大象传媒

Over dinner on Thursday night colleagues complained about the , or lack of it, in Beijing.

And yes the area we were in was a bit empty, and it's been hard to fill the vast space that is Olympic green.

The capital city of the world's most populous nation has been strangely quiet. But when I walked into the this morning I was gob smacked.

I'm still not sure how a former industrial chemicals salesman from Merseyside, or for that matter a second hand car salesman ( I wasn't very good at either ), became a sports news reporter for the 大象传媒.

Mine wasn't a conventional route into broadcast journalism. It was some career change and I probably got lucky, but I'm glad I did.

My first job was at a tiny radio station in Manchester, after lots of mistakes, and laughs, I headed south. I eventually arrived at the World Service via Guildford and Croydon.

And now I'm off to China for the most politicised Olympics in recent history.

Beijing will be the third time I have covered an Olympic Games. OK we like to moan about the long hours and unreasonable requests from our editors, but it still has to be the best gig in the world.

and were terrific - they conjure up wonderful memories, the sport certainly but also the festive atmosphere in those cities. So bring on Beijing, let's hope it's as enjoyable as the last two.