It's begun...

(Image from www.bbc.co.uk)

We were watching this mini-film as part of the Opening Ceremony last night, and we couldn't believe at first that this really was the Queen walking through Buckingham Palace with Daniel Craig - but it was!  We loved it all, especially the FH, who is a huge James Bond fan.

(Image from www.bbc.co.uk)



(Image from uk.eurosport.yahoo.com)

The Cauldron was inspired, amazing, breathtaking - we were in awe!  The imagination of the designer who brought this to fruition is just brilliant.  The way that the petals were brought into the stadium by the participating countries gave each country ownership of the flame, and then the huge gift of letting the 7 young athletes light the flames was inspirational.  The ending when the petals were lifted up to become the cauldron was spectacular, although the FH was a little worried that the intense heat would melt the metal!

I'm ashamed of not having heard of so many of the countries who paraded last night - 204 of them altogether, and there were a lot of little groups of islands and atolls which I hadn't heard of, although it was pointed out to me that perhaps there have been a series of name changes over the years as well, but that has inspired me to get the atlas out today and pore over it to see if I can find some of them.