And we're off ...

If you're going to spend four hours glued to the telly you need something to keep you going.  And if it's the Olympic opening ceremony we're talking about, you could go down one of two routes - either something patriotic (roast beef, strawberries and cream, fish and chips, haggis?) or something ancient.  We opted (surprisingly enough) for the latter - a tray loaded with mezedes (taramasalata, tzasiki, humus, dolmades, olives and feta) followed by pork in an avgolemono (lemon and egg) sauce.  We rounded it all off with Greek yoghurt, honey and walnuts.

As for the opening ceremony.  Danny Boyle did us proud, accurately interpreting the British spirit - our rural heritage, ancient mysticism, industrial leadership, literary riches, civil rights legacy, cultural diversity, devotion to national institutions, our quirkiness and, above all, our ability not to take ourselves too seriously.  Highlights for me were Rowan Atkinson on the keyboard, the volunteers' faces printed on the dresses in the athletes' procession, Shami Chakrabarti and Doreen Lawrence carrying the Olympic flag and, of course, Heatherwick's exquisitely engineered cauldron.  There were a few naff moments and I don't know what the world wide audience would make of it but I loved it.  Well done Danny.