Tuesday 11 September 2012

Another Amazing Day!



Today we watched the last of the Olympics & Paralympics in London & what a fantastic day it was. A day of joy & celebration thanking the Team GB athletes, the final day of the fantastic summer of sport in 2012. Yes the weather stayed fine yet again!

We thoroughly enjoyed the BBC coverage of the Olympics & were disappointed when we realised we’d be in Orlando for the Paralympics. We were even more disappointed when we couldn’t find any coverage of the Paralympics on TV in the hotel we were staying in. There were more than 100 channels but couldn’t find any with the Paralympics coverage. They didn’t have the BBC World Service which we were very surprised about and the Paralympics didn’t even seem to get a mention on the CNN or Fox News the nights we watched. Maybe it was being covered on a station we didn't have. 

We had hoped we’d be able to enjoy the last couple of days at home but found it was being covered by Channel 4 complete with adverts. Total rubbish! The BBC gets a lot of flack but my goodness they excelled themselves this summer.

Today I thoroughly enjoyed watching the BBC coverage of the Mayor of London’s Olympic & Paralympic Parade. It was wonderful to see all those athlete’s being honoured on the parade but what was lovely was all the thank you notices the athletes were holding up to thank everyone for supporting them.

The Games Makers, police and armed forces were thanked too. They had the best places in the Mall & around the Palace for the concert.

Here’s a selection of the photographs I took (from the telly, I wasn't there sadly):


Jessica Ennis - The Poster Girl for London 2012


One of the most successful things about London 2012 was The Volunteers or Games Makers as they were known, all 70,000 of them. Many had only volunteered for the Olympics but decided to stay on to work at the Paralympics.



Probably the most famous of the Games Makers, Eddie Izzard


The amazing sailor Ben Ainslie

The parade had been organised to pay tribute to the athletes and to thank them yet nearly all of the teams were carrying thank you messages to the public. 


There was hardly a square inch of space along the route to the Place. Health & safety regulations were flouted as people hung out of windows over roof tops & climbed lamp posts. It was the biggest crowd the capital has seen apparently. Bigger than the Diamond Jubilee & the Royal Wedding.



Trafalgar Square



The lovely Tom Daley


Sarah Storey Paralympic cyclist winner of 4 gold medals


Ellie Symmonds Gold Medal winning Paralympic swimmer 



I loved these lions leading the parade, rather like Chinese dragons




Kathryn Jenkins singing the national anthem

Now she has an amazing voice so why didn't she sing at the Olympic ceremonies?

Now who was missing from the parade?

Well Andy Murray tennis gold medal winner, he's playing in the finals of the US Open & the score is currently 2 sets to 1 in his favour. Not sure I can stay awake much longer to see the result. Best of luck to him.

Oh yes Wiggo wasn't there either. Bradley Wiggins the only cyclist to have won the Tour de France & an Olympic Cycling gold medal in the same year. He's doing the Tour of Britain at the moment. No rest for the wicked! That'll have to wait Wiggo.


Heck watching telly will never be the same again!

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