I wonder if anyone else has picked up on this.

I just got back from 10 days in the UK. It was my first visit in a year. I was quickly struck by how bloody nice everyone was being to each other. It wasn't like that last year. My colleagues in London told me that it was all down to the Olympics.

Did the event really have that much impact on people?

Don't worry, they'll soon revert back to their old ways.

My informant complains that they put "a bloody shuttle boat stop right under our balcony, the boats were noisy" so, no, the entire population of London was not made happy and nice by the Olympics.

Would this have been a relative of yours, by any chance?

Indeed. She was really quite grumpy about the Olympics, having been mildly inconvenienced and unable to obtain tickets.

You can't revert back.... you can revert to

I think my mob got quite a few tickets. One of the younger ones, a rather prim chap, went to the Greco-Roman wrestling. He was heard to remark that the audience appeared to be comprised largely of men. Bless.

There were naked men wrestling? Were they covered in baby oil?

I too was back in Blighty recently...my fourth trip this year but first after the Olympics. Talking to colleagues in London, friends and family etc there does seem to have been an outpouring of general goodwill, positive thoughts & even a soupcon of national pride. I think it's to do with the natural British reserve about it all going to be an utter disaster - fuelled in part by the meedyah and then being pleasanty surprised that it went off rather well and doubly surprised at how well Team GB did.

How long this lasts, is of course, to be seen.

I'd ask for clarification but, as always when not physically at work, she's buggered off to somewhere in Europe.

There was a triffic cartoon in the Private Eye I bought while there. A spectator at the paralypics.

"Oi ref! Are you f*****g blind?"
"Yes"
"Oh. Sorry".

Thank you for that and may I add you are just the educated presence this site needs........not.

Lighten up AY, I did wink so it wasn't meant nastily.

I was in town during the Paralympics... I was surprised how clean it looked. I mentioned it to a cabbie and he said they'd done a lot of work in the City.

Still, none of the staff in the hotel were English.....

That's probably because the "English" don't want to work. Whats the problem what nationality staff are as long as there are staff willing to work?