Be Excellent To Each Other

You'd think she could manage a smile once in a while.

Still... here's the parade.
Cheer for MrsA's cousin on the Irish team, folks!

I meant the BBC.

Channel 4 bid more money and committed to a dedicated 4 year build up so shrug.

It does feel odd not being on the BBC, and the ads are as annoying as they are on anything ever.

Anyway. Didn't see the opening ceremony but watching the athletes coming out now. Can't believe how large the Brazilian team was!

Team GB. What an entrance. Looking forward to wheelchair rugby. It looks mad

I wasn't all that impressed, it just seemed to be people dancing with umbrellas, shame because it had promise with the big bang theme.

Bed time now, I have to be up before it gets light.

Ah yes, that four year build up that we have all been so aware of...

I saw a billboard poster 3 months ago.

I don't really understand why there's criticism of the beeb. They always show the Olympics, and don't show the paralympics. Channel 4 also have a public service broadcasting remit. And the level of complaint if the beeb tie up their schedules for extended periods of time has to be taken into consideration, so I think it's perfectly reasonable to show one and not the other.

"That Paralympic Show" started on Channel 4 in 2010. If you don't watch Channel four, you probably didn't see it. Largely because it is on Channel 4. Watching Channel 4 is a pre-requisite for having watched Channel 4

I'm not sure it's criticism so much as surprise.



That sounds worryingly like "That 70s Show". Is it a sitcom?

I believe the Beeb bid for it, and I also think the Beeb deliberately threw it. The coverage of the Olympics was so extensive that they were in a 'Damned if you do...' situation with the paralympics and they were probably happy not to win the bid.

Still, better than NBC. 5 hours coverage of the whole games, of which 90 minutes is a highlights package the weekend following the closing ceremony.

And - NBC - probably not even live. Apparently their commentators sat in silence during the 100m final (and much of the rest, I'm sure), knowing they didn't have to do anything till later. Bizarre!

Yep, nothing live, at all.

So is it only me who can't muster any enthusiasm whatsoever for the Paralympics and feels it's all a bit "after the Lord Mayor's parade"? I know they train hard and perform to amazing standards, and that's even without taking their own unique hardships and difficulties into account, but still the fact remains that they just aren't as good as the lot last month. Watching people run quite fast and jump quite far just isn't very thrilling to me after watching people run 100m under 9.7 seconds and the like, it suffers from proximity. I think I'd appreciate them more if they were in a different year, although I understand how that makes the logistics messy. But you don't bed a 9 and then jump straight into bed with a 7... you dwell on the memories and sensations, stroking yourself softly in quiet contemplation for a while before you go hunting again. Same thing innit.

Easily solved - have the Paralympics first. Next challenge!

I've been saying that for weeks. Paralympics first, everyone gets excited and happy, then onto the big show.

Commonwealth games do both at the same time don't they? An interesting concept, but the Games as a whole would then last about 4 weeks. It's apparently up for discussion, although people like Tanni Grey Thompson are strongly opposed.

We have you on ignore though. And no, you can't borrow Myp's copy of "London 2012: The Official Game".

I love the implications of that 'we'

Because it reminds you you're not the only one with multiple accounts on here?

MrsA's cousin is up at 11am in the 3km Pursiuit Qualifier, everyone.

heh, I told mrsA to email a journlist to keep a look out on the track, and the jounalist recognised the name and asked a few questions. Sadly she didn't reply with "At the end of the day, he's got to give it 110%, 100% of the time. the lad's come a long way and completing revolutions on this track will give the rest of the team a good lift, there's no point in going all out early doors, as it's a game of two halves. Back to you, brian".

Good work.

Had a day pass for the ExCeL. 10 quid to watch any event that had spare seats. Just squeezed in to sitting Volleyball to watch Team GB beat Morocco. Fantastic atmosphere.

Then a Gold Medal match and ceremonies in the table tennis. Great sport to watch live. Only thing was that the gold and bronze matches were taking place at the same time which meant noise and concentration was divided. (in fact they finished within a couple of seconds of each other).

Then to the end of the power lifting. This was fascinating. Bloke comes in on a wheelchair and has two minutes to lift over 200 kilos. He has to get three white lights off the judges. In the end, the winner failed at 225.5kgs with one white and two reds. Not sure how, but he came back for a last go at a new world record 226kgs. Arena was really noisy, then who could hear a pin drop for the lift. Slight pause, three white lights and people *erupted* out of their seats. 3000 on their feet for a world record by some bloke we had never heard of. Just spine tingling.

So. Team GB win, two Gold Medals and a world record. For a total ticket price of a tenner. Brilliant value.

one of the local boys here gets gold

http://www.mickeybushell.co.uk/Mickey_Bushell/Home.html

MrsA's cousin came 5th in the time trial.

I was at Greenwich yesterday. The horsie "stadium" has seating for 20,000, but they only ever allocated 10,000 tickets per event because of "security concerns"

If they have seating for 20,000 arses, it doesn't matter how big they are.

So you're telling me you could get a horse to sit in one of their chairs?

Loving the descriptions and demonstrations the presenters are doing on channel four. The other day the male daytime presenter demonstrated getting into a race chair from his normal chair which was really interesting and just now they had a couple of wheelchair rugby players in demonstrating how their different disabilities affect their skill at the game. An amputee can lean and stretch all round his chair while a guy with a spinal injury midway up his spine can't lean out the chair because he doesn't have the trunk strength. Seems obvious when you hear it but not something that really occurs to you when you're watching the games.
Also really enjoying the last leg, a program on after the coverage each night which is a sort of comedy panel show about the days events.

No, they're not for horses. But if they were, then you could.

I'm enjoying that too, it's hit and miss in places comedy wise, but is refreshingly normal in its treatment of disabled people (for obvious reasons).

Yeah it's not really laugh out loud funny much, but some stuff they do is good and I like the approach they are taking to making disabled people normal.

DNF in the road race.

I don't think that they ever anticipated the paras being this popular, and so didnt plan to have the security or volunteers in place to service full stadiums.

It was the case for both events.

In my experience, people who like horses have double sized arses. #mysterysolved

Went to the Paralympics today. Baby made seeing most of it a pain in the ass, but it was fun. Wheelchair fencing is cool.

Best part of the day was the Emirates Air Line from Greenwich to the Excel. It's a cable car over the Thames and it is AWESOME.

You can't really blame them for thinking it wouldn't have legs.

Bravo.

Out of interest, have you run a similar poll in retrospect?

Q: Are you looking forward to the Olympics?

A: No, it's nearly four years away, you cretin.

No, you're a cock.

Q: Are you looking forward to the London 2012 Olympic Games?

A: it's already been and gone, you cretin.

Foe list is looking busy again.

How many times can one myp be added?

Not yet. We almost certainly will, though.

Paris city boundary expanded quite a lot.