Seeing the Olympic Torch

[kel1983]

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]

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]

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.

[georgie456]

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]

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 , 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]

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]

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 .