked 5 minutes down the road to our town centre it was much more of an event with the freebies given out, the torch held aloft, more cheering crowds - just more of an event really. But the mindee and my own children that were with me loved the buses, and tens of police cars and bikes so yes definitely go.

Zoomie
01-07-2012, 05:35 PM
Comes through our town next weekend, so family and I will be going to see it.

Chimps Childminding
01-07-2012, 05:58 PM
Came through our town today, and have to confess haven't got the slightest interest :blush:

lulubelle
01-07-2012, 06:21 PM
we will be going to see it, i am not working that day but going to tell parents i will be going if they want to meet us! my 3 yr old is very excited about it!

kellib
01-07-2012, 06:36 PM
I took my son to see it, well I say I did I only went because my Granny nagged me to go because 'it's a once in a lifetime thing' :laughing:

I'm glad we went though as she was right, it's good to be able to say you were there to see it. My 6 year old did say 'was that it?' when it had passed though he did enjoy telling everyone at school he'd seen it :thumbsup:

caz3007
01-07-2012, 06:38 PM
We are going it comes through in a couple of weeks and is within a 10 min walk of my house. I have actually booked the day off, so I can take my DS 9. His school is allowing us to take them out of school from lunchtime and it goes past about 2pm.

catlyn
01-07-2012, 07:26 PM
ours was on a Saturday so we took my grandson...glad i did it was a fab day out...carnival atmoshphere with the floats and the police outriders...police were excellent...they were on bikes hi fiveing the kids in the crowd as they drove past......we went in the car to see it again in a differennt part of town and as we were heading towards it we ended up in the actual torch procession....was so funny as we were after the floats but in front of the torch...crowds of people on the pavements peering into our car to see if we were "important people" we just gave them all a royal wave and carried on up the hill

mrs_scottydog
01-07-2012, 07:52 PM
We've got it next weekend, it's going right past our house so no excuse not to see it. Hx

rickysmiths
01-07-2012, 08:22 PM
Its not coming within 10 miles of us anyway but I must say I find the whole torch thing a bit over the top and who ever thought of it should be sacked.

Sorry but the whole Olympic thing is getting so ridiculous. It has been badly planned, it stupidly over budget, I bet Lord Coe won't be accountable for that then :angry:, its being disruptive to the local communities.

How mad to close the Westfield Car Park a week ago until October???? That's helpful to all the shops and shoppers isn't it when we are in a recession?

Parts of Greenwich are no go areas for the last month and until October.

I think all the organisers should have been hauled up years ago. All the contractors and suppliers and random sculptors and Opening and Closing Ceremony organisers are laughing all the way to the Bank at our expense. Great.

caz3007
01-07-2012, 08:28 PM
I do agree RS that its been a costly excercise that the country cant afford, but for us it is a once in a lifetime experience to see the torch, so will be doing it, just for the experience.

My sons best friend lives on the route, so he was saying can we go and watch from her bedroom window, would actually get the best view as their houses are raised up a little

md0u0131
01-07-2012, 08:29 PM
we all wet - I took two 5year olds to meet their school there, my 3yr old daughter and a 22month old mindee, plus my husband for support! The kids all loved it, the police bikes were the biggest hit!

JCrakers
02-07-2012, 08:39 AM
Going today to see it with my own family as all parents are finishing work early to take their own children :D

I don't know what I'm more excited about.....seeing the torch or finishing at 1.30pm :clapping:

Little Pickles
02-07-2012, 08:55 AM
We went t I see it and the kids loved it ! I took two three year olds and an 18 month old. We started off by watching previous relays on you tube so they had an idea of what it was all about then we made torches to take with us. They loved all the big buses and police cars and bikes that went with the whole procession. The kids waved their arms and homemade torches and really enjoyed it ! When we got home they were doing laps of the garden with their torches !!!
We have the Queen coming to town in 3 weeks so I am busy planning what to do around that ! :)

BuggsieMoo
02-07-2012, 08:57 AM
My assistant took the older mindees and our own children to see it whilst I stayed at the setting with the 2 babies (it was a 7am start!). They all loved it and weeks later still talk about it. We also made our own torches and had a little olympic torch relay around the street :)

LChurch
02-07-2012, 09:45 AM
WE have it coming past the end of our road on 20th July too, Our school is finishing early as it goes almost past the school and will be a nightmare for everyone that goes in cars! I will be taking my children to see it and one of my mindees too, we will take some snacks with us. I think it could be a long wait though! But it is a once in a life time chance I think even if it is a costly exercise!

EmmaReed84
02-07-2012, 09:54 AM
Going to see it on Friday... My two EY mindess are off so will have my son Caiden... Cameron's school is closing early for the event and schoolie schools is letting me take her out early as well... I can't wait I am going with another two minders and their children, going to make an afternoon of it :clapping:

kel1983
02-07-2012, 11:48 AM
we have it going through in a couple of weeks. We are excited to see something we will prob not see again. It coming through town at 1pm so we are going into the local park for a picnic and then getting a position out of the main town to see it.

The schools have given the prents an option of an authorised absence from school on the day so that parents who have the day off can take their own children.

Smiley
02-07-2012, 12:07 PM
It came within about 4 miles of me last week at 1pm but decided against it as I had 3 under fives and didn't want to get snarled up in traffic jams at that time of day.
However the following day at the childminder dropin at local children's centre, one of the torch bearers visited the primary school next door and we went into one of he classes and had photos done with minders holding it. At lunchtime collecting child from school nursery, the torchbearer was waiting to greet the nursery children so more photos. Parents were delighted at pickup time to receive photos as I printed them off when children had afternoon naps :)

Greengrass74
02-07-2012, 12:12 PM
We had it come to us today, we didn't go and see it as we have 6 LO's today but we did watch the live link on the website which was great. :thumbsup:

georgie456
02-07-2012, 12:54 PM
We saw it back in May and took the mindees. There were 4 childminders and LOTS of children (as the schoolies all had the day off too)! They loved it. We had a picnic in the middle of town and then moved to a slightly quieter spot.

We ended up getting a great place and the children saw Didier Drogba (a famous footballer apparantly!) carry the torch right past them. They even got interviewed for the news (but sadly it never got shown :( )

It was VERY busy and a very hot day but I'm really glad we did it. They love looking at the photos - it really was a once in a lifetime event for us!

bunyip
02-07-2012, 05:08 PM
Its not coming within 10 miles of us anyway but I must say I find the whole torch thing a bit over the top and who ever thought of it should be sacked.

Sorry but the whole Olympic thing is getting so ridiculous. It has been badly planned, it stupidly over budget, I bet Lord Coe won't be accountable for that then :angry:, its being disruptive to the local communities.

How mad to close the Westfield Car Park a week ago until October???? That's helpful to all the shops and shoppers isn't it when we are in a recession?

Parts of Greenwich are no go areas for the last month and until October.

I think all the organisers should have been hauled up years ago. All the contractors and suppliers and random sculptors and Opening and Closing Ceremony organisers are laughing all the way to the Bank at our expense. Great.

Rickysmiths, you are the voice of sanity in a world gone mad. Though you fail to mention all the small businesses that were forced to shut down as their premises went under compulsory purchase to be bulldozed to make way for the venues. Or all the soccer pitches on Hackney Marshes, concreted over to create a coach park. Or the plan to mount surface-to-air missiles on top of residential blocks of flats for "security reasons." And then there's the London Schools Swimming Association, who said it was a "total embarrassment" that London should even get the games when we're losing public sports facilities so quickly that there are insufficient public pools to teach every child in London to swim properly.Shall I go on......................?

bunyip
02-07-2012, 05:32 PM
Rickysmiths said:

I must say I find the whole torch thing a bit over the top and who ever thought of it should be sacked.

The person who thought of it should be more than sacked. It's perhaps a blessing that he died in 1962.

The person who thought of it was one Carl Diem, Secretary General of the Organising Committee of the Berlin Olympic Games. He devised the torch relay, the first of its kind, as a athletic celebration of Aryan racial supremacy, and a cultural identification between the civilisation of ancient Greece and that of the Nazi Third Reich. Within a handful of years, the symbolic flaming torch had become the flames of war, as the physical prowess demonstrated by those runners had been turned on those same Balkan states through which the torch had passed.

Diem's final act at the Berlin Olympische Stadion came in 1945. He delivered a rousing speech to thousands of teenagers, demanding they emulate the spirit of the Spartans at Thermopylae, giving their lives for the city. Two thousand of them did just that in useless sacrifice in the face of the Red Army.

The Olympic organiser, together with their obsequious cheerleaders in the media are notably silent on this. Well, they would be, having been served up the media bonanza of the decade.

Oddly, when I mentioned this on another thread, everything went silent. Well, I for one see nothing to celebrate in this torch ceremony.

jellybean cc
02-07-2012, 06:19 PM
we went back in May, i had my daughter 4, mindee's 1, 2 and 3 years. My husband who is also my assistant came as well. We had a 20 minute train trip to another town but it was well worth it the children loved it after we went to the park for a play and a picnic.

My son who is 7 had a great day he did not come with us as he went with school. The whole school went to Shepton in 4 coaches. They met up with another primary school in Shepton, had a look round the school, watched the torch, had lunch there, then the two schools had a sports afternoon together. I thought this was a lovely idea. He still talks about it a lot. the torch and the fact he visited a different school.

A couple of weeks later a runner brought a torch into school and they had there photos taken in groups of 3/4 and we all got a free copy.

Then in June our town and 2 others held our own replica tourch relay where children from each school took part in running it between the 3 towns with police escorts .