We're nearly there! Just a few more hours + and the opening ceremony will be under way. I love that kind of thing even if it starts at 5:30 in the morning

If you're in London or wider England can you feel it getting exciting?

here's a nice story to begin with

http://olympics.time.com/2012/07/26/no-country-no-problem-how-to-make-the-games-without-a-nation/

i'm watching the olympics right now,the Soccer is on

I am excited beyond control! Wowee, we get to see the opening ceremony tomorrow at 6 oclock am.
There are a lot of people here who are muttering that they believe the Olympics will not succeed (ie, make money) in London, not like the wonderful perfect Beijing ones that made so many billion yuan profit. I thank God I can watch it on BBC and it will be a huge success for the right and real reasons, the joy of competing and meeting people from all over the world. Not the money it makes or not.

I'm very excited--I got to see my favorite sport even before the Olympics have officially begun! U.S. Women beat France 4-2 Wednesday, and Great Britain on Thursday played to a shocking 1-1 tie with Senegal! Can't wait for the Opening Ceremonies tonight!

I'd say there will be a fair bit of alarm setting over the next couple of weeks!

I have been excited since 2005 so today I'm almost bursting! It is rumoured that the Opening Ceremony is amazing, but apart from a clip released yesterday, we don't really know - they have managed to get 60,000 people who went to the rehearsal to keep it quiet. #savethesurprise on Twitter if you're interested in not learning anything, lol.

The torch relay is now almost finished. It was brought down the Thames from Hampton Court this morning on the Royal Row Barge, which you may have seen at the Jubilee Pageant. In the past few weeks the Olympic Flame has been all over the UK, and even into Eire. Over 13 million people lined the streets to see it. A fantastic job well done.

So now we're ready. Let the Games begin!

Maybe someone on here can tell me why the flame ever went to Dublin, I have not got a sensible answer off anyone else.

It's like the USA getting the Games and letting the torch go to a City in Canada for the day

Firstly, we are trying to establish better relations with Dublin, Queen's visit, etc. Secondly, they are never going to get the Games and it was a nice gesture. Goodwill between nations is what the Games are about.

lol, it's been on about a minute and I'm loving it already

The Queen's a parachutist. Who knew?

I just watched the first half of the ceremonies and am left noting how bleak and depressing a lot of it was. By no means a BAD production -- parts of it were very technically interesting and cinematically impressive. But, certainly not my favorite of opening ceremonies (that's still Sydney's). It was too much Voldemort, and not enough Harry.

Edit to add: Mr. Bean was brilliant though!

Very British. As one commentator said about the rehearsals, "Magnificently British and decidedly bonkers". And anyone who can get the Queen to be a Bond girl deserves a gold medal, lolol.

haha - it was very cool ... and the whole ceremony, as you said, was very British .. which is what the whole point of the openeing ceremony is.

I wonder, when it ws announced that london had the Games, if Paul McCartney just sat back and waited for his call. How could he have NOT been in it?

Love the cauldron, think it is beautiful. The sight of Muhammed Ali moved me to tears, and how on earth did they get some of those people to carry the Olympic flag.

A very British ceremony. Danny Boyle will get some sort of honour for this without any doubt.

The host city determines the how/where/why and sympolic route the torch goes. I would think that if the U.S. hosted the games, and the torch went to a neighboring country, it would be interpretated as a kind, neighborly gesture. What's wrong with the flame going to Dublin for a bit?

I thought the cauldron was brilliant and I'm still stunned that Her Majesty agreed to that film.

Like some of you others, I thought the cauldron was amazing - all of the nations coming together to make the flame. That was the highlight for me. (Mr. Bean was a close second, lol)

I was waiting to see Guor Marial, the South Sudan marathon runner that is going to run under the Olympic flag, during the parade of nations. I didn't realize until afterwards that he wasn't in London yet...waiting in Arizona for his paperwork to clear. I really hope he does well in the marathon.

NBC not only chopped the Ceremony up for viewers in the USA so they could see some commercials - I'm sure you all wanted to see those - but they also cut out the athletes' pledge (rather key event for the Olympics?) AND they deleted the memorial segment to victims of 7/7. Nice.

!! I always knew there was a reason I liked the Canadian coverage better... NBC always seems to chop it up and insert annoying bits.

I'm watching the mens' road race on NBC right now...but found out about an hour ago on the Canadian coverage that it's already been won! So much for live coverage NBC...

Haha - that's why I loved loving on the border.. now all I get is NBC.

You poor thing! You have my sympathies. Come back....

If I had a choice, I'd only watch the NBC coverage during basketball games. During the opening ceremony, they were talking about how good the cover of "Come Together" by the Arctic Monkeys was during rehearsals...and proceeded to talk during almost the whole thing. If it's so great, then let. us. hear. it. The commentary annoyed me to no end. I would have muted it, but then would have missed out on the music and at least some of the singing.

The BBC has been guilty of some inane commentaries in recent years, including this year's river pageant for the Queen's Jubilee - and that commentary caused such a stink they're clearly minding their Ps and Qs at the moment. They arranged the broadcast feeds so that people with satellite and cable services could turn the commentary off but still hear the sound. I don't subscribe to those so I had to put up with the commentary but mostly it was okay - I only screamed at the tv once to tell them to be quiet or else.

We had Eddie McGuire doing ours (And Eddie McGuire is Eddie McGuire's biggest fan) and he managed to tell us that it was the Queen's first acting role before she appeared on screen therefore ruining that surprise. And it was all so "wooden" how everything was said - left no doubt that it was all read from a script.

But still - I would prefer that to not having it live. I remember from the last Olympics that it was the same too. If something isn't live, even just my weekly football game, I prefer not to watch it at all .. I listen to the live radio coverage or look up the result on the 'net but I'm not watching a delayed event just so they can put ads in.

(so there channel nine!!)

One of the beauties of DVR...I recorded the US Women's basketball game from this morning and later in the evening watched it. Fast forward through all the ads and halftime. Watched a complete game in under an hour.

Well, on the BBC there are no ads at all - a stupid commentary from time to time is a small price to pay.

Although saying the Queen was acting was a bit off. I stared at my tv in shock "is that really the Queen? Is that the real Queen or a stand in? OMGosh, it's really the Queen!" And one of her corgis can roll over on cue, I was impressed with that dog. Oh wait, maybe it wasn't a real royal rolling corgi...

I thought the corgis were wonderful, mugging for the camera like professionals.

Until she turned around, I was convinced it was going to be that Jeanette woman who's been the Queen's double for years.

I do not think that Jeanette Charles has aged as well as the Queen so her look alike stints have been few and far between. Shame she didn't wear Union Jack Knickers during the parachute descent.