I hate the phrase ’once in a lifetime’. To me, it means that it’s the best it’s ever going to be so once you’ve had your ’once in a lifetime’ event, it’s all downhill from there. However, even I can’t deny that for most of us, London 2012 is a ’once in a lifetime’ event.

Unfortunately the name ’London 2012’ has upset lots of people who don’t like the fact that all the activity is centred around London.

It also may have put you off from joining in, if you are trading miles away from London. But, according to the Olympic organisers, there will be football in Cardiff, Manchester, Newcastle, Glasgow and Coventry.

There will be sailing in Weymouth; mountain biking in Essex; rowing in Berkshire; Paralympic Road Cycling in Kent; and the Canoe Slalom in Hertfordshire.

I don’t know if you saw how the likes of Sainsbury and Tesco got behind the recent Euros? They had small goals in their entrances full of footballs and boxes of lager. Not exactly subtle but it worked in getting non-football-loving shoppers registering that there was a footie tournament going on.

I’m writing this on the day that England plays Italy in the quarter-finals. The newspapers are full of footie stories including the fact that Tesco expects to sell 25 million cans and bottles of beer and cider before the match. Sainsbury’s expects a 60% rise in booze sales, while both grocery giants expect a 30% rise in sales of crisps and nuts.

In a slight misquote from the film Field of Dreams, I’m going to suggest that you ’Build it and they will come’. In this instance, not a baseball pitch but an Olympic-themed display. I know you can get shot for displaying those coloured hoops without permission but you can build a ’big night in’-type display and throw in a few Union Jacks to show your support for Team GB. In particular, you want to get this sorted for the Opening Ceremony on Friday July 27. An amazing 15% of the world’s population some one billion people watched the Beijing opening ceremony in 2008. All eyes will be on London on July 27. According to the BBC, the three-hour ceremony will begin at 9pm with "an hour of culture", followed by the athletes’ parade, then the lighting of the cauldron and fireworks. Then, of course, the real events start and the armchair viewing begins in earnest. Bring on those drinks and snacks!

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