I think many Britons will agree with me when I say that I am very sorry to see the 2012 Summer Olympics already over. The luxury to forget about Syria and the economy and all else for a fortnight, with the added benefit of a good cheer and success stories, the good spirit fuelled by many Olympic volunteers, the… Oh, it was just wonderful. The nation is suffering from post-Olympic stress syndrome. Others called it the Olympia Withdrawal Trauma, but it’s all the same: too bad it is over.

My only criticism is that the BBC focused almost exclusively  on events with British interest (plus Usain Bolt). Even the late night summary TV broadcast didn’t spend time on a brief summary of all else that happened on the day, even though a lot else had happened every single day. Hardly a mention of the handball qualifiers or the men’s modern pentathlon, and many other sports. Basically, they didn’t care unless there was a strong British Interest.

Not quite the best display of the good Olympic spirit by the BBC, who on all other accounts stunned with the comprehensive cover via a variety of media. There’s another chance with the Paralympics, but I think the broadcasting rights for that are with Channel 4, where we’ll be watching the finale right after the commercial break.

We only saw one event in person, the Men’s Modern Pentathlon: 36 brave athletes fencing, 200m freestyle swimming, show jumping on a foreign horse, 3x1000m running and shooting in a single-day competition over 11 hours, and it was great to be part of it. I never thought I could say to myself I’ve been there (even though the BBC didn’t mention it in the summary and Mo Farah won the 5000m gold at the time of the Pentathlon finish).

Related articles

• London Olympics 2012: Modern Pentathlon show jumping – in pictures (guardian.co.uk)
• Samantha Murray’s modern pentathlon silver is GB’s final Olympic medal (guardian.co.uk)
• London 2012 Olympics: Nick Woodbridge to consider his future after 10th in modern pentathlon (telegraph.co.uk)
• London Olympics 2012: The fortnight of miracles (independent.co.uk)

It’s just under fourteen hours to the opening of the 2012 London Olympics at the time of this writing.

I didn’t care much about the torch relay until it came through our little Broadway, passing along the stores offering used washing machines, second hand furniture and cars. There had been a lot more people out that I expected; the street was actually lined with people several rows deep. The fine weather and the convenient 18:00 hour also helped of course, but the whole thing sparked some sense of hope with me.

Hope that the Olympic Spirit is finally out of the bottle and Londoners are ignited with a positive momentum.

At 8:12 today, bells will be rung all across the country for the three minute All The Bells piece conceived by Martin Creed, including Big Ben, the famous 13.5 tonne bell.

The show begins at 21:00 tonight. I find it all pretty exciting. T minus 14, 13, …

Related articles

• Big Ben chimes for 2012 Festival (bbc.co.uk)
• Will you ring Creed’s bell to mark the start of the Olympics? (guardian.co.uk)

Did you see the now unveiled mascot for the 2012 London Olympics?

Something tells me that this was bound to be a disaster, and guess what? It is.

The paper writes don’t fret. The children love them, but I wonder how much they paid those children. And, shockingly, those designers. Apparently, it’s all got to be a whirlwind mix of 3D rendering software and Teletubbies, rendered into larger-than-life plastic figures (and merchandise).

Maybe I don’t know what makes the 21st century’s children tick, but I thought a mascot ought to be something loveable. I guess that’s not true. I guess the truth is that the mascot ought to be good for merchandise and printing onto goods (within a sponsorship logo).

Anyway, I took a peek, and find one worse than the other. Check out the BBC’s Olympic mascots through the ages, or The Independent‘s breakdown of Olympic figure heads. In my opinion, there are two clear winners, ahead of the field by orders of magnitude: 1972’s Waldi (Munich), which is said to have started the whole craze, and 1932’s mascot (Los Angeles), which doesn’t appear to be listed in most lists of historic Olympic mascots.

You’d think they should know by now to ask me first.