Adolesence

It never ceases to amaze me how quickly the cygnets become juveniles as big as their parents. It's not just their colour, though, which gives their age away. They are adolescent in behaviour just as much as they are in plumage. You'd be able to tell even if they looked exactly like the adults. I can't really put it into words. Perhaps it's in the eyes.

I've had a very frustrating day at the office and feel rather jaded tonight. I think I'm also missing not having any Olympic competition to watch or catch up with. I think I might be suffering a bit of withdrawal!

The closing ceremony last night was a quite emotional affair, just as chaotic as the opening event and, although not touching quite the same heights, it certainly had some great moments. Likewise, it also had some poor ones! But I thought it was great that the organisers were prepared to take a few risks and celebrate the full spectrum of British culture. I loved the slightly anarchic feel to it. I thought Eric Idle was brilliant and marvelled that Freddie Mercury, a full 21 years after his death, could still engage so thoroughly with 80,000 people. Those were moments of genius.

It did go on rather long though, didn't it? I think it might have been a case of once certain people had been invited to perform then certain others inevitably had to be invited too. It all felt just ever so slightly bloated. But that is to be a little harsh. Once again, as so often during the last two and a bit weeks, I've felt very proud to be British. We did a damn fine job and hats off to all those people who made it happen.

One final thing, though, and I'd love to know the answer to this. In this summer of rather a lot of rain, did they have a bad weather plan? What would those 80,000 people have watched if it had poured down with rain - as it could quite easily have done? I'm curious.