26 July 2012

Olympic Torch Relay - Part 2

I got up at 5am and rode up to London to beat the road closures that we were told were going to happen. They didn't actually!! 

Traffic was heavy to the lights at Falconwood on the A2, but once some of us with the ability to read had seen the sign to say the Olympic Lane was open to all, we used that to go to the Blackwall Tunnel. Bikes no cars!  Traffic was heavier than I had expected for that time of the day though. On the north side the lane was being enforced but only had five empty buses crawling along in it.


"Our Team" plus Robert on the right!
Once in the office at 6.45am I answered a few work emails, yes, work emails and then went outside about 7.30am to meet some work colleagues, Gina, Julie and Mel with her boys Ronnie and Max that had come in early to see the torch go right by our front gate. We were later joined by Anne from our office too. Robert was the 5th person on the street after Mel and her boys and me. He joined our throng!

We had a wait of about 30 minutes before the processions started with coppers on bikes and cycles, then the sponsors trucks (tight b*stard on the Coke truck gave none out although he had a bucket load!!), the a guy from South Africa (!) carrying the torch past us.  I took a few photos using the company Nikon D50 and the best is attached.

Our nearest torch bearer
Once it had past we cut through the building to get another look at it as it passed along Upper Street. Once in the throng we ended up at the Town Hall.

Here we joined the queue to get a hand on one of the 1948 torches.  I missed out on an individual session as there too many pushy knobheads hogging the bloody thing.  In the end I had a "team" pic with Anne and Mel.

 
Mel, Anne and Me with the 1948 Torch.
A little later a TV news reporter asked Julie to give a short interview and she declined, so I stepped up to the mark and answered some questions about the Torch and the Olympics. I have been looking to see if they used it.  Not found it yet.

As time was getting on we set off for the Workers Cafe and had breakfast befiore heading back to the office.


1 comment:

Trobairitz said...

Looks like a lot of fun. Good for you helping to make history.

Like the new look of the blog too.