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Life as a Londoner during the Olympics: Army, helicopters and rain

Wanted to have a wonder through Hyde Park today but then realised that I'd have to cross the cycling road race route at some point and that just seemed more trouble than it was worth. But then the start of a series of very sharp downpours cut short my wanderings anyway and had me scampering off to the cinema. Not before I'd felt the intimidating presence of a group of soldiers who were manning an official Olympic blockade - it wasn't quite a blockade but they got to say who went in and who didn't. 

This was at St James' Square where I was docking and coupled with a helicopter buzzing overhead and not many people being around it felt a little, well, spooky and disaster movie-esque.

Not for long as I headed onto Piccadilly where there were gaggles of foreign tourists and Olympic officials in their uniforms. Still don't think getting a different artist to paint each of the Olympic mascots into a different theme makes them look any less sinister and weird looking though. Can you name them?

Was amusing seeing how inventive the retailers are being with their Olympic themed window displays so as to avoid the wrath of the brand police - think gold, silver and bronze wellies is one of my favourites. Lots of Union Jack style displays.

Have spent rather more time than I imagined watching sports I know nothing about or usually have interest in - it's amazing how mesmerising the men's road race, sans sound, on the screen at Whole Foods can be over a spot of luncheon.

Dodging yet another down pour I jumped on a Boris bike home enjoying the fairly deserted official Olympic Route Network down Whitehall and Millbank - great to hear the roar of the crowd coming from the beach volleyball venue just the otherside of Horse Guards as I passed though. And that infernal helicopter.

 

Life as a Londoner during the Olympics: Police, enthusiastic guides and flags everywhere

After last night's triumphant, if bizarre at times, opening ceremony - even my hardened heart shed a tear when Team GB walked the stadium - the competition started properly today.

Despite slim pickings at the cinema the lure of town was too much, I wanted to soak up the morning after the night before glow. So I jumped on a Boris Bike expecting the roads to be clogged but was pleasantly surprised. Even more surprised to discover that cyclists can use the official Olympic lanes - the commute next week might not be so bad after all. 

The number of police around is quite disconcerting, it almost feels like a police state or it would if the atmosphere wasn't so jovial. Coppers have been drafted in from all over the country so I've taken to spotting as many different forces as possible. Today I saw a Grampian police van and one from Tayside. 

There are also official Olympic guides everywhere, so keen to help they almost pounce on you if you look like you think you might have a question. I'm seriously considering getting my make your own slogan T-Shirt out of the wardrobe and putting "I live here" on the front. 

Foreign accents are part of the London landscape but today they have been in much more abundance, particularly noticeable the number of families. I've also seen people draped in flags or with a flag painted on their face. Plenty of people wearing Union Jacks on clothing or very occasionally head to toe. My favourite was bowler hats with flag on top. I love a hat me.

Of course businesses are trying to capitalise as much as possible, from man in a teddy costume outside Gap to the flags adorning HMV but there weren't masses of shoppers, at least when I was wondering through. In fact my usual lunch time haunt of Whole Foods was much quieter than usual.

Here's what I snapped on the old iPhone:

 

 

Life as a Londoner during the Olympics: Lead up to the opening

Over the last few weeks there has been a growing sense of anticipation and yes, irritation, as the final preparations were made for the London 2012 Olympics. I'm British and it's in our genes to moan so I confess I haven't been that complimentary. The realisation that my commute, my trips to the theatre during the week and cinema at the weekend are going to be disrupted coupled with the fact that I tried three times to get tickets and failed are my excuse.

Right up to yesterday I couldn't really muster any enthusiasm but this morning when I saw a tweet from the National Theatre asking people to come and join them for the 8.12am 3-minute bell ringing, led by the bell that adorned the auditorium for Danny Boyle's Frankenstein last year, I relented. It was my chance to be part of the Olympics and probably the only chance I'll get now - other than inadvertently going to plays that are part of the cultural Olympiad.

And I'm glad I did. It was definitely a surreal experience standing with lots and lots of people all frantic ringing an assortment of bells while people queued up to ring the Frankenstein bell. We were counted down but no one told us when to stop and we'd been ringing away for good 7 minutes before we realised (it's more tiring than you'd think, I should have done some training). And while some people, myself included stopped many carried on and the Frankenstein bell was still being rung as I left 20 minutes later.

So that was me and the London 2012 Olympics, well as far as my involvement goes. Over the next couple of weeks I hope to bring you some pictures and anecdotes about what it is like in London for an ordinary Londoner when there are an extra 1 million people here from all over the world and some sporty types doing runny, jumpy, throwy things around and about.