Has any city ever before experienced such a radical mood swing? At lunchtime on Wednesday Londoners huddled around TV sets, turned up car radios and read speedy text messages to get the news: London had won the race to host the Olympics in 2012. They were surprised by that result - after years of British heroic failures, they were assuming defeat - and surprised by their own reaction too. They hadn't expected to be so pleased; they didn't realise how much it meant to them.

The next morning they were once again engaged in the collective consumption of news - clamouring for the radio, frantically reaching for a functioning mobile phone. This time there was no excitement.

Mas en The Guardian