Boris on the buses

Oh dear God. Just now on my bus in the leafy Outer London/Herts hinterland that is the border between New Barnet and its counterpart to the East, I heard, competing with the noise of the engine and so only semi-audible, the voice of Boris Johnson saying words to the effect: "Hi, this is the Mayor of London. The Olympics starts in a few days time, blah blah, blather blather, so there will be transport changes across Greater London, yawn chortle snort. So don't get caught out! Check before you travel..."

All well and good, but in the wonderfully soporific atmosphere that is the norm on a bus in my part of the world at this time of the day in such utterly lovely weather, the excitement of hearing the Mayor's voice in this way was so great as to almost wake the driver.

It did seem a little incongruous, as, to those of us who live in my deeply urban local area (pictured), it does feel as if the Games are happening in a far-away place of which we know nothing (with all Londoners being privileged to pay an extra chunk of Council Tax specifically for the Olympics - a specific extra surcharge, marked separately on the bill - it's great that so many events are happening in Dorset, Scotland and Hertfordshire, whose residents were denied the opportunity to pay this extra bit of Council Tax, while not a single bit of the Olympics is happening in the London borough that has paid more for the Games in extra Council Tax than any other, that borough being, of course, Barnet).

But enough of my humbuggery. It's Christmas! Or at least, it's about to be the sort of event that will give many people the sort of pleasure and enjoyment that I get from Christmas, an exciting election night and a trip to the cinema to see the latest great new film, all rolled into one. Many, many people across the worlds of sport, culture and public service will now work very hard and deliver a huge amount that is memorable, excellent and entertaining for millions of people all over London.

Who cares if I'm not very interested in it? Many other people are, and many of those people are not very interested in some things that I am interested in, and those things get promoted some of the time, so it's quid pro quo. I hope and expect that the Games and the surrounding stuff will be a great success.