London Olympics come to Rio

Wow – the Olympics are finally here! Maybe it’s because I’m so far from home, but I have to say there were times during the opening ceremony where I found myself getting a little choked up. Sometimes you need some distance from your country to fully appreciate its good points (…and forget the bad stuff!).

It has been interesting watching the build-up to the Olympics here in Rio. In the same way that London watched Beijing especially keenly, so Rio has been watching London and wondering how they will cope with the same challenges. And with the Football World Cup coming here in 2014, the phrase imagina isso na copa (imagine this during the World Cup) has become the common response to traffic jams, bad weather or a myriad of other problems.

One of the most prominent aspects to the Olympic build-up here in Rio has been an advertising campaign from the main Sports station here, SporTV. SporTV, part of the Globo empire, have four channels that are being fully dedicated to the Olympic coverage. Their advertising campaign has been built around bringing London to Rio. And what says London more than the iconic red double-decker bus?

Is that a Metro train or a double-decker London bus?

It’s not just the Metro trains they have changed to look like London buses. They’ve also changed the buses themselves!

Just like the real thing… Well, kind of.

It just so happens that my job takes me into the offices of SporTV on a regular basis, and last week the hype was reaching fever pitch! First, a huge banner appeared in the main atrium:

It’s strange seeing Union Jacks (the UK flag) all over the place.

Then the next morning there were two women handing out chocolate coins as I came through the sliding doors – is that an English thing? Still, I wasn’t going to argue – free chocolate is free chocolate! Then I saw something that brought a massive, involuntary smile to my face. To get into the main office you have to swipe a security card and go through some turnstiles. Normally, as I go through, I say good morning to the very friendly security guard, Caetano, who sits next to the turnstiles. But this morning there was something different about Caetano:

Ha ha ha! Poor Caetano dressed up as one of the Queen’s Guard – I hope they paid him a big bonus for this.

And what does every London tourist do when they see the Queen’s Guard?

Caetano [thinking]: “Make this stop. Dear God, please make this stop…”

“Just kill me now…”

I don’t know how much he really minded – he certainly seemed like a good sport about it. And it was a fun way (for everyone else at least!) to mark the start of the Olympics. Later on when I was coming back to the office after going out for lunch I found this going on! [careful, the noise is kind of loud on this video clip!]

I had no idea at the time, but I was told later that those 3 people you see cavorting around at the beginning of the clip are meant to be Prince William, Kate Middleton and Paul McCartney. Hoping the ‘look-alikes’ don’t give up their day jobs…