It's a bit of a late and noisy night for the Queen.
She had to make a speech at the Opening Ceremony, the Closing it wasn't necessary. I imagine she stuck it all on Sky-Plus and fast forwarded through most of it this morning, only pausing to see Harry and Kate.
I thought it was a wonderful way to end. Not as much fun as the Opening, but then it's a different animal. In all the quotes on the floor I spotted A Martian Sends A Postcard Home which cheered me no end.
I was also pleased to see the Pet Shop Boys. Or nearly see them. The simplicity of their "turn" and Neil Tennant's vocals compared favourably to One Direction imo. I had to double check that there weren't in fact 20 of them on the back of the lorry.
I had a good laugh at myself. Well you know I'm terrible with faces. And names. And I'm not very up on the hip music scene either. Well. There's a group up on stage singing a Pink Floyd song. Didn't know that at the time either
The commentator (who says very little during the ceremony, and only to good effect - bless) tells us who the line-up is, although not who is doing what. Well I hear Mike Rutherford, and think GREG Rutherford, who I know is a ginger. So I quite happily watch musician Ed Sheeran thinking he is a gold-medal-winning-long-jumper who happens to be a bit handy on the guitar as well. Never mind.
I didn't find the ceremony bizarre. I thought it was all just wonderfully staged. My jaw dropped when Annie's ship came in. I admit I'm not a huge fan of her music, so I wasn't really looking forward to seeing her, but she blew me away.
Poor Gary Barlow (ETA he and his wife had a still-born daughter last week).
He must be in bits. I respect his professionalism.
The other band I wasn't sure about was the one at the end, singing CSI theme tunes, but they weren't on for long
