Opening Ceremony (as it happened)
And, a here we go....
Drums! I loves me some drums.
Bloody effective but it must be hell on the epileptics.
Nicky Webster has a lot to answer for.
Huge illuminated scrolls? Good concept and amazing.
Having the Contemporary dancers make the painting, interesting.
The Confucian scholars have funky headwear.
The movable type fascinating, especially the representation of the Great Wall.
The whole bit with the compass? Didn’t do it for me at all.
Oooh, Tai chi, not bad.
Chinese astronauts, Giant Globe? All I’m missing is the mashed potato mountain.
Woohoo, my favourite part, the athletes.
Got to love the colour of the Turkmenistan uniforms. That’s a new shade of Green to me.
Love the dresses and headgear on the ladies from Mali.
Former Yugoslav republic of Macedonia? WTF? How do they introduce themselves? “Hi, I’m Yuri, former Macedonian.”
Jamaicans also look like the happiest people in the world.
The Japanese look like they are going yachting.
The Gambian’s have lovely sky blue jammies
WTF is Benin?
The girls that are effectively the place markers should get a medal, they’ve been dancing since the athletes started marching in.
Help me, Rwanda. Help, Help me Rwanda.
The Nepalese uniform is like a sixties style flight attendant.
Hmm, our Canadian resident just sat up and took notice.
The St Kitts and Nevis girls got their dresses from the seventies rag bag.
The Spanish are already on siesta, how relaxed were they?
Note to self. Don’t cross an Iranian. They look tough.
Where can I get an Antigua and Bermuda vest? They were loud and cool.
I like the Croatian uniform, flag bearer is hot too.
The UK uniform looks very plain and drab
The US team look like they’re off to a business meeting except for that bloody hat.
GW? Sit down and get a real flag.
How cool are the Lesotho hats?
Hhhm, Ferris Bueller is a Costa Rican?
You go girl! The flag bearer for El Salvador is having so much fun.
The Serbian girls look a little bit racy in their uniforms.
The Aussies get a good reception. Nice outfit too. The flag Bearer is incredibly tall.
The poor Zambian team of about 8 people are wondering what Gods they pissed off to get stuck between Australia and China.
The Chinese team is huge, but was to be expected since its their home games. Their flag bearer makes the Aussie boy look short.
I’m going to tire really really quickly of having everything trilingually.
Now comes the time for the long and boring speeches
Speeches, done, here comes the flag.
I guess they couldn’t use a swimmer or a weightlifter to take the oath….just in case.
The flame is there, thank God for that.
Interesting lighting but a bit lame by past standards. Though I do like the cauldron.