The Paralympics. Bring on the Superhumans…

We travelled again to London on the 31st August, only a couple of days into the paralympic games. I have to say we didnt get as in to the opening ceremony as we did with the Olympics but going to the park the atmosphere was the same.  This time we all went, grandparents included and going into the park had the same magical feel.

We were thrilled to have tickets to the Velodrome, the best tickets in the park!! Despite being warned about the heat in there, nothing really prepared us for the humidity and heat when the doors opened. We had to wait to get in large groups at a time so that the environmental temperature wasn’t disrupted too much. The velodrome is SUCH an amazing building. I took my fish eye lens with me but to be honest the design of it with its curves and long continuous lines it almost does a fish eye without the lens.

The excitement was tangible. We had flags and we were ready to shout. We had great seats and looking down into the warm up area of the stalls we could see all the athletes going through their stretches, massage and slowly cycling their warm up bike round while keeping an eye on the action unfolding on the track. We knew that there was a lot of British interest and we also knew we would see a couple of finals and some medal ceremonies. The velodrome had this very cool system of getting people quiet which involved the faces of some very famous celebrities appearing and shhhhhhhing the crowd. The kids absolutely loved it.

The first event was the time trial…knowing that there was a British guy lying first in the qualifying rounds increased the excitement for everyone and we waited and waited to see the last rider to go.

But then disaster struck as Jody Cundy slipped coming out of the gate and stopped for a re-start but wasn’t given it and was disqualified. The downside of not watching on TV was that we had no commentators warning us what may happen and we suddenly realised he had been disqualified as the  loud speaker pronounced the athlete who had raced before Jody as the Gold medalist. A brief stunned silence followed by gasps and then the inevitable boos resonated around the capacity crowd.  Then the pressure cooker just blew for Cundy and in the athlete waiting area, things were thrown, shouts, swearing and we all watched, feeling a little bit like we shouldn’t. Such a powerful and poignant display of disappointment, the anger at years and years work thrown away. Fortunately we were up in the second balcony so could only hear shouting and not the exact language he used, one of the good things about not being camera close!. He did return at the end of the session and apologise to the crowd. Something which was met with warm applause and appreciation but i think most people understood anyhow.

The pursuit final we saw was exciting and inspirational. So many times i was staggered at how strong, able and bloody fast these disabled athletes could go. At one point my OH looked over the kids heads at me and mouthed ‘that guy has one leg? how is that fair?’ when the competitor seems to have two legs. I shrugged my shoulders as we watched the rider with one leg power past and win the pursuit and then ultimately the gold. It was remarkable.

We watched David Colbourne win his gold medal.  I can safely say im not sure all of us could have shouted any louder. At one point i found myself yelling ‘GO FASTER!” over the metal barrier in front of us. That moment i remembered an interview with one of paralympic team GB when they said they would love it if people would not see the disability but just get behind them as an athlete..job done. We were all behind him as he started to gain time on his competitor. The noise was awesome, the force of noise following him around the track like a tidal wave must have felt incredible. His lap of honour was met with banners, flags, flashes and him being chased by press photographers along the track. Superstars being made.

Singing the national anthem when he got his medal with the kids and the giant choir in the velodrome is a memory that will stay with me forever…

It truly was inspirational, the athletes, the atmosphere, the achievement.

We left, back through the park. Stopping to dance at  a brass band and watch the words in water fall from the bridge. Walking away from the stadium felt like closing a book after the most exciting story you have read for a long time. Now we knew the ending, we had walked it, experienced it, photographed it and written our own small part of history…

Its time to see what happens next.

 

 

 

 

 

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Continuing our Summer Olympic Story…part 2

Apologies folks..as you can no doubt see i have been fiddling with my blog design…..and that has sucked up huge amount of time…but im digressing and although i am SO totally stoked by my new look..im going to keep on track for the sake of this challenge.

So…

Entering the Olympic park reminded me a little of going through an airport, you had to show your tickets a lot, you were hearded through lots of roped gangways like cattle and then you had to walk through security scanners and put everything you were carrying in plastic box and send it through the scanner camera. That is where the similarity ended though. My experience of airports is usually always fairly stressy..travelling with kids is not easy at the best of times and adding security to that usually serves for some warp factor stress levels. Passing through London 2012 security was the totally opposite. We were met at the start of the cattle pens by the smiley, chatty, games makers, high fiving the kids and pulling the Bolt pose with their comedy ‘foam’ hands.

“hey what are you going to see?” “make sure you shout really loud!”

Passing through the security scanners being manned by some members of the RAF, I reprimanded my son for trying to shove the plastic boxes full of our stuff along the rails to the camera scanner. I only did this because he tried doing this in Manchester airport once and got scowled at and ‘take your hands off it” look from the operator……

“Don’t worry, its fine!” young Mr. RAF man smiled, winking at my son ‘we could give you a job here i reckon!’

Even when they had to confiscate a can of pop from our packed lunch the poor guy looked mortified and tried to convince us to wait and drink it rather than throw it away. I had forgotten it was in there. I had remembered  that you could only take empty water bottles through security to fill up on the other side. We, along with many others had added to the trail of hastily dumped water running from the bottom of the large planters that lined the path to the entrance gates. Im thinking those plants are either dead by now or triffid-like.

The games-makers, the military and the police were such a huge part of making the day a great experience. I know everyone has said it…the athletes, the politicians, the celebrities but it really would have been so much less without those little moments, winks, cheeky shout outs on the loud-speakers that, if nothing else, put a smile on your face.

Walking into the park was such a thrill…it was like walking into battle..we had come to support, shout, believe. Bringing our young family to be inspired.

It felt a little bit like finding a book and only reading the last chapter. In most cases we know nothing of what these athletes have gone through to get to that start line, the highs and lows that have got them to this point in their lives.. but we become players in the final, triumphant, closing  paragraphs of their story.  Willing them on,dreaming for the best of best ending to theirs and now our story too.

We were ready to bring it.

This is part of my somewhat lame attempt to link up with my friend older single mum..you can find out about her challenge by clicking the lovely little link box below….

 

one week

 

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Finding the gold..

Finding the gold: When old prospectors would look for gold they would take large pan and grab up huge loads of gravel and sand, shaking it backwards and forwards to encourage the heavier gold to the bottom of the pan, at the same time the lighter materials which are worthless are worked up to the surface and swept away. This process is repeated until all that is left is the heaviest most valuable material. 

My finding the gold project is inspired by this description, searching through the daily stuff of life that is ultimately worthless…the stress, the what ifs, the tantrums, the work nonsense,…and finding those valuable bits of my day, my week that are the moments i need to remember. The things that catch my eye and are just beautiful in their simplicity unbidden and untouched by the daily grind. Things that make me smile, even if sometimes that smile doesn’t linger and stay.

Some weeks it is harder to than others, sometimes the pan feels like it is only full of gravel and sand. There are weeks when its hard to keep going, searching through the detritus of this crazy, busy, frantic stage of life. Times when having time to catch you breathe seems impossible let alone stopping to look… but then you catch a glimpse, even in the darkest of darkness a small shard of gold can shine out and lift your spirits.  Even if it is just one piece.

Can you find the gold in your day…?

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back in the game and at THE Games for this weeks #satcap.

olympic games, diving 3m springboard, chris mears

Chris mears features in this weeks saturday caption

So this week, rather appropriately I have thrown in a shot from our visit to the incredible Olympic park and the session we saw which was the 3m springboard men’s semi-final. This diver is the Brit Chris Mears and he went on to qualify for the final. I don’t know what is more captionable here…the diver on the board or what the others in the shot are up to? #whattheheckisthatguydoingintohistowel

see what you think. Its back to work for me tonight…so sleepy response in the morning.

As always you can surf on to Mammasaurus who hosts the satcap by clicking the wee box.

 

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