Jolly good show, what, Chaps.

[Cutlass]

The London Olympics Have Been A Jolly Good Show

Posted by Contributor: james barghini | August 10, 2012 6:28 AM EDT

The London Olympics' NBC primetime coverage approaches a fortnight and satisfying everyone remains a probable impossibility. Sport fans naturally pine, but my wife, 22 month old daughter, and I watched men's and women's swimming, bike racing, water polo, gymnastics, volleyball, beach volleyball, tennis, diving, and an array of track and field events and have discovered a bit of the sublime.

My family bonding experiences expanded, but even greater things have happened such as two 18 mile bike rides with our daughter in a Burley. Certainly, our family has been watching our tube differently and awe-inspiring occurrences happened. Strangely and out of character, I readily admit that it is not so important that I am not getting men's basketball and that only gold medal men's tennis and snippets of track and field coverage delivered preferred, sustained and specific adrenalin rushes. I am satiated in another way. Could it be something is happening around here and I don't what it is Mr. Jones?

The Olympics poses a remarkable diversion for our family. Curiously, we are transfixed to limited coverage and suddenly now, my happy daughter abruptly becomes a better swimmer, runner, and tumbler. Instead, of generally requesting and requiring incessant repeated showings of Winnie the Pooh and Super Why her perspective has elevated.

I have even gotten my wife to reduce her dependence on Netflix. While LO 2012 network coverage remains extremely limiting, we are watching television together and things are happening I cannot explain. Aside from our recent bike rides, our living room is now a floor routine as my daughter tries summersaults, but I can relate even something more tangible.

My daughter has attended a YMCA toddler swimming class for months and has only liked playing with the toys in the water. Unexpectedly, LO 2012 coverage has changed bathtub routines. She is starting to use her arms and legs. She demonstrates Miss Franklin flailing her arms and legs. Alright, I am embellishing there, but then it happened again at the beach where she had no fear of water and was dunking her head and moving her arms and legs like simulating actual swimming. Okay, our family behavior during the last 10 days has changed dramatically after certain Olympic television influences.

I like that we cannot think of going home from a walk now without going to a park because suddenly and fearlessly my daughter independently climbs jungle gym ladders like four-year olds do. She descends big slides without grabbing the sides! Oh, and maybe she is readying herself for monkey bars like they are uneven bars to mount like ALY does. It might have been my watching a gal's USA volleyball game during lunch at Burger Jones on last Tuesday, or something else, but when I found myself making conversation about Desiree Hooker's blocks and kills it also had my wife was listening intently. I was taken aback.

She knows about the past successes of Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh and had me take care of our daughter's bath last night so she could watch the final beach volleyball gold medal game. She showed little interest in the fact that Modern Family had a duel episode going simultaneously, something she would never have missed before. Wow! I felt like I was finally getting somewhere in nearly eight years of marriage. We were transfixed together to something wholesome on television and what followed afterwards was remarkable. It was even better than Marzano's silver medal 1500 meter run Tuesday. It remained another track and field performance with a stellar cast of characters vying for a 200 meter gold.

The blazing Jeter and Jamaicans up against a persistent Allyson Felix demonstrated a gold performance I will long remember. Felix communicates well, but specifically saying how she looked forward to becoming an elementary teacher made us feel so worthy. My wife and I are also teachers had squeezed hands and truly envisioned how the inspirational Felix will bring joy into a classroom.

The views expressed in this blog do not necessarily represent the views of International Business Times.

Now despite the best efforts of NBC to ruin the Olympics for all Americans, I think we should all hand out a hardy Well Done, Chaps, to our British friends for their handling of the games as a whole. In the middle of an ancient city, one of the greatest in the world, they managed to pull off the games with really very few problems. Maybe there was some traffic issues, but it didn't cause major disruptions. As a whole the games ran quite smoothly. There were no security problems, despite the private security contractor falling down on the job. The games all seemed to go off well, and schedules worked.

As a whole, nicely done.

Good job.

 

[History_Buff]

Indeed, I enjoyed the Olympics quite a bit more than I thought I would. A tip of the hat to London!

Also a wag of the finger to NBC.

 

[Antilogic]

Nobody thought it would be easy to follow the Beijing Olympics, but they managed to pull it off. Cheerio, fine chaps, have a jolly good tea time, and <insert additional stereotypical British expression here>!

 

[Save_Ferris]

Indeed, I enjoyed the Olympics quite a bit more than I thought I would. A tip of the hat to London!

Also a wag of the finger to NBC.

Somebody's a Colbert Nationalist.

 

[History_Buff]

Not really actually, but I certainly have watched the show from time to time.

 

[Traitorfish]

As a Briton, I have to say that I'm offended by all this good-natured appreciation. I demand that we recieved the hostility, indeed, the contempt that we, as a nation, have worked so very hard to earn, and which we so richly deserve.

 

[Cutlass]

As a Briton, I have to say that I'm offended by all this good-natured appreciation. I demand that we recieved the hostility, indeed, the contempt that we, as a nation, have worked so very hard to earn, and which we so richly deserve.

You do. Most of the time. Is it really too much to ask to give it a rest for 3 weeks out of a century?

 

[Traitorfish]

Oh, it's three weeks a century now, but who can say where it wll end? Before we know it, people will be appreciating Britain all the time, and hardly ever stopping for a detailed discussion of the many ways in which simply thinking about Britain makes them physically ill. Is that really a world you want to live in?

 

[Ajidica]

Don't worry. Even if Britain spends every day recieving the accolades of the world, Scotland will still be regarded as a backwards bog full of drunks and barbarians wearing kilts.
Still better than the Welsh and Irish, mind you.

 

[GoodSarmatian]

As a Briton, I have to say that I'm offended by all this good-natured appreciation. I demand that we recieved the hostility, indeed, the contempt that we, as a nation, have worked so very hard to earn, and which we so richly deserve.

For the Olympics or in general ?
I think I'll give you gusy a break here.
It's not like you've spent the last couple of weeks whining about the EU, forcing asians to buy drugs or firebombing German cities.

 

[classical_hero]

As a Briton, I have to say that I'm offended by all this good-natured appreciation. I demand that we received the hostility, indeed, the contempt that we, as a nation, have worked so very hard to earn, and which we so richly deserve.

It wasn't as good as Sydney. Are you happy that i said that?

 

[Traitorfish]

It warms my tiny British heart.

 

[Formaldehyde]

And let's not forget yet another major international event without any acts of terrorism.