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The Olympic torch didn’t light my fire

I saw the Olympic torch last Sunday, it was passing through Aberaeron so it seemed churlish to ignore it. Off we went: me and the family, to get a good view of proceedings as it passed through the town. Expectations were high, the crowd was large and the sun was shining. All looked good.

And then they came! The convoy, the preamble, the cheerleaders, the car that said “Torch will be here in 6 minutes” and as an omen of what was to come, it started raining. And we waited, waited for nearly an hour as police bikes and cars, buses and noise makers passed us. All part of the convoy clearing (or was it cleansing?) the route.

The Samsung man gave us some noise makers: tatty plastic tubes that we could inflate and bang toether. The kids next to us soon truned them first into swords and then axes as they stabbed and then chopped each other. Great fun, until mine popped. Cheap tubes just don’t last.

In the distance we could see “It”. The flame was getting closer, and as it passed it all seemed, well a little underwhelming. This wasn’t THE torch as there were at least 6 others on the bus in front of the torch being paraded in for us and there were many more in the bus that followed.

This wasn’t about bringing the spirit of the games from Athens to London via all points west. No, it was about the sponsors getting to show themselves to as many people as possible to squeeze their advertisting spend to the limit.

It was – for me and many others I’ve spoken to – a great disappointment.

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