The One With London Twenty Twelve

As a Malaysian, let me first congratulate Lee Chong Wei and Pandelela Rinong for their great performance to fly the Malaysian flag in the London 2012. One may think living in a host country for a Commonwealth Games (1998) is the pinnacle of any big sports event for oneself. And when I knew that I will not just be in London, but will also live in London for the Olympic London 2012, I was actually quite ecstatic to be part of it.

Truth be told, I was one of the sceptics on the way the Olympic was being organised before the games start. To begin with, many of us still remember how good it was the opening ceremony in Beijing even it was more than 4 years ago (remember the kid singing and the flying torch bearer?:)).

Besides being held using public transport on many occasions, the organiser (LOCOG) wasn’t helping by announcing that they have to draft in thousands of army personnel to fill up gaps left by the Security Company (G4S) days before the opening ceremony. Even at 8:59pm on the 27th July 2012, I was still very sure London 2012 wouldn’t pull it through many expectations…

I was wrong. Many more I believe were to agree…

Maybe the opening ceremony was a bit tacky (NHS???). Many will remember how the “industrial revolution” created the Olympic Rings ending with a shower of sparks. And many more will remember the magnificent flame combining all 204 copper petals representing all the participating countries.

Maybe there were thousands of empty spaces even on a major event on a weekend. But judging on how fast the tickets were sold when they release more tickets online, I am quite sure many idiots who have tickets just didn’t show up for whatever reasons.

Maybe it was a bit busier on the trains and tubes, which we have expected. But what I didn’t expect was there were almost no train breakdowns or delays throughout the 17 days. This we hope will continue.

Maybe it would be nice if both my wife and I manage to get tickets to watch a live event during the Olympic. But if it’s not that we didn’t get the tickets, we wouldn’t have the experience of gate crashing the Olympic park which we nearly succeeded. And at least we are looking forward to the Paralympic event which we manage to get tickets :)

One may ask, can London afford organising such event on such a big scale at the this moment of time. The answer will be answered on the legacy it creates which we hope it will bring to the UK.

But is it worth it?

Personally, I think this might just be the best thing London and UK have experienced since the fall of Fannie Mae, Northern Rock and Lehmans.

The financial figures in the coming months might not reflect the extend of the success of the London 2012 30th Olympiad, but like it’s motto which makes much more sense after the Mo Farah invented the "Mobot" for his double Olympic Gold medals and after the inspiring and unforgettable Opening and Closing ceremonies…

It Inspire a Generation. Indeed it inspires, our generation...