I have just finished watching the 2006 Olympics Opening ceremony - I loved the people mosaic ski jumper and the spidermen dove,and the parade of countries. We felt sorry for the single athletes from some countries and hoped they would have others to share their experiences with and to hang out with when the other countries teams were having big parties!
I wasn't sure about Yoko Ono and Imagine - Imagine there's no countries? How would we have the Olympics then?
Of course being in Salt Lake we had a lot of nostagia for our own Olympics in 2002. At the time we were bombarded with so much about the Olympics we were a bit jaded when the time actually came. I did however jump at the chance to attend the dress rehearsal for the Opening Ceremony. It was a fantastic experience. None of the big celebrities were there, but we saw all the performances by local people. I was dressed in my ski pants, thermal underwear, warm boots, hat, gloves, handwarmers, and we sat for three hours in the freezing cold, but it was totally worth every second. We even got to see one section involving large white balloons that never made it to the final performance because it was too windy. Gary and Sam went to see one of the luge events up at Park City, and that was really our total experience.
Everyone was very security conscious as it was so soon after 9/11 - we flew to San Diego during the middle weekend, and on the plane we were forbidden from leaving our seats within 30 minutes of arriving at SLC. If anyone had got up we wouldn't have been allowed to land.
I am sorry about Zach Lund being sent home, but I think they made the right decision - a banned substance is a banned substance and they can't make exceptions - we can't have everyone making up excuses.
Well, I cast on my Knitting Olympic project during the ceremony, but was so mesmerised by the whole thing that I will probably have to rip it all out and start again. Especially as I wasn't really very prepared because I thought it started tomorrow!!
i loved the spider man dove and the human mosaic ski jumper too and when the athlete lit the cauldron i cried but then i always do , but it was absolutely magnificent. the dresses of the girls leading out the parade of nations were very clever too. in fact the whole thing was cool......having said that i did get a bit confused when they did the classical music bit with all the people dressed in 17th or 18 th century costume altohugh i did like the way they did the wigs as huge wire and net structures. also pavarotti was a bit much. apart from those little niggles i loved it. i always love to see huge events and people who do their best.
good luck with the knitting
Posted by: carolinne Willson | February 11, 2006 at 06:31 AM