"FREEDOM COME ALL YE"

THE COMMONWEALTH GAMES

African singer Pumeza singing `Freedom Come All Ye" before the 4929 athletes from 71 nations seated at the 20th Commonwealth Games Opening Ceremony in Glasgow.

Around 35,000 cheering folk packed the Celtic stadium and we enjoyed a colourful and at times moving event. Scot, Sir Chris Hoy Britain`s all time most successful Olympian cyclist was given the honour of presenting the Queen's Baton to Her Majesty who read out her message to the Commonwealth before declaring the Games to be open.

Ewan McGregor made an emotional "text" appeal for UNICEF Put Children First to raise money for the world’s neediest children and apparently this raised £2.5million in just the first hour after its launch at the Games Ceremony.

We were told that the event was watched live on TV by more than one billion people around the world and during the ceremony, a minute's silence was also observed to pay homage to the victims of the Malaysian airliner recently shot down over Ukraine.

The weather was amazing, great for our overseas visitors and the whole organisation including the shuttle bus transport to and from the venue was superb.

I felt privileged to be there.