Sadly the 2012 Olympics are over, however it is not too late to relive it in all its glory, so let's start with the spectacular Opening Ceremony.
10. Abide With Me
Emeli Sande's rendition of Henry Francis Lyte's poem continued a British sporting tradition honouring our fallen friends and family members. The dance routine to accompany the song was emotional and fitting.
9. 'Pixels' in the Audience
Although this isn't actually a moment of the ceremony, these 70,900 lights created images that illustrated many different segments of the ceremony. These images clearly mesmerised the world and lit up London for the evening.
8. NHS & Great Ormond Street Hospital
This lively segment truly paid thanks to the nurses and doctors that work day and night to keep the people of Britain healthy. This section also proved to be charitable with the beds donated to hospitals in Tunisia.
7. Modern technology
A great dance segment forming a love story born out of modern technology. Danny Boyle clearly used this to remind the world that the 2012 Olympics are the social media games. The fast paced party themed show culminated in Tim Berners-Lee (He invented the World Wide Web in case a certain NBC commentator didn't know) revealing the message "This is for everyone."
6. Children's Fiction
Danny Boyle celebrated British literature by bringing 'baddies' like Voldemort to life, while JK Rowling read an extract from JM Barrie's Peter Pan. This truly honoured one of Britain's finest gifts to the world.
5. James Bond and The Queen
An 86 year old jumping out of a plane with 007 - Isn't that what the Olympics are about? This segment demonstrated the affection we show towards our Royal family while it celebrated our film industry and combined the two in a humorous and an ambitious stunt.
Even Her Majesty herself saw the funny side, she was quietly laughing while she uttered the words "Good Evening Mr Bond."
4. Green and Pleasant Land
This segment showcased the beautiful large expanses of the British countryside while
presented internationally lesser known sports such as Cricket. The scene also helped demonstrate London's aim to make the 2012 Olympics a 'Green Games'.
3. Industrial Revolution
This scene formed part of the most extravagant opening segment to grace the Olympic stage since the games began. This fast paced change of scene provided a striking contrast to the large fields preceding this representation of Britain's historical transformation from the 18th century onwards. The climax of the this segment was the formation of the Olympic Rings above the stadium floor. Every moment of this dramatic scene had me captivated, even when they were simply rolling up carpets.
Who says that an Olympic Opening Ceremony can't have a sense of humour? Playing Chariots of Fire created a brilliant link to the Olympics and a fantastic tribute to British film, while Mr Bean had 4 billion people across the world in stitches.
The humour created by Rowan Atkinson and Danny Boyle transcended language and ethnicity, and made it the perfect tool to have the world united in laughter.
1. Lighting of the Cauldron
As ever, the crowning glory of the Olympic Opening Ceremony was the lighting of cauldron that would burn for 17 days. very rarely do the cauldron lighters have as much significance as these 7 young ambassadors for the 2012 Games represented the motto of the 2012 games, 'Inspire a Generation'. All 7 have aims to compete for Britain in the future and are the type of people organisers aimed to inspire. Those hoping for veteran athletes to light the flame also got what they wanted as each individual of the group was nominated by one of Britain's most loved Olympians.
Pictures courtesy of Flickr users: Nick J Webb, shimelle
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