Six years in the planning...

I can officially confirm that the 2011 World Ski Championships officially opened, on time, at 18:25 on 23rd February 2011.

My previous comments as to whether this would happen were clearly ill-founded, and a considerable amount of work did seem to have taken place through the night to make sure that everything was ready (ish)!

Given those previous comments it was only fair that we stood, in sub zero temperatures, to watch the opening ceremony which included the theme "song" 'Glorious', sung (or at least mimed) extremely well by Maria Mittel, resplendent in her white fur.

The lyrics of the song were somewhat ironic, don't you think? (see also entry - "Isn't it ironic, don't you think?")

Verse1

It's gonna be an uphill battle

hard to win

sometimes you wanna give up

but you cant give in

you wanna raise that flag

give all you have

its all or nothing

you gotta keep your head held high

Chorus

We gonna be

glorious

the best that we can be

rise or fall

we gonna make it through it all

we gonna be

glorious

hear the distant call

from our hearts

love will be standing tall

so we can be

glorious

Verse2

Its gonna be a laboured journey

miles to go

But you don`t have to worry

I won`t let go

I´ll be by your side

We`ll reach that high

We`ll climb that mountain

Together you and I

Hook

when love`s victorious

it shines on all of us

we`re never giving up

glorious...

I'm not sure whether the lyricists knew much about the Ski Championships but as far as I'm aware, "Uphill skiing" & "Mountain Climbing" aren't actually events, but to be honest the crowd gathered to watch the opening ceremony didn't seem to care.

Actually they really didn't seem to care at all. They stood and watched the proceedings, but there didn't seem to be any great pride or excitement.

However, and this is just a very small point, because the weather is so cold, and because everyone has to wear so many layers of clothing, including gloves, just to keep warm, he sound of thousands of people applauding was never going to trouble Mr Richter and his scale to much!

Imagine ten thousand penguins clapping...and I know that their flippers don't actually touch in front of them!

So with muted (glove induced) applause and a firework display that seemed to go on and on for at least 30....seconds, the 2011 World Ski Championships were declared well and truly open.

Now whilst the speeches were delivered in both Norwegian and English, I still must have misheard one line which I thought had said that the event had been "...six years in the planning"!

Although, perhaps they were PLANNED extremely well, and it was just that they were a little tardy in getting round to putting those plans into action.

Anyway, at least we now have a more appropriate Trailwalker theme tune..."We (sic) gonna be GLO-RI-OUS..."

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