Thursday 20th November  8:03 am Good Morning

on today on tomorrow other dates...

Nelson's Column August The Olympics 20th August 2008 Only four years to go and counting It’s hard to keep up with all the Olympic excitement – what with ‘Super Saturday’ followed closely by the imaginatively titled ‘Super Tuesday’, altogether a ‘super’ time was had by one and all. But no matter what the papers call it, there’s no denying Team GB delivered a gleaming pot of gold that we could all get excited about. Cue rousing ‘Chariots of Fire’ music. As pay back for their sporting success these athletic heroes are getting an open-bus victory tour around London – as well as some major sponsorship deals and a pair of Jimmy Choos for that swimmer from Mansfield. Londoners have been keeping up with all the action and podium news on big screens in Trafalgar Square and Canary Wharf, watching everything from air pistol shooting to synchronised swimming. We’ve lived through the highs: medals in cycling, rowing, sailing; and the lows: 14 year old diver Tom Daley and his partner Blake Alderidge squabbling, Paula sobbing and Andy Murray double faulting. Even if you’re not normally an avid arm chair sports enthusiast you can’t help but get excited about the Olympics. The worldwide nature of the competition coupled with the fact it only happens once every four years inevitably mean the tension mounts and emotions run high. Flag waving, whooping (the audience) and tears (the competitors) soon follow. I’ve noticed changes in my sport watching habits, I’ve become strangely gripped by activities I wouldn’t normally bother with. At Athens four years ago weightlifting was the surprise attraction; seriously, don’t knock it until you’ve tried it – well, watching it anyway. This time round it was ping-pong, and not just for the comedy value either. I was glued. It may have funny sounding names like whiff-whaff and flim-flam but table tennis is a serious sport, especially in the host country. Buoyed up by the crowd and struggling to keep up with the fast moving blur of a ball, it didn’t take me long to see ping-pong’s appeal. But the excitement is not just about Beijing, the four-year build up to London hosting the games in 2012 has already begun. With the end of the closing ceremony in China the official countdown to ‘our turn’ begins. The spectacular opening party at the spaghetti-like Bird’s Nest in Beijing and state of the art staging has set the bar high. Of course we know that 7,000 Morris dancers aren’t going to match up but we’re not going to let that stop us trying. And we’re trying quite hard. We’ve got a Zaha Hadid designed swimming centre, not to mention the 80,000 seat Olympic stadium and, casting aside concerns about ‘but how much is this going to cost us?', we can even start looking forward to the sporting spectacle. Sure, we’ll have four years of headlines concerned about budgets and targets, plus plenty of Boris bashing but in the end, even if it’s a patch on what we’ve seen this time around, the Olympics in London will be well worth watching. Fit for a Queen? Ah, the fourth plinth debate! They do say that all publicity is good publicity so rumours that a statue of the Queen riding a horse (with Corgis?) – she would only be immortalised in cast iron after her death – could topple modern art off its pedestal are just the thing…Some arty type said that that it would be ‘a great shame’ if the art was stopped – next up is Antony Gormley’s plan to have the plinth occupied 24 hours a day by members of the public, who can stand there for an hour ‘being art’ – but I wonder if anyone has asked Liz if she wants to join Nelson and the pigeons in Trafalgar Square. We're Sooooo Rock 'n' Roll I thought ‘being a rock star’ had lost its cool in the 60s and 70s; that guitar-thrashing had been long ago replaced by moshing, but even that’s a little bit 80s and perhaps nowadays it’s all about the iPod disco. But apparently rocking still holds some street cred and the particular streets to frequent if you want to bump into an aging rocker or a modern day one having trouble opening his eyes (Pete Doherty) are those around Shepherd’s Bush. Around ‘the Bush’ as the locals call it, there’s one rock star for every 1,222 residents – the highest ratio in the UK – so move over Manchester (some upstarts called Oasis!), London’s rocking. Boris Takes off his Stabilisers Oh, worry of worries. There has been some hoo-ha about a Tim Parker standing down from the post of First Deputy Mayor – he was meant to run Transport for London - but what concerns me is not whether he quit because he understandably couldn’t be within a two foot radius of Boris or over some other political wrangling, but that, once again. Boris has sole responsibility for the Tube. He said that being personally involved was ‘crucial to being an effective mayor’ – that may be so but no one said anything about him being effective. Does anyone else see impending disaster down the track as officials jump ship, London grinds to a halt and Boris is left, alone, still smiling and still clueless? October 2008 24th October Boris v Jingjing 17th October Soaps in Pole Position September 2008 23rd September Chips too Chavvy for Chelsea 16th September The London Restaurant Awards August 2008 26th August No Smoking, No Ducks, No Barbecues 20th August The Olympics July 2008 24th July Sandwiched Out 17th July The Show Ain't Over 'Til the Fat Lady's on Page 3 June 2008 26th June Love All at Wimbledon 16th June Miller Puts the Heat on Tennant May 2008 27th May Booze Banned on Buses 20th May Same Again? April 2008 23rd April By George 11th April Back to the 80s March 2008 28th March How do You Solve A Problem Like Medea? 20th March Flight Fantastic February 2008 20th February Dark, Satanic Turnmills 6th February A Diamond in the Drink January 2008 21st January People Wanted for Plinth 14th January Boo! Hiss! December 2007 28th December Tate That - A Hirst for Art 20th December Christmas Shopping November 2007 27th November Mind the Gap 26th November London On A Tray October 2007 26th October Leaving the Station 14th October The Sky's the Limit September 2007 26th September The Play Within A Play 19th September Fashion, Frocks and Celeb Shocks 12th September Saying Tanks for the Mammaries August 2007 24th August Heathrow under Siege 17th August Gormless 10th August Losing Face July 2007 24th July Are We Reaching Boiling Point Yet This Summer? 13th July Red Ken versus Blonde Boris June 2007 22nd June Last Orders at the Fag Machine 11th June London the Musical May 2007 21st May What Lurks Beneath 10th May The Stuff Dreams Are Made Of April 2007 27th April London’s Walk on the Wild Side 20th April Stand Behind the Yellow Line 13th April Like Water for Chocolate March 2007 23rd March So, Another Magazine 16th March Avoiding iContact February 2007 23rd February Sex and Art... 16th February C-Charge Protest Fails to Bring Down Government 9th February Live Earth London January 2007 26th January A Vote for Shilpa is a Vote for Britain 18th January Carriage on up the West End December 2006 29th December Food for Thought 22nd December A Poisonous Marketing Campaign 15th December In for a Penny, In for Five Pounds November 2006 17th November Big Department Stores Leave Santa Out in the Cold 10th November Failing to Save the World October 2006 27th October Frozen Prawns and Melting Icecaps 20th October Predatory Pelicans and Happy Woodland Folk 13th October Hope at last for east end of Oxford Street September 2006 16th September Lite the Blue Paper and Stand Well Back 9th September Of Poles and Twiglets August 2006 25th August Free Fares For the Fat and the Fashionable 11th August London Friendly 4th August Archway To Organic Heaven July 2006 21st July London - Celebrity Frat House 7th July Out of the Galleries into the Streets June 2006 23rd June Mayors, Nightmares and Marias 16th June Downright Rude in Paris and London 9th June Enter the Inferno May 2006 26th May Curvaceous Border 12th May Vegging Out April 2006 21st April The Camden Crawl 17th April Down the Pan 13th April I Want to Break Free 9th April Big Brother seems to have been left in a bar somewhere 7th April Don't Box Me In March 2006 24th March Political Correctness Reaches New Heights February 2006 24th February A Stadium's Tale: Cup Final Goes West 17th February Modern Musicals are Rubbish 10th February The City-Side Alliance January 2006 20th January February Sales 20th January Moby Sick 13th January Glass Half Full 3rd January Three Cheers for the Tube Station Workers December 2005 22nd December January Bites 16th December A Remarkable Year November 2005 25th November And a Partridge in a JCB 11th November Driving Miss Sadie 4th November Spam, Spam, Spammity-Spam, Shakespeare, Zorro, Chico and Rasputin October 2005 28th October Trick or Treat? 21st October We Don't Mind a Little Delay... 14th October Final Resting Place for Young British Artists September 2005 16th September Just a small urn for me, please barman 9th September DRINK! DRINK! DRINK! 2nd September The Free Tenor August 2005 30th August Samba Rhythms Breaking Out All Over The Stadium 20th August Getting Behi