If you went down to the river this lunchtime to sit and munch your ciabatta in the sunshine, you may have got a bit of a surprise.
You'd have sat on the edge of the Potter's Field park (all done up nicely by Boris's predecessor, Ken Livingstone, we might add) and seen a make-shift but VERY VERY BLUE stage put up with three new pristine white flag-poles on it.
At a ceremony with a few speeches, a bit of pomp and lots of excited schoolkids grasping union jacks, the official Olympic flag (called the Antwerp flag) and the Paralympic flag were both raised alongside a big Union Jack by athletes including Christine Ohuruogu (400m champion from Beijing), and Paralympic champs Helene Raynsford (women's sculls) and Chris Holmes (swimmer).
Both the flags were handed over from the Mayor of Beijing earlier this month, and it marks the next milestone to London 2012. We won these flags against tough competition, and now the city has to meet the challenge in front of us. And in a decidedly amusing (yet unbuttoned) fashion, if Boris has anything to do with it.
Some pics below. Pop down to London Bridge at some point over the next 1,400-odd days to see the flags on the south bank of the Thames in-between the shadows of historic Tower Bridge and the modern architecture of City Hall. And don't forget your ciabatta.
