Girl Friday: Much to her surprise, Caroline discovers that the Olympics are awesome

An Evacuated London

But the thing is, the Olympics isn’t mucking up the travel, because everyone in the city has given in to the ceaseless Olympic scaremongering of the last few weeks and has pissed off elsewhere. Last week, I had to clench every muscle in my body just to get standing space on the train. This week, my handbag gets a seat. Sure, there are a few more backpacks milling around Oxford Circus. Other than that, however, London is the quietest it’s ever been.

TV in the Office

Five years ago, a wide screen TV was installed in our company’s boardroom for conference calling. This was obviously a terrible idea, considering 90% of our clients are within a two mile radius, and the TV hasn’t been used since. Until now, where every day our six person office crowds around the TV and shouts at it. There’s always an excuse to be invested. Particularly if it’s gymnastics and a woman you’ve never met falls on her crotch while wearing a sparkly leotard.

Feeling Genuinely Proud of People You’ve Never Met

Okay guys, confession time: when those two women won the gold in rowing for Great Britain, I cried. I cried real, human tears. Partly that they had won by such an unimaginable stretch, and because they were two female athletes who were finally getting a measure of recognition. But mostly, because through their tears and hugs you could just make out the three words they kept saying to each other – we did it! We did it! 

It all became a little too much for me, so much so that my boss clapped me on the shoulder. “You’re a Brit now, Caroline.”