Paralympics

Well done London on the success of the 2012 Olympics and Paralympics. When London landed the bid, I was not without a great deal of scepticism and doubt that they could pull it off. I am so happy to have been proved wrong. I'm not usually interested in the Olympics, but this summer I have been glued to it!

The Paralympic games were truly inspirational - true life stories of courage and triumph through adversity. Well done to China topping the medal table with 231 medals, Team GB with 120 and The Russian Federation with 102. Even Ireland shined, having their most successful Paralympics ever, placed 19th on the medal table with 16 medals, 8 of which were gold and Michael McKillop (Irish runner) was presented with the Whang Youn Dai Achievement Award, alongside Mary Nakhumicha Zakayo of Kenya.

The only disappointment for me was the closing ceremony. Why did it turn into Coldplay, live at the Olympic Stadium? With "special guests" Rihanna and Jay Z - why? It was dull, it was bland and it detracted from The Festival of Flame, that was supposedly the theme of the closing. It might have been more bearable if Coldplay had written music especially for the ceremony but shamelessly churning out their own hits and plugging their most recent album, did not sum up the spirit of the games. The marvellous British Paraorchestra should have been centre stage and the music for the Festival of Flame should have been composed for them to play. Channel 4's sloppy presentation of the Ceremony centred  on the uncharismatic Chris Martin so much, that all the elements of the theme appeared as incidental lighting to the poorest live (although noticeably lacking in animation) show, I have ever witnessed on TV. I don't know who cobbled together this effort, that should have focussed more on the dancers and acrobats, but I'm sad to say, that it didn't work for me! London bowed out with a whimper!

Rant over!

I completed a new Morning Tale this morning - I will re-write it and post it here in the next day or so.