The olympic torch relay comes to Bristol

Despite not even applying for olympic tickets, this morning Belle and I got into the olympic spirit and went to watch the torch relay as it came through Bristol. There were already hundreds of people lining the streets when we arrived at our spot, so we queued up for our free Cokes, in true commercial style, and set up camp with some friends from Belle’s school, who we had spotted on the other side of the road.

It wasn’t long before the crowd started getting excitable, as a series of police bikes approached, followed by an assortment of strange advertising buses. I was slightly confused, as there appeared to be a boy, dressed in white, getting off a bus and holding the torch at the side of the road throughout this procession. I didn’t think that was how it worked. Can you spot him?

After this initial surge of activity, the boy with the torch was still there, and we of course rushed over to touch it. Belle apparently is ‘never washing her hands again’. Any excuse.

Then though the excitement started up again, and it dawned on me that we were standing at a spot where the flame was being passed over, (I understand the relay concept now), and this torch boy was actually just waiting for the flame to come along. I did thing it was a bit weird that it wasn’t even lit. I am quite slow though sometimes.

By this point, thinking the fun was over, I had kindly let an old lady stand in front of me, so didn’t have such a good view. Still, if you ignore that massive head taking up a lot of the picture, I think you get some sense of the occasion.

Hooray for torch boy!