Running, jumping, climbing trees...

34 days to go

Strangely addicted to the Olympics at the moment.

I don't know what it is about the Olympics that makes sport acceptable to me for a couple of weeks every four years. Perhaps that's my sport tolerance limit? Perhaps it's because the marking system of gold, silver and bronze is straightforward enough that I can bring myself to care - if you watch athletics at any other time it's more a case of "anonymous athlete A has run slightly faster than anonymous athlete B, hurrah!" but if there is a circle of precious metal at stake then I can fixate on that.

In any case, every four years I suddenly decide to take an interest in other people exerting themselves.

Where has this Team GB business come from? We all seemed to manage to call the athletes 'The British Team' in previous contests. Is the Olympic reporting airtime at such a premium that shorter team names are necessary?

In the London Olympics is the British team going to be called 'TGB' to shorten things further?

Where can we go from there? I can confidently predict that the British Team in the 2016 Olympics will be referred to by a short burst of static that sounds like a ZX81 loading.

Anyway, I'm off to watch the women's beach volleyball. I'd write more but I need both hands to type....