A sonnet for the critics

I have not revered Will's cunning wordplay,
Nor shall my musings be so numerous.
Somewhat self indulgent, slave to cliche,
A rare place, no bid to be humorous.
Be sure that my words come straight from the heart,
I purely seek to bare my restless soul,
I seek not acclaim, rather stand apart,
Cannot feign style, I have not the control.
My fealty lies with Shakespeare, night and day,
Reading a Petrach is a transgression,
I know my loves, there is no need to stray,
Let this be clear, there is no concession;
If you like your poems risky and new,
Be warned: my blog is not the place for you.

A sonnet for the disappointed

As sweet sleep evades my weary body,

My mind drifts to a place shielded by day, 

A savage madness, vicious malady,

There are no means to keep these thoughts at bay.

Words unsaid, a bitter pill to swallow,

Mine own artless actions make me a fool,

But mine conscience has no cause to wallow: 

Better give freely than nothing at all.

And yet these feelings are stronger than due,

To thou, whose fair presence was so fleeting,

Old wounds opened from disappointment new,

A lesson ill learned means much repeating;

That which first appears both unfeigned and true,

Is as inconstant as the sky is blue.

And the gold medal goes to.....Great Britain

When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life - Samuel Johnson

The Olympics are over (cue tears). So what is left to do except write about them?! The last time I was writing about a sporting event and the British public, I was feeling disappointed. You will be pleased to know that in this blog I will express no such sentiment. The last couple of weeks of Olympic festivity has restored my faith in our country. Is that over dramatic? Probably, but I'm not one for half measures.

Everyone was sceptical before they started. People were complaining about the special road lanes, public transport being under prepared, the money it was costing (approximately 12 billion pounds in case you are interested) and the farce that was the ticketing system. The latter I will confess to having moaned about because I didn't get tickets, so of course that means it was a terrible system. The whole thing was so typically British, heaven forbid we should express a bit of pride at hosting  and think that we might actually do a good job. No, it was sure to be a disaster. The tabloid press certainly didn't help, with their endless stories of shortfalls, overspending and other problems. Special mention has to go to the Daily Mail for taking it's shoddy reporting to a new level and attempting to whip up its readers into an anti Olympic frenzy. As if that wasn't bad enough, we had to cope with Mitt "only slightly less dumb than Bush" Romney using his presidential candidacy trip to stick the boot in, saying 'it's hard to know just how well things will turn out' and describing there being a 'few things that were disconcerting' about the Olympic build up. This coming from a man who once said 'Corporations are people, my friend....of course they are. Everything corporations earn ultimately goes to the people'. I'll tell you what's disconcerting Mitt - the fact that you could be elected President of the United States. I don't want politics to hijack my Olympic blog, but if you fancy a bit more Mitt bashing then check out http://mittromneyisatool.com/, it's pretty amusing (not to mention scary).

Loving the opening ceremony

Cue the games start. The opening ceremony might have gotten off to a slightly shaky start but with star turns from Mr Bean, James Bond and even Queenie herself (and didn't she look happy about it!), it soon picked up. So what if the rest of the world 'didn't get it'? Seeing as we spent billions on it a little self indulgence is not too much to ask, surely. Besides, the opening ceremony should reflect the hosting nation and as far as I can tell it did. Irreverent, humorous and unconventional. As one blogger said 'a triumph of punk over pomp'. From that night on, I was hooked. The next 16 days passed in a blur of cheers and tears. For me a few moments really stick out. Andy Murray winning the tennis men's singles gold after Wimbledon heartbreak (I must confess, I developed a little crush on him this summer too. Irrelevant I know but I needed to get it off my chest)....Mo Farah winning double gold on the track and when asked by a reporter if he would prefer to have run for Somalia answering (in his cockney accent) 'Look mate, this is my country. This is where I grew up, this is where I started life. This is my country and when I put on my Great Britain vest I'm very proud'....Bradley Wiggins topping his Tour de France win with a road race gold and celebrating in his inimitable style. But really, there are too many to mention. It's fair to say I cried. A lot. And so that brings us to the closing ceremony. At times repetitive (with a wealth of British music to choose from did they really have to play five songs on repeat for a section of the show?), but always surprising, it maybe fell slightly short of the spectacular I was hoping for, but I wanted to like it so much that I did regardless. Besides, any event that begets a Spice Girls reunion is more than worth it. I cannot recall the exact number of times I said 'when are the Spice Girls coming on?' that night, but it was a fair few. I was a bit disappointed that Geri didn't wear her Union Jack dress again but to be fair she hasn't got the boobs for it now. Also noteworthy was Boris Johnson (who appeared none the worse for his embarrassing zip line debacle) getting on down, dad style, to Spice Up Your Life. He's such an adorable buffoon, it's easy to forget he's a bloody Tory.

This Olympics has certainly been a triumph for Great Britain and not just because we were the host with the most but because our athletes also brought it to the table - the medal table to be precise. With a total of 65 medals; 29 gold, 17 silver and 19 bronze, we surpassed our Beijing haul of 47 medals and finished third in the medal table. It is our best gold medal tally since 1908. The athletes seemed to feed off the amazing support from the home crowd and the success of each other. Where do we go from here? Onwards and upwards - bring on Rio.

Can we keep this feeling of national pride going? Can we remember how good it is when we come together and forget skin colour and race? Can we seek to not only appreciate what we have achieved, but strive to achieve more? Tough questions. The theme of the Olympics was 'Inspire a Generation'. I don't think I'm the generation they were aiming for, but I'm feeling pretty damn inspired. Are you?