I was asked last week if I was succumbing to Torch Fever, by which was meant over excitement at the thought of the once-in-a-lifetime experience of having the Olympic torch pass briefly through Malvern on its travels round the country. Well, no, in fact I can’t say that I was. But since I then found out that the torch would be going directly past my house, at exactly the time I would normally be going to work, it seemed churlish to ignore it completely. Plus if I tried to get in to work I’d only get caught up in rolling road-blocks and traffic chaos, so it was better to sit it out at home until all the fuss was over.
Blink and you'd miss it!
The torch was in “convoy mode” as it passed over the county boundary between Worcestershire and Herefordshire, at 09:39 this morning, so there were no runners to be seen (for that I’d have had to have actually made an effort and driven into Great Malvern or Malvern Wells). So there wasn’t going to be a great deal to see, but I thought I ought to at least have a look.
So I put the front door on the latch, took a kitchen chair out onto the drive, and settled down with a book to wait for the “excitement”. Mostly what there was to see was a whole load of police – both police cars and motorcycle outriders. I reckon it must have been a free-for-all for the local villains, as it seemed that half the police in West Mercia were guarding The Flame.
There was a yellow bus, a yellow car (I think carrying the torch, see the blurry photo opposite), three garish sponsor’s trucks, and yet more police. It was all over in a few seconds, so I went to go back inside to get my stuff together for work. At which point I discovered that the front door had slammed shut in the wind, and even though it was allegedly on the latch, I couldn’t get back in! I kicked the door a few times, but it was definitely not going to let me in. And my house keys and car keys were on the other side of it. I did at least have my work mobile phone in my pocket, so if all else had failed I could have called a locksmith to come out and rescue me! However, it didn’t come to that in the end. One of my neighbours has a spare key for emergencies and to keep an eye on the house when I’m away, and fortunately he was also running late for work because of the torch procession. So I was able to borrow back my spare key and let myself back in. Phew! Not a good start to the day, though it could have been much worse!
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and heres me thinking the original idea was a marathon runner who runs for miles nearly dieing of exhaustion as he delivers the torch……………….
and it turns into a load of yocals (or non-yocals pretending to be yocal) or even worse so called ‘celebrities’ who carry the torch for a few feet then claim the glory and go on to try to sell their torch on ebay. Not to mention a load of overpayed (over pensioned) policemen guarding them, do they expect the ‘runners’ to be mugged for their valuable torches ?, is their no other crime to solve ?