Let The Games Begin!

It was 6.45pm on Friday and I was trapped in a massive traffic jam in New Town, PJ. What the hell was happening?

It was bumper to bumper crawl. This was very unusual. I tried to navigate through the traffic and tried and find the best route home. I’d be damned if I miss the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics!

Oh, that’s it! Only then did I realize what the traffic jam was all about. People all rushing home to catch the Olympics!

I was hungry but with the traffic condition like that, I think I’d just forego my dinner outside and head straight home. Trouble was, the clock kept ticking but my car was not moving much. I was beginning to lose my patience. It was 7.50pm and I was no where near home! Maybe I should just have my dinner at a mamak stall and watch the Olympics on the TV there.

Luckily, for me, and to cut the long story short, I managed to reach home at 8.25pm.

But with no Astro and relying on RTM, it would make no difference even if I came back later because they only broadcasted it at 8.40pm after the news. What the crap! The opening ceremony started at 8.08pm and RTM, our official Olympics channel showed the live telecast about 30 minutes late!

Better than nothing, of course so I watched the opening ceremony and all. It was a great opening – truly grand and entertaining. I liked the part where a giant translucent globe came out from the stadium floor and acrobats walking around it as if defying gravity.

But the best part has to be the lighting of the Olympic flame. This was where we see six-time Chinese gymnastics gold medallist Li Ning carrying the torch being hoisted up to the top of the stadium and then did an incredible “kung fu style” walking the entire circumference of the stadium before sending up a torrent of flame that spiraled upwards to the huge cauldron and lighting the Olympic flame. Simply cool!

And then of course there were the fireworks!

Here’s some photos taken from Yahoo Sports.

I only found the part where all the countries came out on stage a bit tedious and boring.

Still overall it's a successful opening ceremony to the Games. And RTM had the nerve to end the live telecast prematurely before the fireworks show was over! Who wants to watch the RTM commentator in the studio talking nonsense when there's live fireworks on display? Please RTM, if you can't give us a decent live telecast, stop promoting yourself as the official Olympics Channel!

Anyway, here's wishing the Beijing Olympics a great success!