Disclaimer: Do Not Read if bored rigid with the Olympic Bid and all it entails, or if unwilling to deal with a crazy Londoner drunk on OMG TEH HAPPY's verdict on the whole verdict thing. Not suitable for children under 36 months. Update should not be used as a flotation device.

You'll have to bear with me a moment. As both an Englishwoman and a Londoner I've just got to make a brief statement vis-a-vis today's rather surprising events, and it runs thusly.

What the Hell? We actually went and goddamn WON?

(Did I mention it was going to be a big statement? I probably should have done.)

Oh yes we did. We, that is the English, have won something big for the first time in my life. We won the bid. Or, to put it another way, we won the bid. We're hosting the 2012 Olympics. Not just in England but right here in London which is a certifiably fantastic city and is where I am living right now OMGWTF squee. This is not the way things happen here in England.

Forgive my incoherence, but I'm seriously not used to English people actually being able to win at anything remotely connected with sport (especially not with God-knows how many failed attempts by Manchester to get an Olympic bid off the ground). I've been going round all morning saying 'It's going to be Paris. I mean it. It's really going to be Paris'. I couldn't even watch the preliminary rounds of voting because I was so worried we were going to fall at the last hurdle and guessed it'd be less disappointing if I didn't have to see it. Not because I wanted it to be Paris, but because I didn't want to be too dejected when the bid inevitably failed - and I didn't want it to fail either. I just had a horrible feeling it would and Paris would beat us, because that's just the way things go if you're English.

But it's not Paris who got the Games. It's London. US. By four freaking votes.

... it'll sink in sometime, I'm sure.

(Oh, and if anyone is wondering quite why I'm so bubbly and gushy and thrilled about this when I'm normally a terrible cynic, this article may help explain some of what I'm feeling. This kind of thing doesn't happen to Britain very often; we might as well enjoy the happy while we have the chance, right?)

Believe me, I was seriously dreading all the post-mortems that would have accompanied the London bid's failure, too. I am so glad we don't have to sit through that. Oh my God, and to think everyone, myself included, thought this was going to go nowhere. Yay, all the shiny pretty building things they said they were going to build in Stratford are actually going to be built. Hooray for shiny pretty building things.

Yes, I know we as Londoners will have to pay for it, but I think it's worth it given what the money's going to. And I know I'm not normally all that bothered about sport but all the same, please, just indulge me and my giddy happy fluffy London!Joy for a minute. I'll be back to my sane, grounded (or at least understandably insane, Ken Hidaka fangirlish) self tomorrow. But god damn I am thrilled about this - not least of which because to say this all looked unlikely even a year ago would be to understate the point considerably.

Squee again. God damn, I love this city.

... hey, and I do believe I'm actually feeling proud to be British. Will wonders never cease?