Equestrian, Sitting Volleyball, Athletics & Goalball, plus Tennis: 1-2, 8 September

I am sorry for the delay in posting this, I have been busy being a complete Paralympics freak. On 1-2 September Mr and I dragged Jr and friend Gavin (he of Olympics fame) back and forth to various venues: Greenwich Park for equestrian, ExCel for sitting volleyball, and to the Olympic Park for athletics and goalball.

We saw three medals - Natasha Baker's gold in dressage, then a gold for Aled Davies in discus and the silver for Stef Reid in the long jump. Also watched strong contender Bosnian Herzegovina's match in sitting volleyball, beating Brazil. Apparently Iran is the team to beat in men's volleyball. The US at least won out over Slovenia for the women's match.

The athletics stadium on Sunday was excellent. Loads of photos of us with the torch and so forth. Jr was less than impressed with it all although the wheelchair racing interested him. They had to shoo us out of the stadium.

I liked goalball myself, which we popped into afterwards. Algeria beat Canada. Algerian supporters ran to the edge of the stand to high five the team afterwards, but of course they missed him. The coach got them to come back and high five the guys. Pretty funny! I can see myself playing goalball as I am pretty blind myself.

The next Saturday was tennis. We had an excellent time and Mr got photos and autographs with Jr of the tennis gold medallists. I will try and download some. It was also a lovely day out, sunny and warm. We sat at the very top of the stands and ate lunch while watching some amazingly adept tennis on wheels. The women's doubles were particularly impressive.

We then walked back through the Olympic park with all the twinkling lights, high fiving the gamesmakers as we left Eton Manor.

But now it's all over. Sob.

Marks out of 10:  Like Spinal Tap, it goes up to 11. Thought the Olympics were excellent, and the Paralympics were just as good.

Low Anthem, Bush Hall - 29 August

Righty, it's back to gigs until we go to the Paralympics this weekend and next. Just for the record, I think NBC in the US not showing much coverage is a disgrace but then again I am now spoiled by TV with little or no advertising so don't ask me. Only that the Times had a photo of an American paralympian on its front page this morning. Shame the Americans can't get to see the action live.

Ok, the gig the other night at Bush Hall. We went to the concert instead of staying in and watching the opening ceremony, but still caught the end, which seemed to be a decent bit. Unfortunately, I think I have opening and closing ceremony burnout. Found it a little odd with Ian McKellan waving his arms around. Though I did get a little teary when the guy came flying down with the torch.

The Low Anthem was the top act, Maia the Band, the opening act. We caught one song the opener played, which seemed reasonably foot tapping. I like Bush Hall. It is a lovely venue and they don't really screw you over the price of a beer. £3.80 is a fairly reasonable price for a beer at a concert.

Unfortunately, I just wasn't crazy about the band. The lead singer (Mat Davidson?) came on wearing a wifebeater and sang like Bob Dylan (see above). Not bad. But the songs didn't grab me. I also find it strange when he had to basically explain the premise of the song before they sang it. I thought, isn't that what the song is for?

The female singer Jocie Adams had a decent voice and seemed to spend most of the time staring intently at Mat (except in the photo, of course). I also thought that she'd be a better lead singer than him. Mr said I was just being a crab.

The one time I did toe tap a bit was when they covered a song by Joni Mitchell. Shortly after that, I went and stood at the back of the hall because it was hot. Then Mr joined me and we went upstairs to the terrace for another beer.  Had a peek out at the concert again, they were doing some kind of whirling thing with this butterfly contraption they had over the stage. Strobe light effect. It seemed to add nothing.

We left before the end, which is tres unusual for us.

Marks out of 10: a Low 4. Like watching your friend's band, but they're not that great. Lucky for us we didn't have to hang around afterwards and say, yeah, that bit with the butterflies was cool. 

More Olympic Wrestling and Basketball - 10 August

By now the Olympics are over and we are all just sitting around in the heat, occasionally hugging our Wenlocks and cruising the ticket website for more Paralympics tickets. Watching Olympic highlights on tv. Wasn't it all just great? Oh look, the opening ceremony is on again. I think the BBC could start up a whole channel devoted to the Olympics and we would all watch it. Sigh.

I got a few sets for the Paralympic last year. I am firmly of the opinion that watching people compete when they can see or have all their limbs is amazing, anybody doing it with less is miraculous. Plus, I wanted to get to see the Greenwich Park setup from the inside. So, we are taking Junior to the Paralympics. The tickets were also ridiculously cheap compared to the Olympics.

I am completely psyched for the equestrian and the wheelchair tennis. Plus we've got day passes to the Olympic Park itself, but I am not sure if we'll be able to get to see anything then. Will report on that here later.

We spent our last Olympic day on Friday at freestyle wrestling and basketball. In basketball, we saw the 2012 version of the Dream Team in action against Argentina. Even though we were up in the gods at the North Greenwich Arena, our view was excellent. They had a kiss cam like the one that caught POTUS and FLOTUS out recently, as well as a bongo-cam. However, that all happened far below us.

It was all very American, tho. I had my little flag. Mr had his foam hand that seemed to be the envy of all. I was particularly impressed with the troop that came on of double-dutch jump ropers, who did amazing things with their ropes, during one of the last breaks in play. I don't mind basketball much. It seems to move pretty quickly. The US won.

The freestyle wrestling was a bit chaotic because they were running three matches at once on the mats. Made it kind of hard to follow. The Georgians and Iranians were out in force as it seems to be big there.

Transport to and from these venues was easy, athough the cable cars were pretty packed. The queues moved fast. The shuttle buses moved us from the train station to North Greenwich. I miss the shuttle buses.

Oh well. It all seems so long ago. Roll on 29 August. I can figure what to do with my life after the Paralympics are over, ha ha.