By Paul Giblin

LONDON, July 31 (Xinhua) -- The British public likes the games: it's now official. Although a walk around any part of London, where you can see Team GB supporters wandering around with flags, team GB jackets, t-shirts and of course Team GB umbrellas would have given you the basic idea that most people have had their imagination captured by the celebration of the Olympic Games in London, we now have it in hard numbers.

An opinion poll published in the Independent newspaper shows that 50 percent of people now agree with the 9.3 billion pounds of public money spent on hosting the Games.

We can thank Danny Boyle for that: before his spectacular opening ceremony on Friday only 43 percent agreed with spending so much money. So 'Isles of Wonder' has worked its magic. All we need now are some British gold medals and the approval ratings will go through the roof.

Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London, is never a man to allow tact or diplomacy to dampen his enthusiasm and Boris is very enthusiastic about the women beach volleyball players who are competing on Horse Guards Parade in the center of the capital.

"They gleam like wet otters," enthused the mayor, with his hands firmly shoved into his pockets. And a smile on his face.

Johnson has got his counterpart from Rio de Janeiro worrying already about the closing ceremony.

"I am scared he'll do something crazy when he hands over the Olympic flag," said Eduardo Paes, who no doubt remembers Boris' wild flag waving in Beijing four years ago, when it looked as if the mayor was about to injure himself or take someone's eye out.

Prime Minister David Cameron traveled by Underground on Monday in an attempt to show solidarity with commuters affected by the Games.

"I've come to see what the situation is like and it's not too bad," said Cameron, sitting in a carriage that in no way had been checked by security staff beforehand. He then switched on his I-Pod (Mumford and Sons perhaps?) and started tweeting on his smartphone, which are the usual occupations of Underground users these days.

The transport chaos has yet to arise.. the smart money is on it holding back until the athletics get under way on Friday: indeed, with Londoners so well prepared for the Games and advised to use alternative transport (i.e. walk), some have found themselves arriving at work faster than usual, which is probably more annoying that getting there late!

It also says a lot of what it's like to travel to work in London on a normal working day...

Work continues to prepare the Olympic Stadium for the start of track and field on Friday. Part of the work involved included removing the real oak tree from the opening ceremony and picking up the seven billion pieces of paper, one for each person alive, that were dropped from a helicopter: don't envy the person who got THAT job.

And spare a thought for Bulgarian bronze medal winner Felipe Kitadi, who was so proud of the bronze medal he won in the men's 60kg judo that he took it with him everywhere - including the shower. Once in the shower, he put it in his mouth to stop it getting wet and promptly dropped it, breaking the ribbon and denting the medal.

Fortunately the IOC have given him a replacement, but there are two lessons here: Don't take your medal into the shower and if you are caught in the rain, don't put it into your mouth either. Enditem

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