Emotions

My usually steely exterior has been reduced to the odd tear twice over the last couple of weeks on both occasions children were involved.

My youngest son left his Primary school last week having reached the end of his final year. I am a Governor at this fantastic school and will retain my involvement. I really value the chance to work with the school which is lead by an inspirational head teacher who is one of the most dynamic people I have ever been fortunate enough to meet. I believe primary school to be the most important stage of education because it provides the foundations that everything else is built. Our Family has been incredibly fortunate to have been given such a strong foundation.

Last night was the opening ceremony of the 2012 London Olympics. The ceremony was great but the cauldron lighting I found very emotional. In the run up to the games there was never any mention of a cauldron, an essential piece of Olympic furniture. There was no obvious location for it in the stadium and any news reports on the stadium or even on the documentary about building the stadium failed to mention it, at the opening ceremony it became clear why.  

The honour of lighting the flame traditionally belongs to a former great Olympian from the host nation. There was a lot of talk in the run up about who it would be. In the end seven Olympic champions nominated seven teenage sports champions who ran a lap of the stadium before they ran into the centre to jointly ignite an amazing piece of mechanical art which then rose up to form a cauldron, seeing the Olympic champions, who I am sure would have all given their eye teeth to be the one, hand over the privilege to the next generation brought a tear to the eye as did the fantastic cauldron.