London Olympics: Thanks to Her Majesty's Great People
Let me take this opportunity to thank the people of London and the United Kingdom on behalf of so many visitors for their unique hospitality.
My favourite winners of the hospitality awards London 2012 are:
1. The 70,000 volunteers working all day as tour guides for the 2 million visitors to the Olympic park, and yet more in the rest of London. Always super-friendly and helpful- they all deserve a gold medal for hospitality.
2. Nothing dangerous happened - thanks to thousands of policemen, soldiers and agents - a silver medal for security.
3. The opening ceremony directed by Danny Boyle, with HM the Queen parachuting into the stadium (or was it a soldier dressed like the Queen ...?) accompanied by the suave OO7 (Daniel Craig) in her helicopter. Mr Bean (Rowan Atkinson) playing the keyboard in the London Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Sir Simon Rattle. Eccentric in an endearingly British way - at least bronze.
And so many medals for Team GB – their best haul in 100 years - super-impressive.
But do not forget that if you add up all the medals from individual countries, the European Union is by far the most successful participant with over 70 gold medals, more than China or the United States, and still more to come over the last few days.
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