I live in the heart of the Vancouver Olympics venues, one block from the opening ceremonies, three blocks from the hockey centre and two blocks from the main entertainment stage. I walk through the area a number of times every day.

Tonight feels really odd. The restauarants and shops have no customers. The sidewalks – normally buzzing with people in the evening – are empty. There are few cars on the streets. There is a dream like quality to the atmopshere, of the kind one imagines before an impending attack following a declaration of war.

The situation is reported to be similar in Whistler. The locals are anxious and even a little bit afraid.

It is hard to know what is going on. Not a word of this is even mentioned by the main stream media. Meanwhile BBC and CNN are obsessed with the drug scene on Hastings Street and the lack of snow at Cypress Mountain. And none of our leaders do anything but spin us with bromides.

The city looks wonderful. We just need some people. I fear people have been scared off by the warnings that it will be hard to get around in the city down-town and by the sense that ordinary people are not really welcome.

I am fairly confident that things will change on Friday when the visitors and athletes start coming. But you do wonder why it is like this. And why it is being so studiously ignored by public commentators.

Oh well, my neighbourhood can do with a little quiet at the moment. I just didn’t think we would get it this way. And it makes me uneasy. So now we are ready. Let the onslaught begin. Let’s have some fun. Where I live, we are ready for the Olympics. We just need some people.