“Laugh and smile and dance and sing”

What can I say about last night’s Olympic closing ceremony except ‘Wow!’? We went down to Weymouth’s Beach Live area where there were already hundreds of people – including a lot of young families, but I’m not sure how late they will have stayed – on the sand in front of the two big screens. The harbour area, which we have to walk round to get to the beach and which has been buzzing of late, was almost deserted even though many of the pubs had the ceremony on big screens.

As the preliminaries drew to a close we were wondering if they were going to turn the sound up once the ceremony started but after the countdown and it got underway it was obvious that they weren’t. Something about the sandy area in front of the screens just mops up the sound. We gave up after about 15 minutes and, whilst the sound was better up on the Esplanade we decided to go back home and watch it on TV, starting again from the beginning, glass of wine in hand. To be fair, I can’t blame it all on the sand, some of the TV sound quality, particularly from the performers on the moving flat-bed lorries wasn’t brilliant.

But what a show. Fantastic. I loved the way the Olympic flame unfurled and later gently went out and how everyone was joining in with all the lyrics. Seeing Victoria Beckham looking like she was enjoying herself and not pouting for once was quite a treat, too. I do think Eric Idle and Always look on the bright side of life should have been the final song, though.

“If life seems jolly rotten, there's something you've forgotten, and that's to laugh and smile and dance and sing”

What next? Well, Weymouth Carnival, of course!