Road race and closing ceremony photos

I didn't intend to go to either the opening or closing ceremony, but somehow I ended up going to both.  This time they weren't mucking around, though - my £15 seat really did live up to its "restricted view" billing.  But it had its advantages - athletes were scurrying up and down the stairs beside me all evening, many of them from Team Scotland.  There were two women a few rows in front of me who were determined to get selfies with as many athletes as possible, so that gave me the opportunity to take a few snaps!

I dutifully bought a £2 saltire before I went in, and although it was a pain in the neck, I did my best to wave it at moments of maximum patriotic fervour, such as when Prince Imran declared Glasgow 2014 the best Games ever, and when Dougie MacLean sang Caledonia.  However, as I was in the ultra-cheap section, I have a feeling my efforts may have been in vain as far as the TV cameras were concerned...

I don't know how the ceremony came across on TV, but I must say that I didn't cringe at all this time (except maybe during the opening part of the Gold Coast presentation, and we can hardly take the blame for that).

Commonwealth Games photos

I won't try your patience with too many of these, because I know the picture quality is somewhat less than brilliant.  But in reverse chronological order, here's a brief overview of what I've been seeing in Glasgow over the last week-and-a-half.  I bought the tickets ages ago (long before I ran the fundraiser, I hasten to add!), and with one exception I chose the cheapest option for each sport, so I could see the widest variety possible.  The problem with taking that approach is that you end up seeing a lot of fairly routine preliminary-round matches.  On the first day when the heatwave was at its peak, I sat in unbearable heat watching South Africa beat Trinidad and Tobago 16-0 in a tedious women's hockey match from an absolutely terrible vantage point, and I thought "this could start to get wearing".  But I had much more luck with sessions in other sports, and to my surprise I saw quite a few quarter-finals and semi-finals.  I think the highlight may well have been tonight at the squash, when I saw Scotland's Alan Clyne and Harry Leitch storm into the semi-finals of the men's doubles in an electric atmosphere at Scotstoun.  I think I'm right in saying that Scotland haven't won a squash medal of any colour since Peter Nicol took gold in Kuala Lumpur in 1998, although of course irritatingly we had to watch as Nicol claimed several more medals for England in 2002 and 2006 after defecting.  So Clyne and Leitch are potentially only one game away from ending the drought.

The band you can see in one of the photos is the Boomerang Project - a collaboration between the amazing Scottish band Breabach, and Maori and Australian Aboriginal musicians (including a former Australian Idol winner).  It was put together specifically for Commonwealth Games year, and the common theme is the suppression of language and culture - Gaelic, Maori and Aboriginal.  This is a strikingly different vision of what the Commonwealth is all about - more a victim support group, rather than Lord Coe's notion of former colonies genuflecting towards their vestigial Britishness.

A Commonwealth Games FAQ, brought to you by George Orwell

Q.  Can I bring the flag of a political cause or of a non-competing nation to the venue?

A.  Absolutely NOT.  The flags of political causes and of non-competing nations are strictly forbidden, and if you wave one at the venue you will be removed by the police.

Q.  The UK is a non-competing nation.  Is it OK if I wave a Union Jack?

A.  Yes, of course it is!  But please remember that waving the flags of non-competing nations is not allowed.

Q.  Can I consume any flavour of ice cream at the venue?

A.  Regrettably not.  Due to sponsorship arrangements, only the consumption of raspberry ice cream will be permitted.

Q.  Vanilla is David Cameron's favourite flavour.  Is it OK if I consume vanilla ice cream at the venue, even though only raspberry is permitted?

A.  Yes, of course you can!  But please remember that only the consumption of raspberry is permitted, and if you try having strawberry or any other non-raspberry flavour that isn't David Cameron's favourite, the police are likely to intervene.

Q.  Is it OK for contributors to the BBC's coverage of the Games to make comments that might be construed, however implausibly, as favouring one side or the other in the Scottish independence referendum?

A.  Categorically NOT.  Surely you saw that Chris Hoy couldn't even use the word 'Yes' when he was talking about a marriage proposal, and instead had to weirdly use the word 'acceptance'.

Q.  But even though it's not OK for the BBC coverage to be seen to take sides in the referendum, is it still OK for BBC hosts such as Gary Lineker to presuppose a No vote by endlessly inviting people like Ian Thorpe and Chris Hoy to speculate on the prospects for "Team GB" in Rio, without ever bothering to issue a disclaimer that there probably won't be a Team GB in Rio if Scotland votes Yes?

A.  Did you really need to ask?

The Gaelic musical that likes to say Yes

Ah, the Commonwealth Games.  Is this the greatest show that the far north of "the Middleland" has ever seen?  I've been so busy milling around Glasgow over the last few days that I haven't really had a chance to catch up with the reaction from other countries, but I was thrilled to spot a rave review on the CBC (Canadian TV) website last night.  Of course there have been lots of cultural events running in parallel to the sport, and last night I headed to Glasgow Green to see a free performance of Children of the Smoke, a sort-of-musical (although that doesn't quite do it justice) in Gaelic.  Unfortunately I missed the start, which probably means that I also missed a rough synopsis, so I couldn't make much sense of what was going on - but it did seem pretty extraordinary.  I spotted Kathleen MacInnes in the cast (although I must admit it took me 20 minutes to work out where I recognised her from!), and from what I read afterwards Patsy Reid may have been one of the live musicians, but as you can see from the photos below I was in the wrong vantage-point to see the musicians on the left.

In the last photo, you can probably spot a couple of cards on the side of the boat.  If the camera on my phone wasn't quite so rubbish, you'd also be able to spot that they display the Yes logo!  They were left up for a good couple of minutes at the end of the show.

A wild suggestion : why not crowdfund the handing out of free saltires for the Commonwealth Games closing ceremony?

I don't know if anyone has definitively solved the mystery of who was responsible for handing out the blatantly political "two-faced" flags at the opening ceremony on Wednesday, although there have been dark whispers about possible Orange Order involvement.  It was presumably a well-planned stunt, and I'm wondering if there's an opportunity for us to take a leaf out of their book for the closing ceremony.  Nothing political - just free saltires to help the crowd celebrate what may well turn out to be the most successful ever Scottish team at any Commonwealth Games.

For the avoidance of doubt, I'm not suggesting I would be the person to run this potential initiative - for one thing I haven't the first idea of how to go about bulk-buying flags at very short notice, or indeed if it's even feasible at all.  However, the crowdfunding element is certainly doable, because a Paypal-only Indiegogo campaign would enable the funds to be accessed instantly.  So if there's anyone out there who feels capable of taking the task on, I think it would be a great idea.

Come On In, Scotland! (Or 'My trip to the Commonwealth Games opening ceremony, plus yet another rubbish photo of the Queen')

So, yes, I'm just back from Celtic Park.  I hadn't been planning to go to the opening ceremony until a few weeks ago, when I got an email offering restricted view tickets for only £20.  I thought to myself, "well, you get what you pay for, so I'm bound to be right behind a pillar", but as it turned out it was fantastic value for money - I could see pretty much everything.  And having just read through some of the comments on Wings, it's probably just as well I was there in person, because I don't think watching it on the BBC would have been good for my health.  Was Cameron really a guest on The One Show? I mean, seriously?  How the hell did they justify that, given that we're now in the regulated campaign period, and especially after they banned Alex Salmond from appearing on a rugby broadcast a couple of years ago?  And what was the logic for it anyway?  Scotland is the host country, not the UK, and as I understand it the London government has contributed absolutely nothing to the costs of the Games - 80% came from the Scottish Government, and 20% from Glasgow City Council.  (Contrast that with the 2012 Olympics when we were all required to stump up for London's party.)

Before I set off for the ceremony, I had a good look at the list of items that were not permitted, and one of them was the flag of any non-participating country.  This is presumably a more-or-less identical rule to the one at the Olympics that leads to the banning of Scottish flags on the grounds that they are "political" (the Union Jack being totally fine and "non-political", naturally).  But with delicious irony, the UK is of course a non-participating country in the Commonwealth Games, and so on a strict reading of the rules, the Union Jack should have been verboten, with everyone being required to wave the non-political saltire instead.  I was intrigued to see whether that rule would be enforced with the the same zeal that we've come to know and love at the Olympics, and the simple answer is that it wasn't.  It goes without saying that saltires very heavily outnumbered Union Jacks, but there was a small smattering of little flags with a saltire on one side and a Union Jack on the other.  I now gather that those flags were being handed out for free.  Who was responsible for that, and what was their political agenda?  Did they check in advance whether it was in adherence with the rules?

It's always said that stadiums look much smaller in real life than on TV. True enough, I was very slightly underwhelmed when I arrived, and the initial set-up with the Irn Bru cans (which was there hours in advance) looked incredibly tacky.  I thought to myself "all we need is a giant haggis and John Barrowman, and the twee vision of 'Scotland the Cringe' will be complete".  I really must be more careful about thinking these thoughts, but we didn't get the giant haggis, so I suppose that counts as some kind of result.

I recall being a bit frustrated with the uninspiring music that was used for Glasgow's little presentation at the end of the Delhi Games in 2010.  When I thought of the almost unbelievably good Scottish traditional music that I hear year in, year out at Celtic Connections, it was heartbreaking to realise we'd thrown away a golden opportunity to showcase all of that to the world.  But I thought "surely when the Games are actually in Glasgow, we'll get it right on the night".  Well, the first few minutes gave us Barrowman and Donald Where's Your Troosers.  Surely it could only get better from there?  Thankfully yes, although I never would have predicted that Rod Stewart's appearance would mark the moment when the quality improved.  Nicola Benedetti was spellbinding, and everyone around me immediately started to sing along to Loch Lomond.  I found I could hardly get the words out after a while, because I had a lump in my throat.  And then finally when the Queen's Baton arrived, we got a precious few minutes of the type of music that the evening had been crying out for all along, and the hairs on the back of my neck stood up.  I couldn't even see who was singing in Gaelic, and there was no name announced - could it have been Julie Fowlis, perhaps?  Whoever it was, take a bow - you made my night.

Where was our national anthem, by the way?  I can't claim to have a photographic memory of previous Commonwealth Games opening ceremonies, but I'm fairly sure Advance Australia Fair was heard at some point during the 2006 ceremony, for instance, and it would have been extremely odd if it wasn't.  When we were invited to stand and sing the "national anthem", and it turned out to be God Save the Queen rather than the national anthem of the host country, I can tell you that there was genuine bemusement all around me.  Some people did sing it, but it was probably one in five at the absolute most, and they weren't doing it with much gusto.  I got the impression they were mainly singing it for the sake of the Queen (and Prince Imran, whose name everyone misheard as Prince William!).

So it was a mixed night, but thankfully there was much more good than bad (there's no getting away from it, though - the Barrowman introduction was absolutely, unspeakably atrocious, and I'd say that even if he wasn't anti-independence).  I'm so glad I went, because I've seen so many opening ceremonies over the years on TV, and there was a real touch of magic to being able to wave back at the athletes as they marched past.  Oh, and I can imagine that the London media must be quietly seething that no-one booed the First Minister.

I wonder if the words "Come On In, Scotland" might resonate in a few weeks' time?  You know, in a "Stop the world, Scotland wants to get on" kind of way?

Overheard on the way back -

Official : "Twenty minutes' walk to the city centre straight ahead.  Or five minutes if you're Usain Bolt."

Sarcastic pedestrian : "Hashtag Topical."