General Chat

Were you a moaning minnie, but now an Olympic spokesperson :-)

I ask, because working in London as an Ambassador for the last 5 days, I am pleasantly surprised just how many people have stopped me to say just how wonderful they think the Olympics are, not only the sporting side, but by the amount of effort that has been put in to make the whole event so successful. Some have said it has completely changed there views on how they think of London, and other venues they have visited.

Having spoken to 100's &100's of people, and seen thousands, from all over the world, and without doubt 99% of them are loving the whole thing.


Big round of applause for GB :-D

I'm still a moaning minnie about the massive overspend and the fact they got their sums so badly wrong in the first place. I'm still moaning about the money stolen from community arts activities, or "diverted" to use political speak.

That's not to say I don't admire what has been achieved by athletes and I'm enjoying some of the activities.

I still believe it could have been done a lot cheaper or, at least, that the organisers should have been honest about the actual cost.

I'm sure most of London is enjoying them - apart from many tourist attractions whose gate is down by 30% . As for the rest of the country watching on TV it may as well be in any country, I'm not enjoying them more for them being in London. Barcelona and Sydney were just as enjoyable.

Gwynne

HI Gwynne, I've heard from visitors, that all venues where the events are taking place are as "feel good" as London Town and Stratford Park, from what visitors are telling me, it seems that they are overwhelmed by the whole thing, the friendliness especially.

As for the arts, it's all over London, down at the Southbank, there's free theatre

As for the non spenders, I think people will hit the shops in the two weeks between this Olympics and the Para Olympics, there is too much going on now to shop. I'm working around Buckingham Palace & Piccadilly, and there are 1000's and 1000's of people from all over the world, who wouldn't be here were it not for the Olympics, they are absolutely besotted with England, once the games are over they will be spending there money, which we will benefit from in the long run :-D

Great thing now is that London is NOT the rip off it once was, you can get decent food for a decent price, that's gotta be a bonus that :-D

Come to GB everyone it's rocking :-D

Off to London now, have a great day everyone :-D

No Olympics at our house.
and same as Gwynne a minnie,and regardless the true full cost will never be recovered.


What were you promoting Lynda?

It's nice that people in London "feel good", I suppose. But it's a shame it's at the expense of people who "feel bad" because their theatre groups/youth arts groups have closed because the lottery money intended for community arts went to the London olympics because they got their sums wrong.

The Arts in London already gets a huge subsidy compared to the rest of the country and now they are getting even more. Can't say that makes me feel good at all.

Gwynne

I'm only moaning about the fact that Paul McCartney seems to be in on everything. Give us a break Paul and get off the scene. You had your time and when you were young I loved you to bits but like me you have got old and saggy.

Having been completely underwhelmed and uninterested by the whole thing for the past 7 years, imagine my surprise when I found myself celebrating as the gold medals came flooding in and we crept further and further up the table :-D

I cannot believe how successful it has been so far, and how well Team GB are doing! :-D

Still a moaning minnie - many of my objections to having it in the UK/London have already been aired.

London traders have said that they have had a really bad week as many domestic visitors have stayed away, as have foreign visitors not interested in sport. Hotels are having to drop their bed rates as they aren't getting the custom, to far less than they would charge in a non Olympic year. For the sake of the economy, I do hope you are right that they can make up the short-fall once the games are over.

Canterbury Cathedral has experienced a 29% drop in foot-fall as (they say) tour groups from China are not coming.

HIstorical Chatham Dockyard is experiencing a 19% drop. This is actually better than expected as they had anticipated a 25% reduction in vistors!

Of course the athletes should be applauded, but that is the case where ever the Games were held. I just so wish it wasn't in England!

I suppose with tourist attraction it will need the annual result to get an accurate picture. Maybe the Chinese tours who would normally come in August will have come earlier or will come later. I do know that when we were in the Lake District in June there seemed to be many more Chinese/Japanes tours there than usual.

But the fault doesn't lie with the actual Olympics for the lack of our own people visiting tourist attractions in London. The fault if there is one, is with the people who kept saying to stay away from London as travelling was going to be difficult and everywhere will be crowded. And the lack of trade in bars and restaurants etc is doen to the employers who encouraged their employees to work from home these people usually buy food, coffee etc and stay in London for after work drinks.

I was a moaning minnie but have to admit I have been mesmerised by some of the events - sailing, track and swimming!!

My 90 year old Uncle, before it started is was right 'Bah Humbug'

Now if I ring him, which I do on a daily basis, he almost always says 'Just watching the Olympics. I'll ring you back'! lol

Linda

Still not watched much - really not that interested

Proud of our Olympains of course

But watch them - no thanks

Was forced to do athletics at school - running, hurdling, long jump and javelin and hated them all.....

Loved my netball and hockey, but only playing never enjoyed watching others play.

On a personal basis, I’ve never really been interested in watching the competitors, so nothing has changed there. As a family, we went out of our way to watch the opening ceremony, but that's all.

OH has been watching a lot. It’s the first Olympics that have been on since he gave up work. During the day, I potter off and do my own thing, while in the evening I’ve been reading/on here and ignoring the TV. Now that the men’s 100m is over and done with, I’m hoping that together we can watch something else!

sorry but still a moaning minnie
sports not for meeeeeeeeeee
i havent seen any of the olympics at all ;-)

We have watched every event live and have spent hours and hours glued to the TV but we do that during every Olympics anyway. I have never worked during an Olympics as I arranged my holidays to suit.

Six months ago I was concerned that we would not be able to achieve the high level of arenas required but we have :-D

The main criticism I have is the allocation of tickets :-( but I'm sure there will be a post mortem in the months to follow.

As for McCartney popping up all over the place............I really wish he wouldn't!

re Paul McCartney - I liked a comment I saw in the paper - "Paul, just let it be"

ROFLMAO @ Ann

:-D :-D :-D :-D

I did a bit of my own research when speaking to people today, and there were lots of who were uninterested to start with, but have now been bitten by the whole affair. Kay I'm promoting everything really, but my job is to help in anyway we can i.e directions, events, where's the loo, what's on, absolutely anything really .

It isn't just London that has Olympic events, I've been hearing how great Weymouth is, Eton Dorney, and spoke to someone today at Greenwich, who couldn't speak highly enough of the events there..

I have a son who, hated everything about the whole Olympics, when we spoke about it, we'd differ about it all. Once it started, he said he eats humble pie, absolutely loves all it has done to promote GB, he went to London with his family yesterday, and had a wonderful time.

Overall I have had so many comments at how great it's been, I think I've met someone from nearly every country in the world, and all have been so positive, only some Brits have moaned, mostly because they couldn't cross a road when the marathon shut a path for an hour, and they had to walk a different route.

I've promoted our country, I've not earned a penny, I'm out of pocket by about £100.00, but if it gets our economy moving, and it makes people more friendly, it's been worth every single penny :-D

Only downside Paul McCartney :-D

Go GB :-D

Not converted me, Lynda.

I live in walking distance from an arena where they played football but still didn't bother.

People around here are very unimpressed with the road closures for weeks beforehand while they resurfaced the roads, altered the traffic lights etc. Huge notices told us to stay away during the olympics so most people did.

Most tickets unsold and the stadium half empty on match day. Waste of money in a city that is cutting education and support for the disabled, yet can afford all that money to stage a few football games.

Gwynne

Not here to convert anyone Gwynne, just saying what I've seen and heard from 1,000 of people

Forgot to mention above, that because of The Olympics, I have been on a heart start course, so would now be confident to use a defibrillator, something I'd never of thought of doing. I'm also considering other courses and causes which have been highlighted because of the Olympics, so it means once it's all over, good things carry on.

I've also been so impressed at just how many young people have volunteered, I have been working with some wonderful young girls, who has really given there all this week, some were quite shy, but I've watching them grow in confidence tday by day, it's been icing on thee cake for me.

For all those young people, who these Olympics will maybe turn there lives around, and give them some hope, and maybe channel there aggression into aspiration, it'll be great:-D