Last updated at 14:28, Thursday, 09 August 2012

The French say they would have staged it much better and accuse our all-conquering cyclists of using “magic wheels” to beat their best pedal pushers.

The Aussies have complained that the brilliant crowds have been too loud and have put them off so much, they’ve only managed to claim one gold (they’re even making up their own medals table where they are including their tally with New Zealand’s).

So we must be doing something right in the Olympics if we’ve upset that lot.

I can’t deny that I’ve been sucked in by the spectacle and emotion of it all.

Favourite moments so far have been in the velodrome and the stunning tear-stained semi-final win of judo outsider Gemma Gibbons (ranked 47 in the world) against some huge Frenchwoman (also world champion).

All of this has been at a cost to me and the family.

The boys are banished to their room if they can’t sit down and shut up and I’ve burned two teas, three tea-towels and scorched two shirts with the iron as I watched goggle-eyed.

There is a downside of course.

The front of all the daily papers read like the back – you have to plough your way through 10 or a dozen pages of Olympics reports before you get to the real news.

It’s the same with TV and radio reports. The main news story is the main sports story, which is very boring and unnecessary.

I’ve had quite enough of it all, so I’m going away for a couple of weeks, somewhere where they’re not bothered about it all.

Australia’s too far, so France it is then.

First published at 11:30, Thursday, 09 August 2012
Published by http://www.newsandstar.co.uk