On Sunday the London 2012 Olympic Games, otherwise known as the games of the 30th Olympiad if your name is Jacques Rogge and your sole aim in life is to appear at major sporting events and look solemn and sound portentous, came to an end. This was a sad moment for those of us who had been engrossed (read obsessed) by the sport that had been happening for the last fortnight, and life post Olympics is going to take some getting used to. It was also a fairly major event. On the same day Prime Minister David Cameron, otherwise known as the Prime Minister of the 25th Olympiad (if not, why not, someone should really get on to adding that to his job title. I think it could only be surpassed by the woman we were introduced to in the Olympics opening ceremony as Champion of the Earth, whose name is, Maria Osmarina Marina Silva Vaz de Lima. Surely it’s not really fair for one person to have the most awesome title and the coolest name?)
Sorry, we seem to have lost our way a bit there, back to the point now. Sunday was also the day when David Cameron announced his government’s extension of funding for elite sports (by which I think he means specifically the ones that the UK is good at) until the Rio Olympics in 2016. This is also a fairly major piece of news which commits the government to around £40 million a year for the next 4 years.
By now, with me having wittered on for two paragraphs about things which don’t really fall under my purview as a daddy blogger, you’re probably wondering where we are going with this. Well, my daughter isn’t really one for closing ceremonies, especially ones that start hours after her bed time, and she doesn’t really have much of a view about politics either, which is why I was surprised when she was getting more and more excited about an interview with David Cameron which we happened to see a little bit of on Sunday morning. What could it possibly be? The interview is here if you want to go and have a look for yourself to see what truly earth shattering (presumably putting the earth back together lies with Senora Maria Osmarina Marina Silva Vaz de Lima) news was being imparted. Don’t worry, I’m happy to wait while you go and have a quick look.
Did you spot it? The dramatic moment which made my 1 and a half year old squeal with delight and almost fall off her chair with the thrill of it all. If I were a betting man, I would wager that you didn’t and that this rather mundane interview was not the highlight of your day.
Well, let me give you a clue. The first truly epic moment of the interview took place at 1:00 minute in. Didn’t spot it? Neither did I. Until the next, slightly less epic, moment which was at 1:57, I got it then.
You see far more important than what the Prime Minister was saying, far more enthralling than anything else that happened yesterday was the simple fact that behind David Cameron’s right ear a bus would trundle by periodically. I know, I know, how could you have missed it? Please, go back and check to make sure you agree.
Back with us? Good. You see, my daughter has developed a fascination with buses. And the fact that there was one, however far from the actual point it was, was almost more than she could bear. Really, there were shrieks and squeals and pointing and shouting and a desperate attempt to prod the computer screen. To an audience who didn’t know what had got her excited it would look very much like the sight of David Cameron was enough to throw my daughter into a frenzy, which, I would like to make absolutely clear, it really isn’t.
So, what was your highlight from the Olympic games? For my daughter it came right at the end, when she saw what she had been waiting for the whole of the two weeks, a blurry, off-centre, red bus driving through the streets of London. Now I wonder if bus spotting is an elite sport and how I get my hands on some of that funding.
No comments:
Post a Comment