Jul
29
Games on my doorstep
Filed Under Uncategorized
It is kind of nice when the biggest event on the planet is brought to your doorstep – in my case literally.
My friend Olya and I watched the Olympic ceremony on my new 46 HD TV purchased specifically for this summer’s sporting events. Olya Khomenko is a Ukrainian writer and a Japanese TV producer; she has a PhD from the Tokyo University and goes round Europe with her Japanese TV crew. She had already done several solid days of filming before the Olympics even started, and provided me with a personalised commentary on everything including the design of the teams’ costumes, which is the most important thing really.
Finally the fireworks started, and I nearly jumped – surely the sound on my TV can’t be THAT good? But of course I was hearing the actual, real thing – I ran to one of the windows and saw the Olympic Stadium – and the amazing show of light piercing the night over Stratford!
So now here’s the full list of what I can see from my loft.
Window 1: The Olympic Stadium and Anish Kapoor’s The Orbit;
Window 2: Canary Wharf, specifically Barclay’s, HSBC and that thing with a pointy top;
Balcony: the new, blue-glass, gorgeous building of the Royal London Hospital , the spear of St Botolph’s Church in Aldgate and some skyscraper in Bethnal Green.
Skylight: blue London sky with grey and white sunlit clouds: the rain has just passed by.
The Games are really working, even on me: half a year ago, when I started looking for a place to call mine, I shuddered to think I would have to tell people “Oh, I live in Stratford, it’s great, very diverse…” – but now I’d be proud to belong to the place. Seen from the window at a certain distance, in the glory of its Olympic lights, it seems lovely.
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