The London Olympics are Invading My Space!

I can’t wait for the London Olympics. It’s been a long time coming.

Here in London we’ve been used to news of a new building opening on the Olympic site, or a profile of an athlete in training for the biggest event of their lives. But until now, it’s all seemed quite far off. Background noise.

Not any more. Now it’s getting personal.

Last night I was sitting in front of the television at home watching “The Bridge“, a crime drama from Scandinavia, one of the latest in a crop of gripping Nordic TV series.

Suddenly, at a gripping moment, my wife and I looked at each other. What was that noise?

Then we realized. It was the whooping rotor blades of a helicopter passing over our house. And even though ‘The Bridge’ has subtitles in English, the noise shattered the drama. Occasionally we get helicopters going overhead, but not this.

This was LOUD. The helicopter whooped over the house slowly, several times, at one point just hovering right above us. We could hear none of the slightly eerie Nordic theme music emanating from the TV. The characters in the drama just mouthed their words to the hum of the chopper.

Then this morning when I woke up, I turned on the radio news. First words I hear: “an eight day exercise, codenamed Exercise Olympic Guardian, is set to start.”

Now I live 30 miles outside London. But I can’t help feeling that the Olympics just showed up in my back yard.

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