Ten Reasons I'm Loving The Olympics

1. I am a complete bandwagon type of person.  Give me a wagon, I'll hop on it.  Cynical in many respects, but not when it comes to this. The skills, talent and dedication of the athletes and those who support them blow my mind and there is no room left for cynicism.  I love it, am fully into it, got up early to watch the opening ceremony, watched it again in the afternoon.  Will watch every minute I can during the remaining 12 days or so.  Which leads me to point 2...


2. I get to sit on the couch with my children watching hours of telly, because it only happens every four years and it's so much fun to watch it with them.

3. After every event, the kids jump around the living room showing me their best attempts at whatever sport we've been watching.  They've attempted hockey, gymnastics (of course) and quite a bit of long jump even though it's not been on yet.  I feel very lucky to witness such athleticism in people related to me by blood.

4. I love all the emotion: Telstra ads make me cry, the one with the girl running and Cathy Freeman at the end makes me cry, the Down Under one makes me cry, children singing God Save The Queen and doing sign language makes me cry, Lauren Jackson carrying the flag makes me cry, lighting the cauldron makes me cry, any underdog makes me cry, any Australian competing in any event makes me cry.  And Mr Bean makes me laugh.  And Daniel Craig is HOT.

5.  I get to use the words/phrases repechage, dismount, clean and jerk and peleton repeatedly and without irony in my daily conversation with any other person watching the games.  They all use them too.  At no other time is it possible to sound so knowledgable about something you know NOTHING about.

6. We discovered our Foxtel subscription gives us 24 hours access to the London broadcasts and can now pick the sport we want to watch most from about 9 channels.  Issy is developing a real love for weightlifting.  I am a little worried about this.

7. The school is having Olympic Day (details to follow) and Open Day where every classroom is dedicated to a country competing at the Olympics (well 25 of them).  Everyone is being encouraged to bring in pictures their parents took during the 2000 Olympics.  I've done it, for no other reason than to give the teacher a big laugh at the sight of me in a yellow afro wig.

8. We can reminisce about the 2000 Olympics, how happy we all were, how much fun it was, how smoothly everything went, how great the weather was.  The kids sit at my knee, engaged for hours as I tell tales of watching the torch relay, the opening ceremony (from home), and going to see swimming, athletics and...something else I've forgotten.  Can you tell this is almost entirely fiction?

9. And slightly off topic, now the kids are old enough to appreciate and watch the most amazing show on earth, they are quite pissed off that they missed it when it was in town, due to not being born.  Joshie especially is a little gypped that we didn't pop him out earlier so he could go.  They are also a bit cross because really, it's unlikely to get back to Australia any time soon, and very unlikely to be Sydney.

And finally...

Words are unnecessary.

10.  David Beckham, in a tux, driving a speedboat up the Thames.  His expression.  Utter sexiness.