My London Olympic Games 2012

On the day of the opening of the London Olympic Games 2012 I decided to visit the heart of it all; I decided to visit Stratford, the home to the Olympic Park. Before I set up on my journey, I visited the Czech House located in the Business Design Centre. After all, do not forget, I am Czech and so felt it was my rather pleasant duty to support my team with my presence.

What welcomed me and everybody else was an installation of this double-decker bus by David Cerny placed so well in front of the entrance. We all just stopped and stared with amazement and amusement, observing the workout this fella does day in, day out. Just check out the triceps.

No wonder this red beauty breathes so heavily. To perform push-ups all day long is quite an achievement. Hopefully, this sets up an example to the entire Czech team and good luck to the athletes.

After such an up-lifting start to the day I finally put myself on the underground, destination Stratford. The closer I was getting the more busy the train became. But still, full of pride and surrounded by the excitement of the Olympic Games, I kept on going. I would call this stamina.

I was so much looking forward to the Anish Kapoor sculpture in front of the stadium, to the structures and to the entire Village...

Well, this is as close to it all as I actually got. All I could see were crowds of people (luckily well-natured) and this large poster of the olympic stadium spread over a wall of the Westfield shopping centre with quite an eye-catching decoration. Without a ticket, there was no way to get closer. Oh well, I just have to come back after the Games are over.

After coming home and turning on the TV, I just managed to catch what the English are famous for, the air squadron flying over the Olympic Village, releasing red, blue and white behind. This is always a joy to watch.

What I did not realise (and should have done) was that they would continue over London. And so, all of the sudden, they flew past my windows. Having been taken by a complete surprise, all I managed was to stumble towards the windows only to return to grab my camera, realising that I had a wrong lens on and by the time I sorted myself out the picture looks like this; fading colour smoke over a sunny wall of the building opposite.


All of this happened to me yesterday, on the official opening of the Olympic Games 2012 in London. What a day this turned out to be. K-)

Who are The Tap Tap?

The Tap Tap is a Czeck band I went to see last night here in London. What is worth mentioning (and the reason I am writing about it) is that this band consists of musicians with various disabilities. However, none of these stops them to perform and spread a feel-good atmosphere. The Tap Tap tours across Europe, Amsterdam, Warsaw, Luxembourg to name a few, and I am sure its success will grow.

Lead by an enthusiastic conductor, the band brought me back to my home country with such a strength.

The rhythm, beat, lyrics and the pure joy of entertaining reminded me of my childhood and youth, the years without worries, the years worth remembering.


I have taken a few pictures (deliberately without flash) to share with you.

Here, you can see the main singer (left) whose voice I just loved and who was often joined by a female voice (right; voice that was so strong); the sound grew even stronger by the vocals of the entire band. Also, you can just about work out some of the instruments in this section of the band; various drums. And this is the structure of music that reminded me so much of my childhood. Strong voices, the beat of the drums and the lyrics that would deal with problems of that given time (I grew up in the '80s under communist regime - that is all I have to say).

What else to add? Only that I had a smile glued to my face from the moment The Tap Tap started to play to the time they finished, and beyond. Even now, I sit here with a big smile on my face. And this is what I want on a sunny Sunday morning. Kx