But how much longer will it take, I wonder, before the forest of raised hands waving cameras and iPads in front of a view is supplemented by a cloud of camera-bearing drones buzzing around overhead? Or someone's so busy taking a selfie of themselves with a drone overhead that they step out in front of the traffic? (Granted, that would be a prime candidate for a Darwin Award, but I still tend to think capital punishment a bit harsh, even for terminal vanity).
Today's throwback is only a couple of years, to a showery day in the Olympic Park.
This was the view across the main entrance and concourse area as the Paralympics came towards their end.
And now the same spot in the re-opened Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park includes this cheerful children's playground:
The Aquatic Centre, now without its wings of extra spectator seating, allows light to flood in under the floating ceiling, and was getting plenty of general public use, as was the Velodrome and the cycle circuits around the outside.
Which was only to be expected, since this was the day the Tour de France was passing by, and the park was full of people out to watch.
The excitement has been leading to some debate about whether this would encourage more people to get on to two wheels. Leaving aside the question whether the superhuman challenge of the Tour has much relation to you and me and the people next door seeing a bike as just another means of transport about our daily business, the one thing one notices, in the best part of four hours waiting for the cavalcade to pass, is that it's mainly a parade of lots of motor vehicles around a relatively small number of cyclists passing in a flash:
