Olympics

[Kato]

Bothered or not ???

Had no real thoughts eitherway untill recently when I discovered that the cycle race route comes past my house and because if this we must be held prisoner in our own homes for a day, roads closed while a bunch of lycra clad fools test the road, well I can tell them without the road closure its OK! bit bumpy in places but generally OK, WTF

So, right then, I'm slightly peeved about the house arrest on Aug 14th and I'm thinking we shall now have to pay £9 Billion for a few weeks of running and jumping. This compares, not entirely favourably, with the original cost of £2.4 billion. For perspective, we could build 18 major hospitals for the money, even at the inflated prices being paid for such projects under the last governments insane Private Finance Initiative scheme.

Do I really care if some fool takes a hop, skip and a jump into a sandpit 10mm further than the last fool, do I want to have the never ceasing TV coverage constantly beamed into my lounge, am I in the slightest bit excited by the prospect of some oversized grunting Ukrainian lobbing an iron ball a few feet up the grass, the answer to all this and any other Olympic nonsense is a big fat NO
Surely someone, somewhere still with a fleeting grip on sanity will realize the Millennium Dome was just an insignificant dress rehearsal a paltry sum squandered in comparison to this waste of time disaster looming white elephant Olympics’. STOP NOW

[He11cat]

I nearly fainted when I heard how much someone I know is getting paid for 3 days work and a few trips to Geneva !! One day Is conf calls.
Looking after the poorer countries female athletes i'm in the wrong job!!
3k!! A week 1k a day!!

Also I was bloody cross they are shutting off Boxhill for part of the cycle route!!

Nobody I know got tickets!! I think it's a farse ..
At least let out citizens watch.
No but bet all the tickets are corporate bods instead of joe public.

The poorer parts of London really need those facilities . After it's all finished prob turn into another White elephant land with graffiti all over it .

A football stadium with a running track round the pitch??
Let West Ham have it ... What a stupid idea!

I don't know anybody even in my neck of the wood in south London Surrey who gives a fig about it.. Just shows you as well what money they chuck away...
Used to be shocked when I used to go through Gaurdian jobs pages at how obscene charity pay is .. Hearing that shows how things have not changed.

I agree kato.. Wander out in your underpants give em a wave and make them fall off thier bikes.. I'd feel rather Ill having to watch that Lycra. Eww.
At Least you won't have Sally Gunnel having a whizz on your lawn I suppose:) or worse!

[Stuart42]

Must admit that when I heard the 'great' news we'd got the olympics my heart sunk.

You can imagine how our wonderful transport system will creak, groan and finally grind to a halt.

Then it sunddenly is ok to close roads for sporting events, which obviously is a no no if anyone suggests a proper bike race, a la TT.

Still on the plus side no world cup for us to show the world how we bite off more than we can chew. That and we don't get football rammed down our throats morning noon and night, oh no hang on that happens even when we don't get it. And don't get me started on people allowed to watch 'England' matches at work, yet if I want to watch bike racing its a different story.

But as Kato rightly points out we could spend the money on far better things.

[Char]

Olympic Lanes on the Motorway - cant wait :freak:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/olympics/8668555/London-2012-Olympics-logistics-sector-not-prepared.html

[Stafford]

Not interested at all, except about the costs.
Tickets overpriced and I don't know of anyone that's got any.

[bex]

looming white elephant Olympics’. STOP NOW

We did the Velodrome, which despite my obvious bias I still think is awesome.

Aside from that I'm not much interested though!

[samieb]

Well knowing that between certain times of the day some roads will be empty. It'll be biking heaven, so long as the sun is shining though. :biggrin:

[Saint aka ML]

Kato worse then that thisxweekend roads aroubd hyde park closed as some idiots still think running is better then car.

Top that with fact no vehicles in London from july 1st 2012 for 8 weeks except public transport. No one thinks that people needing to get to work to run this circus will be in ****.

[slob]

I live close to Excel and we've been informed we're getting 3 months of roads under LOCOG control FFS!

East London was close to a standstill last weekend due to the Triathlon.

I dread to think what the A406 and Highway will be like with a dedicated "Olympic Lane" in each direction, the traffic barely flows as it is.

Some stupid bastard has planned events that rely on the Blackwall Tunnel to get athletes between Stratford and The Dome in a timely fashion (no chance of problems there... PMSL)


I'm leaving town for as much of it as I can.

Oh and the legacy... The Olympic Park is going to become Europe's largest out of town shopping centre, so a whole bunch of minimum wage jobs and the death of every local small retail business for miles around whilst lining the pockets of Tescos et al.

[Gadget]

:rolleyes:So it is going to be popular then.

I thought I was the only 1 muttering under my breath about the costs and the inconvenience that is going to be caused.

I feel a long jolly abroad on my bike maybe the answer.

[Stuart42]

Oh and another thing.

We've been told at work that due to the olympics we have to advise bosses of what leave we want to take during the period by the end of June this year.

I mean how crazy is that? I couldn't give a feck about it and now I have to book my holidays around it? Feck 'em.

Or as Cock Sparrer says, 'put em up against a wall and shoot 'em.

[Gordon H]

I've yet to meet anyone who is vaguely interested let alone enthusiastic about the whole shebang.......

[bex]

Feck feck feck, anyone would think you'd spent a weekend in Ireland.

[Stuart42]

Yes, its true I went to my spiritual home.

[Paivi]

I'm planning on taking the entire games off work so I can watch...

...the grass grow at my parents' place abroad.

[Saint aka ML]

I will admit I have tickets for some of the events and on hunt for more.

I am looking for opening ceremony, archery, BMX and mountain biking if anyone got spare.

[He11cat]

My spiritual home is out of this country.. Hmm maybe il win the lottery and can fly away!!

[uksurfer]

i dont have any tickets, but i know people who have in the lesser known events section on the second chance ballot, shame as i think alot of british people will miss out due to the crazy process of allocation not really working

[MrsC_772]

I really wanted Paris to win the 2012 Olympics instead of London - let them have the traffic chaos, vastly over budget white elephant projects and general disruption (imagine how much of an excuse "Olympic security" will give the Home Office and police to further infringe civil liberties ...) And Paris is near enough that if any Brits are desperate to watch live Olympic events, they can head across the Channel and do so.

At least I'm no longer working in London so it might be easier to escape ...

[bex]

Two of the biggest Olympic venues so far actually finished on time, one early in fact, and both on budget, one under in fact - by about ten million. Which isn't much in the grand scheme of the whole hoo-ha but still. Perhaps the budgets were too generous to begin with, though thats a different argument.

That aquatics centre is a bloody inefficient mess however.

And no I dont like the olympics or the idea of wiping out local businesses more than anyone else, thats nasty stuff, but I'm curious about the buildings.

I'd like to see a proper legacy plan rather than just words though, apparently several buildings are being reduced in size or as I read somewhere 'relocated' :scratch: Hmmmm.

[PaulV]

I'm quite happy to let London have the Olympics....... I'm also incredibly glad I live just south of Glasgow!:woot:


But fret not.............Commonwealth games heading this way....:Furious:

[desmo]

Really do feel sorry for those of you who either live or work in London.
I have yet to meet anyone that is even slightly interested.

Saying that though, if anyone knows of any spare tickets going for the womens beach volleyball then I would be very interested. Only because I really like watching beach volleyball you understand!!!


http://i147.photobucket.com/albums/r297/desmo-s2r/Odds%20%20Stuff/beach_volleyball_teams.jpg

[Paivi]

My boss got loads of tickets for the beach volleyball, but he won't know until closer to the date which matches they are. For some reason, he's really hoping it'll be women's days that his tickets are for.

As a Londoner who would have to go through Central London on her commute from SW18 to EC4, I don't think I have a choice but to take a holiday then, as I won't be able to get to work with any certainty.

Great, whose bloody idea was it to apply for the Olympics... The disruption's already started, with roads being dug up left, right and centre.

Oh, and as for the ticketing, it's a complete fiasco: if you live in the UK, you have to take part in a lottery, but if you live anywhere else in the world, you get to buy tickets for specific events on a website. Remind me again, who paid for the games?

[Saint aka ML]

Paivi which website please?



Also I prefer not to take holiday and do the english think sorry mate could not make it ;)

Like during the snow where I was stupid enough to make it on a motorbike while most with cars or public transport did not bother.

[Paivi]

Paivi which website please?
No idea, but the papers were full of stories how European licenced operators were selling tickets. Apparently, each nation was allocated a certain number of tickets for each event, and instead of running a lottery, they just put them up on the net for first come, first serve. There's bound to be a Polish site.

Try emailing the Finnish operator: london2012@smt.fi as they say they've still got some tickets left.