London Olympics 2012 Opening Ceremony! =)

As the most widely participated sports event by nations all around the world, Olympic Games that occurs once in every 4 years has been officially opened by Queen Elizabeth II in London at 7.30am this morning. Although I didn't have the privilege of watching the opening ceremony live, I was definitely fortunate enough to be able to wake up at 3.30am (after sleeping for 3 hours) and watch the whole ceremony, thanks to our national television broadcast TV2! For once, as far as I can remember, they did a great job in it. Well done. =)

It was definitely stunning to watch the whole ceremony and admittedly the whole idea was indeed brilliant, attributed to Danny Boyle with his opening ceremony namely The Isles of Wonder. It started off with superb imagery, as a pastoral scene slowly transformed into broiling evocation of British Industrial Revolution, and some great performances by National Health Service (NHS). Later on The Queen was dropped into the stadium to the audience by a live action of parachuting from a helicopter alongside with James Bond, and showed up shortly after that. 

I believe one of the greatest hits from the Olympic opening ceremony was definitely a sequence by Rowan Atkinson, where he portrayed himself as his infamous character Mr.Bean, as an inept member of the London Symphony Orchestra, playing "Chariots of Fire". Most people know Rowan Atkinson as the famous comedian, and the Oxford graduate has never failed to make the audience laugh with his silliness style of jokes, including me! xD I definitely like this part a lot and even downloaded it. :p 

Watch here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CwzjlmBLfrQ&feature=plcp

Later there was an appearance of Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of World Wide Web. I never knew of such inventor and has definitely learnt of something new. Some of my friends were surprised that the person who invented the Internet is still alive, but hey! He's even younger than my dad! I later discovered that he's a British computer scientist and a MIT professor. Wow! =)

Then, it was the time for Parade of Nations, where athletes from each country participating in the Olympics paraded in the stadium, preceded by their flag. There are 205 countries participating the Games, and one great improvements I've noticed is that for the first time in the history of Olympic Games, Muslim nations (Brunei, Qatar & Saudi Arabia) are sending females athletes to represent their nations, marking a new high for the women in the attainment of gender equality throughout the globe. Shortly after that, there was a speech given by Sebastian Coe, the Chairman of London 2012 Organising committee, ensued by the opening of London Olympics 2012 by Queen Elizabeth II.


Followed up there was an appearance of David Beckham driving a speedboat down the River Thames, carrying the famous Olympic torch. One of my girl friends was stunned by his hotness lol. xD The boat finally docked at Stratford and Beckham gave a helping hand to pass on the Olympic flame, where the flame was taken to the ceremony and passed to 7 young British athletes, and simultaneously ignited the Olympic chauldron to open Games. 


Overall, London has presented a vibrant picture of Great Britain's rich heritage and culture! James Bond, Mr.Bean and the Queen! =)) Looking forward for the Games now! First gold has been attained by Chinese shooter Yi Siling from Hunan! =) Congrats!