Larbert Torched

Many years ago I can remember being given the Spitting Image annual which contained various spoofs of other annual publications. Amongst these was The AA Guide to things you are more likely to see coming down the road than the little yellow van. Such unlikely peculiarities included the Kentucky Fried Chicken chicken (a strange feathered beast with 10 pairs of legs) and the Swissknifeosaurus (a sort of stegosaurus with interchangeable multi-use tools in place of the spinal plates). It's all highly amusing (if a little unfair on the AA who provide a very good roadside assistance service) but possibly just as unlikely thing to see coming down the street would be an Olympic Torchbearer in a small Stirlingshire town. However, that's what I managed to see today.

 There is something rather romantic about the idea of the lone torchbearer bringing the flame from Mount Olympus to the Olympic Sports arena but the relay actually has nothing to do Ancient Greece and much more to do with a Nazi propaganda exercise for the 1936 Berlin Olympics. They were into all that neo-classical stuff in a big way. Despite being connected to one of the most detested regimes of the 20th Century I think it was a rather nice idea (wouldn't it have been better if they had stuck to this kind of stunt rather than genocide). Regardless of where it originated from it seems an unlikely thing to see travelling through somewhere like Larbert. In fact it has been right around the UK and over parts of Scotland that really are remote - including a trip across Loch Ness (it would have been a laugh if the monster had popped its head up and blew the flame out).

I actually ended up seeing this with a bunch of 6 and 7 year olds as I had volunteered to help take the kids from our local primary school to see the torch. In fact it looks like all the kids from all the local primary schools were in attendance, along with the children in the High School, their teachers, many of their parents, lots of passers by, anyone living along the route - and their dog. I really had no idea that so many people actually live in Larbert. It did make somewhat of an occasion of it - especially as most people were still armed with flags and bunting from the Jubilee (or was it the Rangers fire sale - I'm not sure). Fortunately, the weather was atypically sunny so there was little chance of the flame going out. I was told there was a backup flame in one of the vehicles (the cynic in me thinks this is a Zippo shaped backup flame). At least the nice weather kept the children cheerful for the duration.

The actual torchbearer is far from lone, with various security guards, police, support vehicles and commercial sponsors in attendance which rather fades my romantic notion of the lone runner. One of the sponsors, an international fizzy beverage manufacturer, tried to supply our 6 and 7 year olds with not entirely healthy drinks but I'm happy to say that their class teacher "took care" of the bottles (lets face it, the children were hyped up enough without being filled with sugary, caffeinated drinks). Aside from that the torch goes past in a flash: little more than the 100 metres final will take to run but considerably cheaper to watch. And it is worth seeing. The Olympics were last in Britain in 1948 so it is unlikely that they will ever be here again in my lifetime. It may be a small thing but it really is a once in a lifetime event (and unlike the recent Transit of Venus it was wasn't ruined by Scottish weather.)

So that was the day the Olympics came to town. I've still got the football at Hampden to look forward to. As I had hoped, we have one of the bigger teams playing with Spain vs Japan on a double bill with Honduras vs Morocco. I'm just hoping the more cynical will just sit back and enjoy the events for a change.