Gold



I had to queue up to take a photo of the gold pillar box (mail box) on Hanover Street.  The paint seemed hardly dry - as I waited a man who was being photographed clasping the box was anxiously examining his shirt for gold paint as he moved away, exclaiming "the paint still smells wet!" 

The boxes are traditionally red, but in the Olympic fever that has at last gripped the nation for real the Royal Mail is painting a box gold in the home town of each GB gold medalist.  So here is the Sir Chris Hoy pillar box in Edinburgh.  If you're not on Planet Olympics at the moment, Sir Chris has just won his 5th Olympic gold medal in cycling.  We hear a lot about him in our family - he attended George Watson's College, my children's school, where his name crops up any time there's a mention of 'achievement', 'endeavour', 'commitment', 'aspiration'... the list goes on!  He wasn't particularly a cyclist at school - he rowed and played rugby for the school, and rowed for Scotland as a junior .  He did take part in the Cycling Project, 450 miles around the North West Highlands, where school legend has it he was always in the lead.


The build-up to the Games has been slow here in Scotland.  The most I could find last week were these Olympics touches in my local Tesco, of all things.  A team GB cover on the security scanners, with a background of toilet paper and baked beans - perhaps a theme all of its own. 
 


And a cardboard cut-out of the London Olympic skyline. This photo is notable for the expression on the face of the Tesco employee - an expression well known to photo bloggers everywhere.
 

For a not-very-sporty person I'm now well into the Olympic spirit.  So many fantastic performances, including the American swimmers and gymnasts

Comments

  1. Love this expression of pride and joy! :-)

    They must be busy painting more boxes, after last night's gold harvest!

    Happy Sunday to you,
    Merisi

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    1. It is fun, isn't it? A nice homely, British touch. Better than a grand statue.
      We have been cheering Austrian competitors, since my husband lived in Salzburg for a year.

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  2. Not into the Olympics this year, but MMmmmmmmm.... baked beans! 8-)

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    1. One of Britain's national dishes, along with chicken korma and sweet and sour chicken Hong Kong style.

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  3. It has been wonderful watching all the people compete for the "gold." I love watching the swimming and gymnastics events. I get so caught up in the excitement of watching them! I haven't seen a lot of advertising locally where I live either.

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    1. So many swimming events! And so many of them butterfly! Who invented this bizarre stroke?
      Sometimes I have to go out of the room I'm so excited at the competition.

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  4. I'd heard they'd painted a postbox gold in Lossiemouth, home of one of the women rower medallists, but I didn't realise there was one in every hometown. That's fun!

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    1. I guess we'll be discovering all sorts of interesting places that people come from. I must go and see the Lossie postbox next time we're up.

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  5. Hooray for Sir Chris and GB! What do you think of the gold mailbox? I prefer the red, but the gold is a festive way to celebrate a happy victory.

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  6. Hooray for everyone taking part! I too prefer red, but the gold is such a quirky idea.

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  7. What a wonderful expression of country pride!

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    1. It's good still to have a Royal Mail to do something on behalf of the nation. They keep chopping bits of it off, but I'm all for keeping the 'Royal' part.

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  8. Thanks for the pics. Saw video of a post box being painted gold on TV here, and now I know the story. Nice to see the crowds cheering for the GB wins. Well deserved.

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    1. There is so much Olympic information that it's hard to keep up with it. The BBC Olympics website is a vast edifice - my mind boggles at the organisation of it all.
      I'm just so impressed by all the commitment and determination of the athletes. I found myself standing shouting at the TV screen yesterday, 'Come ON, Tunisia!' Where my sudden support for Tunisia came from I have no idea, but it seemed the right thing to do.

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  9. Hi there Linda,

    I had no idea that Sir Chris Hoy came from Edinburgh....how fantastic! I love the way Tesco 'do' the olympics....very Tesco that one!! It must be nice to have your kids attend the same school as such an olympic great. Take care.

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    1. Hi Gary, I was visiting your blog last night but was too tired to leave a comment. Will go back and do your posts justice today.
      Yes, it is nice, but I know the children play 'Sir Chris' bingo in assemblies!

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  10. Wow that's great info! I don't normally bother about the Olympics, I'm not really a sporty person BUT I have really enjoying this year's Olympics and have been absolutely glued to the TV! Have loved the rowing and the cycling in particular. A well deserved Gold for Sir Chris Hoy! We have a golden postbox too in Lossiemouth for Gold Rower Heather Stanning (she grew up in Lossiemouth and attended Gordonstoun) but rumour is that it's the wrong one been painted as it wasn't a 'traditional' postbox they painted! Not sure if that's true though! :)

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  11. Indeed very impressive, the Olympic organization, volunteers, and now even the mailboxes get treated to gold ! Bravo for Edinburgh !

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  12. I am so jealous - I'm dying to see one of the gold boxes! I'd be quite happy to get wet poaint on me...

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  13. Hi, Linda!
    We have only been able to see a few highlights here and there. I decided to cancel our cable subscription when the contract ran out in early July. Last week, my daughter said she thought that it wasn't very well-timed. Ah, well. I was trying to be frugal and reduce the amount of time the kids spend in front of the TV, too. Congratulations on your home-town hero!

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  14. 'achievement', 'endeavour', 'commitment', 'aspiration'... the list goes on!...an expression well known to photo bloggers everywhere...

    You are so hilarious in a dry way, you know that?

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  15. Baked beans and loo roll - someone's got a sense of humour. ;)
    Chris Hoy comes across as such an all-round lovely chap, quite apart from being an Olympic superstar. A good ambassador for his old school in every way.
    I too am belatedly enthusiastic about the Games. I love the quirky British touches: the Stonehenge triple jump in the showjumping; the Benny Hill theme tune being played in breaks in the women's beach voleyball (!!); the showcasing of beautiful venues like Windsor Great Park and Horse Guards and the Mall. And painting the post boxes gold is just the icing on the cake. Apparently there is a nascent sport of 'gold-post-box-bagging' emerging. Who needs Munroes, eh.

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  16. What a great idea to paint a post office box in gold in the hometown of each gold medalist!!

    That Sir Chris is quite amazing. Not too many people get gold in FIVE Olympics. I am really impressed!

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  17. I've been watching hours of Olympic coverage - we have it all day on 3 different TV channels each showing different venues. I like the GB outfits!

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  18. I cry at the medal ceremonies and say without fail "His (her/their) mother must be so proud." My children get very annoyed at my lack of self control. They have even threatened to take away my telly privileges.

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  19. Ha, I had to chuckle at your tongue in cheek comments about Tesco, the Olympics and achievement in school in general. Not being one interesting in competitive sports in general or the Olympic games in particular, I've kept pretty much away from it all but your post on the subject is as good as it gets. I enjoyed it tremendously!

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  20. We had some good triumphs from the Olympics, of course we now have the Paralympics going on. Great opening and closing ceremonies too despite some of the flat singers which was a shame, but I liked all the motifs. Lets hope Rio does just as good as London did at hosting.

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  21. Come over to my place and check out my pics from the Long Island Scottish Highland Games this weekend! 8-)

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  22. Thank you for all the comments and apologies that I've only now published them. I've been away from blogging and computer stuff, and generally so busy that I've not noticed that the month of August has passed. Now the Olympics seems to belong to a past era. I watched some of the videos last night, catching my son up with some of the key moments since he was out of the country. Many of them were the the human touches rather than the classic victory moments: the interview with the father of swimmer Chad le Clos, on his 'beautiful boy', the BBC commentators going wild at Mo Farah's 10,000 meters run, the GB silver medal men's rowing pair and the tearful interview, including the commentator breaking down.
    But now we have the Paralympics to inspire and continue the moment.

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  23. That is great that they painted gold the mail boxes of participants. The news covered that over here but they didn't know any of the facts behind the story. It looks good in gold.

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