Last updated 11:46, Friday, 22 August 2008

Monday: And so farewell to the greatest show on earth and an honour and a pleasure it has been.

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Being honest, for a council house kid from Fleetwood to visit and enjoy the Beijing Olympics has been a dream come true.

To see the young and old, the posh and not so posh enjoying the games has been an experience that will live in the memory for ever.

From the heart, I admit a tear for the patriotism, for the gut-wrenching effort by the GB medallists and every time they play that bloody M People song ‘What have you done today to make you feel proud’.

There can be nothing like the feeling of winning an Olympic medal. Full stop. The end.

But, and this is the rub, these games in China cost 21bn to put on and even with Tessa Jowell’s lack of nouse that is not going to be equalled in the near future.

Our present spend is estimated at £10bn and that will no doubt grow because of our usual incompetence i.e. think Wembley.

However, the conversations over here – and we are London-centric biased - have centred on exactly what will London 2012 deliver.

Because, and trust me I am vociferous about this, what the hell will the legacy of our games be? Because if we don’t use this opportunity to boost the aspirations of future youngsters then we are failures.

And I’ll tell you why. I have got bored telling those from London that, in my opinion, no-one is interested in the 2012 ideal at all. We are not, as modern business people call it, engaged. We have regional groups such as Active Cumbria doing a grand job but they are on the edge of the real deal.  UK Sport is good at what they do with elite performers but couldn’t give at toss where they come from or the grass roots that grow the top kids.

Fair enough. But to suggest that the alleged ‘youth zone’ is building the future in schools is complete cobblers. ‘Ooh, don’t let anyone lose’ and all that!

UK sport and the confused British Olympic Association have the reins. And they don’t care about us but still spend our lottery money on athletes for this and future generations. It works with Camelot and rowing and the lottery and cycling and sailing et al but hey, even after two good days we know our athletes will let us down.

Third placed is heaven but once our track and field gets going we’ll be looking to hang on to a top 10 place. And that seems not to be because of lack of funding but because the individuals have the shades and the arrogance but not the performance i.e. Look like Walter Dix but run like one!

Maybe taking the lottery funding off them for a year may focus them on London?

Now, this is an argument best debated over a drink but the final outcome always remains the same.
Yes, this is the London Olympics but:
a) what has that to to do with us?
b) Great, spend our lottery money on boosting athletes but make sure it’s worth it.
c) For Christ; sake will anyone outside of London be able to afford a bloody ticket?
d) What is the legacy for the future generations of this country?

As said, it’s a bigger debate for the future if you want it but for the record I think the 2012 Games offer a unique chance to get this country – and the benefit society (if you call them working class I’ll kill you) – moving forward as one.
This is the chance to get out country and its nationalistic pride back because believe me, when the world comes calling, they will be in their own colours.

So the task ahead before the back-slapping begins:
1. Please get the regions involved for 2012 and beyond
2. Please get big business to take a sideways move and make the Games accessible to all

It has to be about people as much as contracts and bloody brands.

If we don’t leave a legacy for the future (and my eight-year-old included) that gives a hope and an aspiration for our youngsters of the future then that will have been the equivalent of criminal neglect.

Let’s shove the incompetent politicians out of the way. Let this be a people’s party. Trust me, we are never going to equal Beijing but at least let’s do Britain’s Olympics.

An event that shows our country to its best though God know what the world will think of our shabby service industry. Someone said to me ‘do you think out waiters etc will learn all the languages’. To be fair most don’t have a full grasp of English.

And this is where you should join the debate! You’re like me, a taxpayer, fed up wither a lot of things but with a pride in our country.
The 2012 Olympics will be a matter of pride or embarrassment. Those in London think the former. I’m not so sure. I’ve seen the world in Olympic action and it isn’t Mr Nimby and his tennis or golf club rules – “Sorry Rafael, you can’t play here because you don’t have white shoes’.

Some old patronising rowing codger even tried to ask people to sit down at the rowing today. Please shoot these people. Sport is for all not for the chosen few. Dump the blazers and let the real talent thrive.

The Olympics is bright and loud. It’s not Euro 96. This is big and bouncy coming our way from all parts of the globe and Mr ‘please sit down’ might as well eat his shoes and bugger off.

We need to open up the Games to all for now and for the future. For example why couldn’t the University of Cumbria be given £1m to start a non-posh rowing setup? We have enough water!

Largely the answer is because we don’t get involved. We’re lazy and then we moan.

Well, this is the chance to change that and tell people we are here and ready to serve up talented individuals and teams not potatoes and no-hopers.

We’re tired of being told what to do by a nanny state that has wrecked our ambition; tired of non-competitive school l sports programmes and tired of coming second.

Let’s get back to a winning mentality and a winning nation. The athletes will catch up. Or go hungry.

Kids will be inspired to aspire and not knife each other and we can enjoy a Games we can afford to go in our country.

Too much to ask? I don’t know but still believe it should be possible. What do you think? Or are you too lazy to reply?

Our ability to organise is shot. Our service industry compared to here (China) is laughable. Our laziness is legendary. Can we use this event to change all that. I’ll be pushing for that when I can. Do you agree? Do you care?

Great trip. Great Games. But by golly have we got some work to do in the next four years.

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Sunday: There’s not many morning’s you wake up and think: “I know. I’ll walk on the Great Wall of China and then pop over to the Olympic rowing finals before zooming off to watch the world’s fastest man.

But that’s what happened to me and feel free to hate me for it because it doesn’t get much than that.

As an added bonus each leg of the marathon day held surprises.

The Centuries-old Wall is, as you expect, an awe-inspiring sight. It’s a bugger to climb up to and a calf-stretching hike to walk along. The refreshing thing being that at least it has escaped the fun-crunching mittens of the Health and Safety bunch.

They would have a field day. There would no doubt be a metal rail down the middle of the wall pathways and the uneven stone history would have by now been grouted and filled in with cheap cement.

And they would have a complete dickey fit with the rickety metal slide that you slide down on with a toboggan as an alternative to the cable car. The single stick brake lever would have them apoplectic. Great fun, though.

Another surprise was the number of people doing charity walks along the Wall. Local wisdom told that it can take up to a year to walk the full length. Some of the walkers looked like they had already died in the attempt and were being dragged along by helpers to ensure peopled coughed up the money. Much easier to put money in a tin at Rosehill Tesco!

The rowing was superb, especially seeing Matthew Wells from Hexham grab bronze in the double skulls.

This is a real family sport with the crowd competitive but not coarse. The Kiwi fans would rather the Aussies lost; the Aussies would rather lose a limb than applaud GB collecting a medal; and we (in a polite whisper) secretly chuckle at a German defeat.

Still, it’s great to see the fervour with which fans support their nation’s representatives and you do get sucked into it. Flags were wrapped around shoulders and held high to cheer on Team GB and even I wiped away a touch of emotion while the national anthem was belted out for the Men’s Four Gold victory.

And finally to the Blue Riband athletics event and Mr Bolt’s outstanding world record. You cannot comprehend the electricity that envelops the stadium for this event. It makes the hairs stand on end until the pre-start is broken by the crack of the starting gun.
It was all over in 9.69 seconds but the brief experience will stay with me forever.

And if this young Jamaican ever takes this event seriously he may well set a record that no-one else will ever catch.

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Watching the rowing at the Shunyi Olympic Rowing-Canoeing Park is an impressive experience. If you get a smog-free day you can actually see the end of the course!

However, it took me a while to understand why most of those competing seemed so relaxed…even the Honduran on Wednesday who was probably still going the next day!

The solution became apparent when stumbling across the beaten hordes being comforted by their relatives…in the Kiss and Cry Room.
Perhaps, we could install one at Brunton Park for the Leeds United players when we gain revenge on them this season.

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How ironic that the Chinese television channel is called CCTV. A case of ‘you’re watching us while we’re watching you?”

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I always thought it quite harsh that spurious attempts at national cost cutting lost our BBC Cumbria colleagues their roadshow bus.
It was a good public service especially for reaching rural communities such as ours.

However, it is now quite apparent where all the money went. The Beeb has 437 people out here at the taxpayer’s expense. That’s over a hundred more than the GB team. You can’t move for the buggers in and around the stadia at a cost to us of £3m.

Interestingly, Radio Five voice Mark Pougatch was interviewing gold medallists Sean Kerly and Jason Gardner at a dinner we attended at the Temple Restaurant earlier in the week. One hopes this was a free gig as we’d already paid once for him to be there.

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Saturday:
The athletics programme at the Bird’s Nest stadium has now begun and there were few first night nerves.

The formulaic and precise performance that is demanded of its organisers suffered a few wobbles but it was still a simply brilliant evening for those of us present.

The stadium is magnificent. A feat of superb craft and imagination and the excitement served up on the track exceeded all expectations.
Bolt looks favourite for the 100m Men’s final; Kelly seems destined for at least a bronze in the Heptathlon and the finish to the gruelling 10,000m women’s final where an Ethiopian beat a former Ethiopian kidnapped in Turkey’s colours was thrilling.

Everything just seems quicker when watched live. You don’t seem to get the sense of the true power and emotion when sat on a couch.
The venue didn’t look full which was a shame but I’ll be surprised if all 91,000 seats aren’t occupied tonight.

The crowd were vociferous and loud in their patriotic support with, as expected, the Chinese out shouting everyone else even when their favourites were trailing in last.

And if slack-jawed Americans could be banned from all public events until they learn not to whoop and holler like incontinent geese then life would be a step nearer perfection.

There were a few problems off the track with food and beer service poor (over an hour waiting); lack of choice in the gift shop (especially for kids, which was surprising in these commercialised days) and slow entry queues at the stadium.

But it was the first night and you just know the kinks will have been worked out before 7pm Beijing time this evening.

And it’s a bit churlish to criticise when you walk out to the now reddened Bird’s Nest dominant in the sky across from the Aquatic Cube changing hue from blue to pink.

The visual impact of these stadia and the surrounding buildings – one a 7-star hotel not finished in time for the Games – are simply extraordinary as some of the attached pictures hopefully show.

However, the first live sighting of these Olympic arenas just leaves you with one thought.

Just can’t see the ‘Southwark Lido’ having the same gob-smacking attraction.

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Here is a tip for a surprise sporting hit at London 2012 – handball.

I witnessed my first ever game – a 33-32 thriller between the women of Brazil and Korea – and was immediately hooked.

It is a huge sport in the above countries plus other such as Sweden, France, Japan and Germany who, sadly, are the current world champions.

And it is a sport we must be able to be good at. It’s fast, physical and players don’t need too many tactics. C'mon down Wayne.

Crowds in Germany average several thousand and the record audience in 17,000 for a match in Cologne.

Its edge of your seat stuff and GB are putting together a squad for our own Olympics. Apparently a hod carrier from Salford was talent spotted in the Sports Giants programme and is now out in Denmark learning his trade.

Just shows anyone can dream. 
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The food in Beijing is beyond compare. The quality is excellent and the meals go on and on.

Sadly, so do most Westerners as Montezuma was obviously a Chinaman when planning his infamous revenge.

If the monosodium glutamate doesn’t get you with the headaches then the different bacteria will keep you and the nearest loo occupied for several hours or even days in the case of a few of my colleagues out here.

And that’s without eating some of the more bizarre delicacies on offer. Dung beetles, fried sparrows, scorpions, starfish, iguana tails, lizards, cow and horse soup and a dried ant pudding which is great for rheumatism, allegedly, can all be obtained if you are strange enough to hunt them down.

Dogs (look away now if a lover) are reared like cows and sheep in Cumbria, for food. You do not get to eat the little pet Fluffy, although I think we’ve come close.

Still at least we’re in company with reports stating that Men’s 100m favourite Asafa Powell is also doing an unexpected spot of running which is threatening his chances of winning.

Just stick a loo roll at the finish line and he’ll beat the world record!

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Friday:
The hockey was rained off as was somewhat bizarrely the rowing, the latter being a bit like cancelling the swimming because it’s spitting.

Then again it was fork lightning! Personally, I’d have left it on as it would certainly have made them row faster.

However, we had an alternative on offer…shopping!

Now as someone who views walking aimlessly around shops as only one step up from having a sharp stick poked in my eye repeatedly, it was not a preferred option.

However, it was Hobson’s choice and sad to say it was an amazing one. Off the bus, across the rain-soaked street and into the world famous Beijing Silk Street Market. For those of you who have learned the art of self defence in Egypt think Cairo but indoors and with a tad more humour and fewer toothless salesmen.

Hell on earth or the most exciting purchasing experience? It will be a matter of personal choice.

But you can’t help but get sucked into the banter and the bargaining with row after row of hundreds of stalls manned, or rather ‘womanned’, by a whole generation of 14-year-old girls sold into some sort of Silk Street shop ‘slavery’.

The bartering was fierce but a sense of humour seemed to prevail, as did tag teaming in pairs.

The sales chat went along the lines of:
Girl: ‘You want suit?”
Stupid shopper (me): “No thanks.”

Girl: “It is genuine Paul Smith.”
SS: “Does he know?”

Girl 2 approaches: “You want suitcase.”
SS: “No thanks.”

Girl 2 (in stage whisper): “You want Prada, Gucci or Mulberry bag? It’s real thing.”
Girl 3 (grabbing right arm as Girl 2 hangs onto left arm giving wishbone effect): “You want T-shirt?”
SS: “How much?”

Girl 3: “It should be 330 Yuan (about £25)
SS: “Ooh, no, no, no (in mock Noel Coward voice). Too much.”

Girl 3 (still hanging onto arm, Girl 2 having been thrown off): “Ok, OK, I give you special price of 200 Yuan. It just for you. Sshh.”
SS (throwing head back in disgust): “Still too much. I might come back later.”

Girl 3 (now with nails rooted in arm skin): “You kill me, you kill me. What price you want?”
SS: “20 Yuan?”

Girl 3: “Take my shop. I pay more than for it. I can do for 50.”
SS (with smug, childish grin): “40” (just over £3).
Girl 3: “OK.”

And so it goes on and on with seven floors of stalls offering wares from shoes, handbags, jewellery and pearls to fans, I-Pods, paintings and giant 6ft copies of a Terracotta soldier. It’s simply surreal at times.

You cannot move for shoppers with the numbers boosted by Olympic athletes and coaches taking well-earned breaks. It is a gauntlet you run at times with seemingly no end. Yet it is enjoyable.

The only time it gets serious is when the sale is completed and the ‘owner’ appears from nowhere to ensure the transaction is completed. The girl is the shop front but the power lies in the adult behind and they don’t smile quite so much. Very mafiaesque and one assistant says she earns around £35 a month.

The slight change in manner seems to be mainly centred on the handbag stalls. Every famous brand is there and they are ‘all genuine’ - the mantra of the seller. However, they were not always that keen on doing low deals and the words  'smell the leather'  as a bag was shoved into the face can get a bit tiresome.

They were also reluctant on occasion to have their picture taken, holding up bags to hide their faces.

Maybe the bags weren’t genuine. Who’d have thought? 

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Thursday:
It would be naïve not to notice the other cloud hanging over Beijing, apart from the smog. 

A number of foreign activist have already been deported for protesting about Tibet, an autonomous province still under Chinese military occupation. Many sympathisers you speak to say the Olympic flame is a horribly ironic piece of symbolism when one considers how many Monks have been burned to death.

Security is high in every public place – not only those connected to the Games – and you are searched time after time. Even a packet of polos sets them twitching.

The reaction you get from the local people is fantastic. Smiles greet your every move and every arrival. Nothing is too much trouble. Greetings rain down on you in a cherubic-faced mist from the thousands of volunteer helpers.

Nipping out of a restaurant for a cigarette becomes almost a celebration of forgotten manners. It’s positively embarrassing at times.
The police are watchful.  Tension is there as many will have witnessed yesterday in the Free Tibet protest  that made international headlines in the oppressive way it was dealt with.

And on every corner, on every street is the visual proof of Chinese government authority. The army is omnipresent, usually brooding and certainly unsmiling.

They don’t seem to do anything but you know they could. They are mostly seen springing into action with an arrival of a visiting dignitary. We were in the Forbidden City on such an occasion and if you weren’t invited to that party you were ushered out of the area with no apologies.

Indeed, I was taking a picture when I heard the fresh-faced army lad booming out his instructions on a loud speaker. You knew the tone even in Chinese but he was so insistent as I dallied taking a picture that he came right up alongside and continued his instructions. It was funny but menacing at the same time. 

A visit to the Forbidden City is an awe-inspiring glance at the history that helps shape this diverse country. Tradition and communism on the one side and street people in Western garb using Western shops on the other. Wal-Mart on the main street but American Express sponsorship within the Forbidden walls. Complex is not the word.

The City itself dates from 1406 and took 14 years to build. Most westerners will link it with the film ‘The Last Emperor’ about the child emperor Puyi... It has a staggering 9,999.5 rooms. The tour guide tells you that if you started at birth and slept in a different room each night you would be 27 years old before you calmed back to the first room. You do the math.

Then again, when the average emperor could have 800 concubines, maybe you needed a few places to hide from the wife!

The architecture is stunning (Fen Shui heaven) and the colours brilliant. Much work has been done to preserve the rooms and 1.5m artefacts and thousands filled the intricate maze of rooms and alleys reached through imposing gates. You could spend days wandering around the 180 square acres but you would probably die of heat exhaustion in the stifling, T-shirt destroying humidity.

The halls all have magical names such as Supreme Harmony, Literary brilliance or the Palace of Heavenly Purity or Benevolent Tranquility.

Yet as you exit the City you emerge under the presence of a giant picture of Chairman Mao into Tiananmen Square, the scene of a massacre where hundreds of students died in 1989 producing one of the most iconic pictures of human struggle and despair in recent history of the student in front of a tank.

This at the moment gets little mention as does the Chinese involvement in Darfur through its Sudanese oil friends. Thousands of Falun Gong supporters have been tortured and simply disappeared.

This is a fantastic spectacle but it pays not to be too dazzled. How many of those smile are ordered. That may be unfair but you can’t help wondering.

China is a fast emerging world power probably soon to takeover from the USA. It’s record on human rights; however, make that a victory on which we should reserve any celebration.

What you find hard to believe is that China will ever be quite the same again. It has opened its doors to the world. Four billion global spectators. Nine million tickets sold. The ordinary people are now sampling a different culture in spades. Not everyone is free to enjoy it. Rumours abound that Beijing orphanages have been closed down and the inhabitants taken away from the city. No example of possible failure is being allowed to taint this moment.

But the seed will have been sewn and it will be fascinating to see how the Chinese people react to the influences in the coming years. The genie of free thought and expression may now be out of the bottle.

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Wednesday 7am.
When you meet UK Sport chairman Sue Campbell in the flesh you can tell that the GB team is in good hands. She brushes up to you with a boundless energy that is infectious and there is no politically correct nonsense about this lady. She wants to win. And better still, she wants us to win.

“Look at him (Czech canoeist) he’s having a shocker. Look, look he’s hit those poles. Good! (nudges you in the ribs). Our man has had a brilliant run (silver medallist David Florence) and deserves it.

“They’ve got a great set up in Nottingham in this discipline and expect a couple of medals.”

She is equally upbeat about our overall chances. “We’ve got a medal a day so far and want to keep it going. We are aiming at 8th place in these games which would be an improvement on 10th in Athens.

“To do that we think we need 35 medals of which a third need to be Gold. It is possible. We have the backing of the lottery funds from Camelot which now account for 50 per cent of the funding.

“We have a structure for success in place. We now have coaches who know their team here, the one for 2012 and possibly those they are looking at for 2016.

“These are the elite athletes. It used to be about individual coaches attracting individual athletes with little thought to what or who was coming next. Now we are trying to develop a system for sustained success.

“Take Boxing as an example. It only came into the funding project in 2006. In 2000 and 2004 we had one boxer at each games. This year we have eight.

“We think we can achieve fourth place in 2012. These Games are energising a new generation and this sort of success at these and the Paralympics is our aim.

“Fourth, we think, is the best possible we can do given a country of our size and that is our target.”

And she adds with a wink, “And we can beat the Australians!” 

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It is ACTIVE Cumbria week designed to encourage as many people to get out there and do something physical.

Those involved should take heart from the beaming, excitable faces of the young people enjoying the Olympic experience.

It is blindingly obvious that bring the games to Beijing has promoted a level of interest in sport and recreation not seen before on this scale.

And hopefully, the build-up to London 2012 will have a similar effect, providing the Government leave enough playing fields and don’t finally label winning as a hate crime.

Cumbrian agencies have organised a proactive Cumbria 2012 action group and it is to be supported. Carlisle’s Sheepmount sports facilities have been awarded Centre of Excellence status with a view to hosting training for the Games.

This all positive stuff but everyone needs to rid themselves of the usual British cynicism towards such events if our youngsters are to benefit as much as those here.

The News & Star recently highlighted Cumbrian Olympic hopefuls such as Laura Park, a runner from Allerdale, Lauren Smith (Badminton, Longtown) and Victoria Bell (Squash, Carlisle) who are aiming at 2012.

Their chances will be improved if people power gets behind them.

As Sue Campbell says: “We are looking after the elite athletes but it is a relief that we know that such good work is going on at regional and school levels. It is important that these athletes are supported”. 

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Tuesday 4pm (Beijing time)
OK, the Olympics have been reached via Carlisle, Newcastle, Heathrow (Terminals 5 and 3) and Stockholm. Not a trip for the faint hearted.

Scandinavian airlines were brilliantly efficient and even asked you whether you preferred sleep when it was time to serve breakfast rather than take your elbow off with the trolley in a subtle wake up call as is usual on most flights.

Driving out of the huge airport it is immediately apparent that these games are going to be incredibly well organised. I suppose it helps when the people, are used to doing as they are told.

Everything runs like clockwork, even the smiles of porters to hotel staff. However, it is fascinating that in the two hours spent here I have bumped into a good dozen ordinary local people who have all smiled and given a welcome ‘Hi’.
The excitement in the air is palpable. You can feel the buzz. This is going to be fascinating. Full itinerary given to us tomorrow.

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There have been numerous reports of how the smog hanging over Beijing may affect the performance of the athletes.
Now, I’m not saying it is bad but I fully expect to return home next week with asthma. The humidity hits you round the ankles and then soaks up your legs like a walking litmus paper.

Despite the best efforts of the Chinese – including the closing of factories, the removal of millions of cars from the roads and even the rumoured use of silver-bullet weather manipulation – you can’t escape the cloying, yellowy cloud that descends on the lungs.

It will be fascinating to see how it affects in particular the longer distance events. I’ll be watching the 10,000m and the women’s marathon and it is not a cliché to say that all the competitors will deserve a blooming medal if they complete the course.

It’s quite difficult to buy a smog mask so I have had to make do with alternatives purchased from a cheap gift shop (see pictures). They might not do the job but they certainly improve my features!

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Monday 11 August 7am: I’ve not even left the north of England yet and already my temper is fraying. Cause? British bloody Airways.

Locked in a deep sleep it is a tad irritating when your phone goes off with a text message at 12.28am saying your flight from Newcastle to Heathrow has been cancelled. By who? Why? And lucky you had the phone switched on otherwise the trip may have been missed.

But what really sums this country up when it comes to travelling and customer service is that when ringing the BA number as instructed at this ungodly hour, a disembodied voice message puts you through to…Toronto!

Thankfully you are told this is at “no extra cost” and Jamie was very helpful in transferring me to an earlier flight.

However, the fact that I was talking to her at 1am because no-one at British Airways was helping out in this country takes the biscuit.
BA? My wife, a former air hostess, calls them Bugger All airlines.

Now I’m not one to bear a grudge (longer than 25 years) so I will maintain the Chinese theme of this trip and wish all at BA good luck and hope their nether regions are infested with grasshoppers. 

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It was an offer I couldn’t refuse. “Do you fancy a week at the Olympics,” said the voice on the phone. “Er, go on then” was the considered reply having thought long and hard about it for at least three seconds. Having started out as a journalist nearly 30 years ago with the aspiration to be covering such events for a living within a few years, it was an opportunity worth selling a kidney for to make the trip.

Admittedly, the career has failed miserably to include any World Cups, Champions League games or even the studious sport of beach volleyball being more commonly linked over the years with non-league or lower league footie and (through work only) the laugh factory that was Leeds United – the O’Leary years.

I did once cover the world record non-stop walking record achieved in Fleetwood many moons ago but retelling that story is always guaranteed to empty a pub taproom.

So this trip is certainly going to be a professional highlight - the personal highlight being my marriage to Emma and birth of my lad Alex for obvious reasons, the main one being I’d like to catch the flight to China on Monday still being able to fill a cricket box.

It has been suggested (sharp sticks down finger nails) that I attempt a daily blog during my stay starting Tuesday and limping along until my return on Monday the 18th.

Technology and my many thumbs permitting (even the wife looked perturbed when I said I was coming home to show her my new dongle) I will endeavour to send a few words each day on my experiences at this global event. I plan to visit places such as Tiananmen Square, scene of the 1989 massacre, plus the Great Wall and the Forbidden City.

And, if the opening ceremony and early events are anything to go by, I will also enjoy the athletics and various other events on offer including the Blue Riband drugsfest that is the 100m Men’s Final.

My fellow travellers on the trip sponsored by lottery giants Camelot include fellow Editors and journalists from national and regional media so ‘teetotal’ may not be a word you see used often.

However, I’ll do my best to portray a personal view of the atmosphere (if I can actually breathe in it) of the place and what life is like based in and around what is supposed to be the greatest sporting show on earth.

From Carlisle to Beijing. Now where did I put my ‘Save the Cumbrian One’ T-shirt?