Citius! Altius! Fortius!

Ah. What a night.

I'm referring to last night. (Yet another) Friday evening I spent home. Alone (again). Sober (well, almost). Glued to the TV screen (as always). This time with a legitimate excuse though: the opening night of the Olympics- that night when hundreds of countries no-one has ever even heard of parade their finest and fittest dressed like 70's stewardesses. Unless they're Italians, in which case it's Prada, daaaahhhhling, Prada. Or Mexicans- looking like a bad day at a Piñata factory. Or Egyptians in which case it's knock-off Nike all the way...

I'm normally not that bothered about the Games, but these are held in London, my adoptive home. And my, what a ceremony that was. Danny Boyle truly put "Great" back into "Britain". And even the most hard-core north Irish republicans must have warmed to Her Maj's parachute entry to the stadium in a true Bond manner. 

My heart was bursting with pride and judging by the Facebook updates I wasn't the only one. Even The Man had tears in his eyes. The Man! The man who doesn't do emotions!

The nations' march confirmed one thing though. Again.The more a country feels the need to assert their free nature and people's will- respecting governance in their name, the more spectacularly they tend to fail at actually exercising any of those. Take the (Un)democratic (Oppressed) People's (Non-existent) Republic of Korea, for instance. 

Out of the current tyrants (oh, that dying breed...damn those uprisings!) that Kim dude must be one of my favourites. Could do with a bit of makeover the Queer Eye For The Straight Guy sort of way though. Surprisingly enough that dreadful Terylene coat he likes to cover his tank-like-torso with doesn't seem to cramp his style too much: the man just got married! Although... the poor girl probably would have been shot had she had the audacity to turn down the Beloved Leader's advances...?

But, in the name of the noble Olympic spirit let's all pretend we truly are one. For the next 14 days anyway. And let's pretend we can all be heroes and that it really is a case of  the best man winning - and not the Chinese having superior drugs...