I just heard on the BBC Breakfast program that today marks a hundred days until the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympic games, and I just want to reiterate what I wrote in this entry in February. Part of me is curious about what it feels like in Paris right now: I was living in London in the spring of 2012, and I remember that curious mix of apprehension and excitement which hung in the air. Presumably the atmosphere in Paris will be similar, only, as they just said on TV, Paris is under quite a bit more pressure than London was. The world has changed substantially since 2012; there is much more risk from things like terrorism; there is an ongoing, brutal war in Eastern Europe. Things feel far edgier in general.

2012 was a very special year for me, and I still remember it with immense pride and fondness. To have not only lived here in London that year, but to be living with one of the people who performed at the climax of the paralympic closing ceremony, will always be one of the highlights of my life. I realise that, for me personally, that experience can never be repeated or recaptured, so whatever happens in Paris this summer, from my perspective it cannot possibly come close. Having said that, I fully expect to see something spectacular from our French neighbours. I want their opening ceremony to blow me away just as the London 2012 opening ceremony blew me away; I want to get the same sensation of jaw-dropping spectacle and exuberant optimism. I know it cannot take me back in time to 2012, but in a way I want Paris to bring back a whisp of the feeling I experienced back then, if just on my TV screen.

Above all, though, I wish anyone reading this living in Paris this year good luck: I hope their summer at the centre of the world goes well, and advise them to relish it while it lasts. With the world currently so fractured and in such turmoil, it seems to me that we need such a festival of global unity now more than ever.