The Olympics have been amazing, they have captured my 7 year olds attention and suddenly I have toned athletes on my TV rather than the less aesthetically pleasing cartoons that usually grace the flat screen. (I am obviously not complaining here). All the hype surrounding London 2012 prior to the games was mainly about cost and security, with a reported £27 million being spent on the Opening Ceremony and this sparked a debate on my facebook page about value for money. With clarity, I was informed that  the NHS overspends by more than £27m a week which makes the Olympic ceremony excellent value for money especially when it has regenerated a really poor area of London and generated so many jobs in a period of recession.

The Opening Ceremony was truly amazing and it demonstrated what was truly great about Britian. So what did the closing ceremony bring? It was a testament to the truly eclectic mix of modern British music, the Ceremony featured more than 4,100 performers, including 3,500 adult volunteers and 380 schoolchildren from the six east London Host Boroughs, once again demonstrating that when it comes to the crunch (the none credit variety) , the people of our country are prepared to pull together.

If you have read my most recent blog post, you will see that loss has featured within my closest circle lately and seeing Gary Barlow find the strength to get up and perform, despite his recent personal loss, shows that he too is an inspiration.

So the games were marketed to "Inspire a generation" and I genuinely think they have done this on so many levels. So lets get on our bikes and get outside. Lets inspire our children to run, play and ride a bike, like these here at Leisure Lakes Bikes.

So once again, the Lilypad are proud to be British!

Could we afford to host the Olympics? Probably not! Was it worth it? Absolutely!