Just been to your blog and enjoyed the photos, Orchid. Thanks. The Olympic fireworks and opening ceremonies are just breathtaking to watch, even on television, which is how I will choose to view them when it happens here because I am asthmatic and gunpowder is not my bedfellow. To date, the best opening and closing Olympic ceremonies on the top of my list would be Barcelona and China's.

How are the games holding up with the initial problem with snow?

P.S.

I was on one of those Dutch bikes when I took the grandchildren to Amsterdam last summer. I quite like them as they're the closest to "traditional" bikes i.e. single speed. I also did not have to hunch to cycle at leisure.

Here's another reason why residents have taken up an environmental jihad. The road is a main artery to the Royal Park and although the problem with road subsidence has been dealt with, residents are quite wary of problems arising again as and when the unusual traffic of heavy equipment commence.
http://gihs.gold.ac.uk/blackhole/hole.htm