Shift 3 (Friday): "is the Thames masculine or feminine?"

Lego map of the World.  Festival of the World @Royal Festival Hall

Copyright @elmurphs on Instagram

Today we had a new location manager who was a bit more flexible in terms of not assigning us to a particular areas so we headed up to a nice shady bit by the National Theatre (it was hot again and those pink and purple tops don't exactly breathe).  This was actually a really nice area to be as the National Theatre has a series of outdoor performances so we were able to dance along to the music waving our Time Out magazines.

We were really put through our paces when a group of French kids came and asked for help with their questionnaire.  Having helped them with a couple of questions they turned their questionnaire over to reveal a whole page of unanswered questions about the Southbank and London.  I had to stifle a laugh when my sister mumbled despondently under her breath "oh, there's loads."  They were also properly difficult questions too, so I did exactly what I tell my students not to do....turn to Wikipedia.  Together we got there and sent them merrily on their way to have their photo taken outside Lambeth Palace (the last challenge on their questionnaire).  One we weren't quite sure on was "is the Thames considered in Britain as masculine or feminine?"  Literally no clue.  They said that it was feminine in French so we just went for that.....

Favourite question today #1: "Where can I buy flip-flops?"
Favourite question today #2 and possibly of all time, outside on the Southbank: "How do I get out?"

FAQ: Can I go to the Olympic Park without a ticket? (No, you need a ticket for the Park or an event taking place in the Park- tickets for events at other Olympic venues, e.g. Earl's Court, will not allow you into the Park).

After our shift we decided to walk to the BT London Live site at Hyde Park.  After a 5 hour shift on your feet in the sun, maybe the hours walk to Hyde Park was a mistake.  Nevertheless we got there, found a nice chilled out shady area near screen 5 and spent a very pleasant London evening sipping wine and then watching Feeder for free!  

"I love this city tonight, I love this city always." Hyde Park, Friday.

Red Arrows@ Hyde Park Opening Ceremony Concert

Copyright @elmurphs on Instagram

As Eddie in Absolutely Fabulous had so brilliantly put it "Well darling - it’s been everywhere for 5 bloody years, hasn’t it?! Will we, won’t we? Will it be built, won’t it be built? Will we win, no we won’t. Darling, excuse me if I missed it actually starting - it’s been like tinnitus!"  Finally, after the tinnitus of the last few years for us Londoners, the day had finally arrived.  To describe my state of mind on Friday as excited would be underplaying it slightly. London had worked itself into a frenzy of Olympic proportions (see what I did there?) and now we were ready to party.  So with an afternoon off I made my way with an excitable skip in my step to Hyde Park to join that particular party with a few thousand friends.  I'd booked the tickets a while ago vaguely thinking that it would be a great opportunity to see Stereophonics & Snow Patrol live but mostly because I wanted to be with London on this memorable day.  My state of frenzy on the day also had a lot to do with the fact that I had seen the opening ceremony and I couldn't wait to share it with everyone else.  

The level of security was mind-blowing.  I had a full body pat-down, followed by a full body scanner, followed by a hand-scanner over my body, followed by a full bag scan, followed by a bag-search.  My umbrella apparently caused some concern.  Little did this deter us from settling down on a well-chosen spot (right next to the path to the toilets and wine bar) and soaking in the atmosphere (and the now flowing wine and cider).  The music was great: Duran Duran's Ordinary World had me singing at the top of my lungs and into the woman next to me's ears in an attempt to get her to move on to another part of Hyde Park, their set also being punctuated with the Red Arrows- always a marker of a great celebration; Stereophonics playing a set of their truly best stuff had me reminiscing and jumping around the park and into the women next to me in an attempt to get her to move on; Snow Patrol finished off the night with a magical set, interspersed with images of the GB team at the parade and the lighting of the torch which brought all my (wine enhanced) emotions to the fore. And Paolo Nutini. (Sorry Paolo, not a massive fan, and was that event really the best time to sing some "new stuff"?).  Plus the opening ceremony shown on the big screens somewhere between all that.  It was great to watch it with a massive crowd and see what went down well (huge laughs for Rowan Atkinson, big cheers for Becks), but I think if I hadn't seen it already I would have been a bit disappointed- it's not very easy to watch a show like that on tip-toes trying to see above people's heads and held-aloft iPads (do you really want to film it off the big screen?  Can't you just record it off the TV?).  But to soak in the atmosphere of such an extraordinary night in the city I love, well, to quote a famous credit card company......Priceless.