Olympic Stamps on Sale Now and Diamond Jubilee Stamps Coming Soon

If you’re looking to boost your stamp collection, 2012 is the year to do it!

Royal Mail is issuing some interesting new collections featuring London events and figures this year, starting with the Olympic “definitive”, or everyday stamps, which go on sale today.

Olympic and Paralympic Stamps

The new stamps feature the Olympic and Paralympic logos, as well as an image of the Queen’s head, and are set to brighten up millions of letters.

After the Games, Royal Mail will issue a set of Gold Medal stamps to honour all Team GB victories.

Diamond Jubilee Stamps

Royal Mail will celebrate the Diamond Jubilee with three new stamp sets:

• House of Windsor stamps featuring the five monarchs from the start of the 20th century, issued 2 Feb
• A miniature sheet with six portraits of the Queen taken from banknotes, coins and stamps issued during her reign, including a 1st class diamond blue definitive, which replaces the standard 1st class gold definitive during the Jubilee Year, issued 6 Feb
• A set of eight stamps featuring images of the Queen during the six decades of her reign, issued 31 May

More London Stamp News

That’s not all! Look out for special Charles Dickens stamps in June to mark the 200th anniversary of the author’s birth, and an upcoming collection on British Fashion Designers (hope there’ll be a few Londoners there too).

While you await these new collections, keep your inner philatelist occupied at the British Postal Museum & Archive, where you can see stamps from all over the world.

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Posted in: 2012 London Olympic Games,2012 London Olympics,2012 Olympic Games,2012 Olympic Logo

Duchess of Cambridge’s Wedding Dress and Olympic Torch in Design Museum Exhibition

The Duchess of Cambridge’s wedding dress, the Olympic Torch and the London 2012 Velodrome all feature in the longlist for Designs of the Year at the Design Museum.



A wind-propelled landmine detonator, virtual Tesco store and pop-up cinema (Folly for a Flyover in Hackney, East London) were also selected for the longlist.

The nominated products will be on show at the Design Museum from next month. The winners will be selected by a jury and announced on 24 April.

• Designs of the Year is at the Design Museum from 8 February to 15 July 2012

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Posted in: London 2012 Olympics,London Olympics 2012

Indian women, men hockey teams enter Olympic qualifier final

The Indian men's and women's teams on Friday night made it to the finals of the 2012 London Olympics qualifiers, the former with a come-from-behind 4-2 win over Poland and the latter scraping past Italy 1-0 at the Major Dhyan Chand National Stadium.

The women's team will take on South Africa in Saturday's final while the men will square off with France on Sunday.

For the men's team, ace drag-flicker Sandeep Singh (26th, 70th) was again the star of the night slamming in two from penalty corners while Shivendra Singh (59th) and Vokkaliga Raghunath (65th) scored one goal apiece. Sandeep is the leading goal scorer in the tournament with 11 goals.

Poland took an early lead through Tomasz Dutkiewicz in the 13th minute and Mirsloaw Juszczak helped them make it 2-2 in the 63rd minute but the winning goal remained elusive.

With France brightening its hopes for a place in final after a 1-1 draw with Canada earlier in the day, India needed just a draw to book a final berth.

But India, as promised by chief coach Michael Nobbs, were in no mood to play for a draw. After the first half ended 1-1, India forced themselves in the second-half with three goals and also assured France a place in Sunday's final.

India found it tough to breach the solid Polish defence and had to rely on penalty corners for scoring. They earned as many as nine penalty corners and converted three.

India pushed hard and earned four penalty corners in a space of eight minutes and Sandeep clinically converted the fourth to equalise for the hosts.

Shortly after the break, Shivendra came close to breaking the deadlock but his shot from top of the D missed the goal by a whisker.

India built the pressure on Poland from both the flanks and Sandeep had his drag-flick saved in the 41st minute while two attempts went begging in the 57th minute as Shivendra failed to trap the ball.

Just before the hour mark, Shivendra made it 2-1 deflecting in a brilliant pass from Sarwanjit Singh.

The lead, however, was short-lived as Mirsloaw converted the third penalty corner for the Poles to make it 2-2.

But India came back strongly in the last six minutes through drag-flickers Raghunath and Sandeep to dash Polish hopes.

For the women's team, Ritu Rani struck the winner in the 55th minute off a rebound from Jaspreet Kaur's drag-flick.

India have to blame themselves for waiting too long to break the deadlock. They wasted five penalty corners before getting their act together in the sixth.

It was a crucial match for both teams. India needed a win while a draw was enough for the Italians to take them through. With the win India finished second behind World No.12 South Africa (13) with 10 points.

India were lucky to win as the Italians adopted a defensive approach and tightly marked the forwards inside the circle.

India, World No.13, had to toil hard against Italy, 19th in FIH rankings. Despite pressing hard from the start, they were scrappy as the links failed to combine well with the forwards.

Read more at: http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/indian-women-men-hockey-teams-qualifier-final/1/175196.html

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Posted in: Indian Hockey Team,London Olympics 2012,London Olympics Qualifiers

Olympic Games gearing up with London Cultural Olympiad 2012

EVERYONE KNOWS that the Olympic Games are scheduled to start from 27 July and end on 12 August 2012. Let’s not talk about the Games for now, which are going to be of topmost quality, no doubt. Hence, let us focus on things that would be considered to be very important for the people of England. Here, London Cultural Olympiad 2012 would take the centre stage. It would be showcasing the traditions, cultures and arts in various forms during the event.

It is one of the largest cultural celebration as far as the modern Olympic and Paralympics are concerned, as stated in the official website of the London Olympic Games, 2012, london2012.com. Hence, the event is surely going to be a huge one, where people from all over the world would be able to witness their culture. It could be a big trailer for what is to come during the mega event, London Olympics, 2012.

 Hence, the Olympiad would be giving a chance for each and everyone to become a part of this mega festival. The festival has been taking place since the year 2008. Around 16 million people from the UK have taken part in it, where 8,300 workshops also have been conducted so as to make the festival a grand one, as stated in the official website of the Games. It has become a great hit among the masses and is expected to find more success in the upcoming days.

For those people who would love to be a part of this festival, they still have some major events that they can watch. These events can be found in different categories, such as arts, culture, music, dance, opera, literary event etc. So, one could choose according to his liking. Some events that are lined up in the coming days or months, as 100 portraits by Lucian Freud would be on display from 9 February 2012 to 27 May 2012. London's British Museum would also showcase the world and works of William Shakespeare 19 July 2012 to 25 November 2012.

Another mega event would be the Big Dance 2012 across various venues in London, which would entertain everyone. Radio 1's Hackney Weekend 2012 would go on from 23 June 2012 to 24 June 2012, which might be one of the biggest free music festivals in London, as per the information on a website, visitlondon.com. Not all of these events could be watched free of charge, but there are also some events which are free.

So, London is gearing up for the games with such kind of activities. Tourists travelling across the length and the breadth of the globe would be expecting the Games to be of even higher standards.

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Posted in: 2012 London Olympics,2012 london olympics tickets,London 2012 Olympics,London Olympic Games,London Olympics,London Olympics 2012,London Olympics Tickets,london olympics travel package

Olympic Games to hit tourism industry

PEOPLE INVOLVED with the tourism industry would suffer heavy losses due to the London Olympic Games, 2012, which are scheduled to start on 27 July and end on 12 August 2012. One trade association also feels that during the time, income would be dropping down to 3.5 billion pounds, as reported by ANI. This would probably happen as the organisers of the games have increased the hotel rates.

If this indeed happens, it would seriously be a great setback for the hoteliers as they have been looking up to the games, which was supposed to provide them with lots of revenues. They had even been trying to provide the best of facilities for the tourists. But, what is the use if there is no tourist inflow into their hotels.

It was also expected that the revenue earned form the Tourism industry would cover up for the losses that were suffered by the LOCOG, during or before the games. All their hopes also have been dashed.  It was so foolish of the LOCOG to book more than what was required. The Independent reports that 600,000 nights had been booked by them for the mega spectacle for various media, sponsors, delegates, etc. But, they have now returned 120,000 of those bookings. With just a few months away, it could have been better if they had given this information before hand, so as to give the hotelier’s time to recover their losses and hire these rooms to other tourists.

It may be a case, where ‘one man’s loss is another’s gain’, as tourists may head to other cities so as to get an affordable accommodation. The Independent also states that the hotel rates have gone up three times and around one million beds would be empty during the games.

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Posted in: 2012 London Olympics,2012 london olympics tickets,London 2012 Olympics,London Olympic Games,London Olympics,London Olympics 2012,London Olympics Tickets,london olympics travel package

Locog To Take Action If Allegations Against Olympic Resellers Proved Correct – London Olympics 2012

The London Organising Committee for the Olympic Games has warned that it will be proceeding with tough measures against two of its official ticket re sellers in the event that allegations against them are proven to be true.

The allegations hold the official London 2012 Olympic Games resellers responsible for offering usage of the VIP lanes to the Olympic venues to their clients as part of their hospitality package.

However, according to the agreement between the London 2012 organizers and their ticket resellers, the provision of VIP lanes to the customers was not to be allowed.

The two hospitality companies that have been brought to the limelight in the illegal allotment of VIP lanes to their customers are Thomas Cook as well as Jet Set Sports. The information became public on Monday when former employees from both the companies gave statements on Channel 4’s Dispatches programme that access to the VIP lanes was available to the company’s clients during the time of the Olympic Games that are scheduled to start from July 27 and last until August 12.

However, LOCOG stated its stance on the same night as the interviews that it had not given permission to the re sellers to offer access to the VIP lanes as part of their packages. The LOCOG has sold an estimated amount of 200,000 Olympic tickets to the resellers for the upcoming Games.

A spokeswoman from LOCOG expressed the organiser’s stance in the following manner, “We are really clear. If we have evidence they are selling things they can’t sell we will take immediate and appropriate action. Neither Thomas Cook nor Jet Set Sports can sell access to Games lanes. They don’t have the right to do it.”

According to the allegations made against Thomas Cook, the clients are being offered access to the VIP lanes irrespective of the fact that they would be attending the Olympic event or not.

The cost of one such package that includes other privileges like six-night stay for 23 people and coach travel was told to be £450,708. The package was made available for the men’s 100m final and the cycling events.

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Posted in: Jet Set Sports,London Olympic 2012,London Olympic 2012 Logo,London Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games,Thomas Cook

London 2012 Olympics: Usain Bolt's agent plays down injury fears after sprinter visits German doctor

Bolt flew to Munich last week to visit one of Europe’s most controversial doctors less than a week after pulling out of the Camperdown Classic in Kingston on Saturday, the Jamaican's first scheduled race of the season. Bolt had been expected to launch his season at the National Stadium but was spotted instead in Germany late last week, so the track was buzzing with rumours that he might have a recurrence of the back trouble which has required treatment from Munich-based specialist 'Healing' Hans Müller-Wohlfahrt.

According to reports, Bolt secretly visited the expensive clinic of Muller-Wohlfahrt, a 69-year-old doctor who is known for using unorthodox methods which include injecting patients with calf’s blood. Bolt missed the end of the 2010 season with a back injury and was treated by Muller-Wohlfahrt so it is possible that the triple gold medallist is nursing a fresh injury.

His agent Simms has moves to quash any rumours, however: "People can put two and two together and make five. Any speculation is ridiculous."

"He is not injured. He trained fully up to leaving Jamaica and is training fully again." Coach Glen Mills was also quick to play down reports that his star pupil was struggling with injury, insisting that his visit to Europe was for a business trip. "Bolt is not injured," said Mills. "He trained up to the day before he left the island for his business trip."

Bolt’s biggest challenger, Yohan Blake, revealed that the defending 100m champion has been in flying form when they sprint together in training and believes that they could push each other to barrier-breaking peaks this summer. Blake insisted that Bolt looked as good as ever after his slightlyhit-and-miss 2011. “Usain is getting back to his old self,” he said.

“He’s not frightened of me. He’s the world’s fastest man and he knows what he can do.” At the end of last season, Blake clocked 19.26sec for 200m, a time bettered only by Bolt’s world record 19.19sec.

Asked if he felt they could push each other to crack the 19-second barrier, Blake said: “It’s possible. Given the right day, no breeze, anything can happen.”

Despite his unusual treatments being criticised as a "Frankenstein-type experiment" by the head of the US Anti-Doping Agency, Muller-Wohlfahrt is a favourite of top athletes struggling with debilitating injuries. Michael Owen, Steven Gerrard, Paula Radcliffe, Ronaldo and Boris Becker have all seen the German physician.

Source: Telegraph

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Posted in: 2012 London Olympic,Bolt,London 2012 Olympic