Wednesday, July 25, 2012

The Olympics are on!

From Women's Soccer
Wednesday July 25, 1:29 p.m.

Well, the Olympics have kicked off. And true to my luck and heritage, the first game to be televised here is the Japan-Canada game in Women's Soccer.
That score needs to be updated, by the way. At this writing, Canada finally got its goal so it's now 2-1. I guess in my case, I'm in a happy quandary, but I know Nadeshiko Japan better than I do this Canadian team, which I am seeing for the first time. Mind you, the only member on the Japanese team I know by name is Homare Sawa, the former captain and most recognizable member.

It's a whole lot easier to watch the London Games from here in Toronto because of the time difference. London is only 5 hours ahead of us, while it's 8 hours behind Tokyo. Basically, the big fans watching this game over there are gonna be very bleary-eyed getting into work the next morning.

We're still 2 days away from the official opening ceremonies, but I have to say that I am somewhat concerned about the security and traffic situation there. I mean, every Olympics for the past several years have always attracted that feeling from the public and the press. However, I was never one of those people....except now. Unions are planning to go on strike soon and the recent revelation of a major security lapse have me wondering if there may be some unpleasant surprises in store tomorrow and/or Friday.


 In the things that make you go "Hmmmm...."category, I only found out what the London Olympics mascots were just a couple of days ago. Somethings called Wenlock and Mandeville. I think even in the annals of weird Olympic mascots, these guys take the proverbial crumpet. And I'm wondering if there wasn't some sort of "Doctor Who"influence after all during the design phase of these....guys. I recall that there was a similar monocular being named Alpha Centauri on an old episode of the Third Doctor back in the 70s. So, maybe we'll see David Tennant after all running down the track with the Olympic Torch.
Allow me to thank fadmvulcan for Alpha Centauri and BOTTLE PR for Wenlock & Mandeville, both via Flickr.