London 2012 Olympics

Since the announcement that London won the bid to host the 2012 Olympics back in 2005, we have gradually been getting more and more excited about it all. We have definitely never been one of those Bah Humbug Brits who thought it was all a waste of money and time and now it is almost here, I'm sure our optimism and enthusiasm will be justified!

We live about 15 minutes from Heathrow Airport so Mr Snowballs decided last Sunday that we would wander on over to do a bit of Olympic team spotting. We managed to see Olympians from Australia, Estonia, Japan, India, UAE and USA and even spoke to a few of them.

We have managed to see the Olympic flame twice this week to on its nationwide relay: once in our local town Richmond and today on the Royal Barge Gloriana being rowed down the River Thames - amazing.

Tonight we are having a few friends and grandparents over to watch the Opening Ceremony with us. I spotted a great idea here about creating a bingo sheet to keep the children amused for some of the time and adapted the idea to be more specific (based on the little snippets of information that have been released). Don't think it needs to be limited to the kids either!

And finally, we managed to get some tickets (despite the ticket fiasco - which is the one negative thing we have encountered so far) and are going to see rowing on Monday at Eton Rowing lake. Sadly not one of the main Olympic venues which would have been very cool but still great. Let's hope the glorious sun we have had this week continues and we don't need brollies!

© 2012 Nicola Noble: Please observe the rules of copyright and blog etiquette. If you use my ideas or images, please link back to my blog. And do let me know - I'd love to take a look.

Jubilee-tastic product branding

I have to admit that I am loving all the very British branding that many well-known brands have adopted this year - in honour of the Queen's Diamond Jubilee and the Olympics, London 2012.

That said, I am not particularly choosing one brand over another when I am shopping but if something I normally buy has a patriotic option then I buy that one.

My favourite so far has to be Marmite - very clever ...

 ... although technically, it's not quite right. Apparently, when addressing the Queen (after the first "Your Majesty") it's  Ma'am (as in jam) not Ma'am as in Marm-ite!

Kingsmill bread also made me chuckle out loud in the supermarket when I saw their tribute...

Other patriotic brands I have come across include:

The obvious: the undisputed queen of summer drinks, Pimms

The not-so obvious: Ryvita - rye crisp breads

And the downright bizarre: Andrex toilet paper

What others have you seen?