I must admit to having suspended my normal cynicism for the duration. I was sailing in Loch Ness a few weeks back and fortuitously ended up in Fort Augustus for the Torch Relay, it was a real community experience. Heartwarming.

Then came the Opening Ceremony - normally shite, yeah - it was gobsmacking, and with not one mention of a sponsor to give me that 'farmed' feeling I normally get on these occasions - I'm still refusing to buy the 'Official Fucking Beer' of the World Cup, by the way!

I also share the objections to these slimeball tories taking the credit for what seems like a globally popular event - whilst they, in the very same breath, draw up plans to get the meek to pay inheritance tax - but all that said, I've thoroughly enjoyed this Olympics.

I've mainly watched it on the telly, but was lucky enough to be at St James Park for the Brasil - Honduras game. The match itself was ruined by overly zealous (or just plain bad) refereeing, but I still felt I was partaking in something.

Of the Games themselves my favourite bit was Bradley Wiggins victory - great bloke! Also loved Piers Morgan getting his come-uppance during his attempt at self-promotion:

Wiggins took gold in the time trial last week, but that was not enough to keep Morgan happy: he supposedly tweeted the cycling hero with the following message: “I was very disappointed @bradwiggins didn’t sing the anthem either. Show some respect to our Monarch please!”

The 'fake' Twitter exchangeA tweet from a fan (@mrcolmquinn) responding in defence of Wiggins’ (and initially mistaken as a response from the Tour de France winner), was retweeted profusely, retorting: “@piersmorgan I was disappointed when you didn’t go to jail for insider trading or phone hacking, but you know, each to his own."

The jpeg of the exchange has caused a stir, prompting debate about how important it is for winning athletes to sing the national anthem and highlighting how strongly people feel about patriotism and national success at the Olympics.

Morgan has been campaigning for athletes to proudly sing their anthems, whichever nation they represent, and is donating money to charity when gold medal winners impress him with their singing.

Wiggins is yet to officially respond.

Priceless! (or is that phrase copyrighted?) A charity would have benefitted if only Wiggins had appealed, in baritone no doubt, to an invisible man to protect the health of a supremely priviledged woman who has health-care coming out of her arse!

Which reminds me: the only downside has been watching numerous athletes appealing to in advance, or thanking after the event, various deities.

The most sickening was after last nights 5000m:

Meseret Defar had just run the race of her life. It was truly amazing. Breathless, and in tears, she then pulled from her sports-bra a small plastic bag imprinted on which was the image of the madonna and child. She fell to her knees and sucked the plastic bag to her face. She held it to the camera and screamed, then holding it aloft, she thanked the heavens before shoving said plastic bag back into her bra.

My concern aside that Meseret may get a nasty rash, I was quite upset that the Virgin Mary - undoubtedly egged on by her bastard offspring - had conspired to make all those other runners lose.

How unsporting!

Anvil.

[Slightly edited by moderator]