Sunday 23 December 2012

23/12: Merry Christmas

I would like to wish all the readers and contributors to London Pins a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Thank you to everyone who has helped keep the site and blog up to date with information, comments or best wishes. It's a cliche, but I really could not do it without your help.

It was great to meet so many people in the pin trading centres during the summer that had used the site to learn more about pins, it makes the effort worthwhile to know that people find the site useful.

I also should apologise that during the Games and in the time since they closed, the website has not been kept as up-to-date as I hoped. I'm afraid that my real-life and day-job have had to take more of my time now that the Games are over. But, please, stick with me and eventually we'll have a comprehensive listing of all the London 2012 pins.

If you managed to come to one of the pin meets in 2012, then thank you for your support. I hope you enjoyed the experience and found other collectors to trade with and made some good friends and contacts. Thank you too, to Jan and everyone at the Railway Tavern in Stratford - for some this was the spiritual home of pin trading in 2012!

Thank you to all the sponsors who supported us this year with pins, information and venues. I'll refrain from mentioning names within the companies, but thank you especially to Coca-Cola, Lloyds TSB, EDF, BT, Cadbury and John Lewis.

Finally, a public thank you to my family for putting up with me and my collecting over the last few years. Thank you for your patience when I was updating the website instead of doing something around the house, for helping to photograph pin after pin on a Saturday and for carrying bags of pins to and from the Olympic Park each day!

Merry Christmas and keep reading in 2013, there's still lots to come.

Paul.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

All the best wishes from another "Games Maker".
A Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

sleathy said...

ALL the very best to one and all this festive time! Merry Christmas! also from a fellow Games Maker!

Acer said...

Thank you again Paul, for all your past efforts to make this such a great site. Now take this time to enjoy the holidays; Merry Christmas to you and yours.

noel 9 said...

2012 PIN COLLECTOR, GAMES MAKER, OFFICIAL COKE TRADER, & OFFICIAL OLYMPIC VILLAGE TRADER..... NOT MANY CAN CLAIM TO HAVE DONE ALL THIS PAUL...... AND ATTENDED NEARLY EVERY DAY AT THE OLYMPIC PARK or A OLYMPIC VENUE DURING BOTH OLYMPIC & PARALYMPIC GAMES. You lived your dream in 2012... and helped other do the same. Hopefully 2013 will bring some more exciting things your way.

Plus I would like to thank all the other London Pin Traders Like Bill, Wookie, Mike, Mo, Philip Anthony and Tom ( to mention a few )for making MY 2012 experiance unforgetable.

Merry Christmas to One and All

Le Pippin said...

I can only echo what everybody has already said, but London 2012 has been a truly wonderful experience in many ways. I have been privileged to have been a part of it since 2006, when construction first started on the Olympic Park. I was on the Park at 4YTG, 3YTG, 2YTG and 1YTG (when the Aquatics Centre was opened), and I met some tremendous athletes during my time with the ODA – Denise Lewis, Chris Hoy, Seb Coe, Jonathan Edwards, Fatima Whitbread and Joanna Rowsell, to name but a few. I was on the Park nearly every day throughout the Olympics and Paralympics, I watched some great sport, and I attended all four Ceremonies. What more could I have asked for?

Outside of work, I have made some real friends through pin collecting. It has been a great honour in getting to know you all and, of course, trading pins with you on a few occasions as well.

The year 2012 has been one that will stay in my memory for a long time to come. And, with all the excitement of the Olympics and Paralympics, and the Queen’s Jubilee, we can’t forget that (at last) Chelsea became Champions of Europe!

As usual at this time of year, I find myself in Paris again. All that is left for me to do now is to wish you all Joyeux Noël et bonne année 2013.

molon said...

From another Games Maker and an avid pin collector (especially NOC & Bid pins) ... What a wonderful and glorious year. Will never forget August 4 - and the 45 minutes of sheer brilliance. Thanks to a number of people who I met thru the pin meets, I got to add to my collection.
Would like to take this opportunity to thank Paul and everyone else. I wish that this festive season brings the music of laughter, the warmth of friendship, and love to you and your loved ones. Here's to 2013 and the next pin meet.
Cheers !