#savethesurprise as the Games of the XXX Olympiad open in London

The Countdown Clock in London's iconic Trafalgar Square will shortly come to a halt for the second time. It stops for good at around 1930 irrespective of when the Games of the XXX Olympiad are actually declared open in the Olympic Stadium in Stratford.

#savethesurprise from BusinessReviewAustralia

Remarkably for the Opening Ceremony of the magnitude and spectacle romised by Director Danny Boyle, the use of the hashtag, one of the internet generation's key tools for information dissemination often virally for key events appears to have largely succeeded. The #savethesecret and #savethesurprise devices have even meant that social media outlets, rather than being awash with images and clips from mobile devices and cameras 

instead are full of scorn for the likes of the Daily Mirror for even having the audacity to print pics from the rehearsals! Danny Boyle, Boris Johnson & even Big Ben are trending in the UK (should it be GB for the next 6 weeks?)

The Host Broadcaster, the BBC, has shown a short 29 second clip yesterday (26th July): BBC Clip of Opening Ceremony: What to Expect.

Meantime there is a live build-up if you want to check what is happening in London in the hours leading up to the Opening: Build Up LIVE

This will be the second time the Omega Countdown Clock  has stopped. Obviously it has been sponsored as everything within the Olympic Games has been since the debacle of Montreal in 1976 which changed the face of the Games forever.  It took eight years, when the only bid in town was Los Angeles who were bidding and playing under new corporate funded rules for the IOC to really see profit from hosting: this forever altered cities' view of a potential Games Bid. 

It is a great time to be in London, so would have been churlish to open this blog with a piece on how the clock stops that would not appear out of place on the (OfficialHost Broadcaster) BBC satire, 'Twenty Twelve'. You can read about it here Countdown Clock stops.

Why this is interesting is that it seems SOOO long ago.

It was 500 days.

Now the clock stops, and this time for keeps.

The Olympic Games are here!