The final countdown

The final journey of the torch took it along the length of the Thames in the Queen's boat 'The Gloriana'.

You can see the cauldron with the flame at the front of the boat and the torch being held aloft (by Matthew Pinsent I think). The boat is just going passed the Houses of Parliament.

The clock in Trafalgar square was counting down the last few hours before the opening ceremony.

Now that the ceremony has taken place I can let you see a few of my favourite parts from the technical rehearsal. I loved the drummers coming through the crowd. As you can see all the audience had their backs to the stadium whilst we watched and listened to the drummers. When we turned round to face the front it had been transformed from the country scene to the industrial revolution. As an audience we just gasped at the transformation that had taken place so quickly.

It was an amazing scene with so much going on and the drummers at the front continuing the beating of the drums. There were about a thousand drummers and the sound just enveloped your whole being.

This is a model of 'The Windrush' which brought workers from the Caribbean to Britain after the war. The country was so short of manual workers due to the loss of our young men that many families came to Britain on this boat to find work and then decided to settle here.

I loved this scene of the forging of these gigantic rings.

 My camera just couldn't do this spectacular scene justice.

This was great to see our nurses and doctors play such a major role in the ceremony. All the people taking part in this section are employed by the National Health Service. They also used some children from Great Ormand Street Hospital. The connection with 'Peter Pan' is that J.M. Barrie who wrote the book/play gave GOSH the royalties from the production of the play.

Mary Poppins arrived to save the day and chase away the nightmares the children were having.

There were a few parts that  were kept secret from us in the rehearsal such as The Queen and James Bond (Daniel Craig) arriving in spectacular fashion and of course Rowan Atkinson (Mr Bean) helping the orchestra out. I loved every minute of it. The next time I will be in the stadium I will be performing in the opening ceremony for the Paralympic Games. What a terrifying thought!