Now the games are over

A few thoughts now both the Olympics and Paralympic games have finished:

1. The 'doom and gloom merchants' have been proved wrong. The games were a success. The organisation was incredible. Seb Coe's and Philip Craven's speeches were spot on last night.

2. The Paralympics were nothing short of inspiring. David Weir was the stand-out athlete but other athletes were successful as well. Particular mention must go to Jonnie Peacock (new Paralympic record time for T44 100m; he's only 19). Josef Craig (world record in the S7 400m freestyle; he's only 15), Ellie Simmonds (reached 4 finals and won 4 medals including 2 golds).

3. Whilst the venues were great, accessibility and disabled issues were noted.

- None of the (five) venues that I went to had a standard hearing loop. They were selling radios but they are not compatible with hearing aids (unless you wish to hold them in position for the entire event). This is not really acceptable in venues which are new and surely a convention centre (Earl's Court) would have a loop system built in? I can forgive the two outside venues as it is more difficult but the three indoor venue have less excuse.

- Why was there no warning of the climbing required to access the Aquatic centre - To access the wings there was an awful lot of climbing involved. There was at least the equivalent of four storeys of steps to get up to the main doors and then a further even steeper staircase to get to some seats. This should be mentioned somewhere. There was climbing involved at other venues but nowhere near the same extent.

- Leg room was an issue , I'm over 6 foot tall and the only venue where I had enough leg room was the Aquatic centre. This was particularly noticeable at the North Greenwich Arena (aka O2 arena) where it was  a struggle to stand up as I couldn't put my legs close enough together to make standing easier. At least at other venues it was easier to stand.

4. Channel 4's coverage of the Paralympics was terrible especially when compared to the BBC's coverage of the Olympics.  The Opening Ceremony was particularly bad. You do not cut to an outside broadcast whilst the Parade of Athletes is going on (it's bad enough that we have commercial breaks), you do not insult other countries whether or not you agree with their government. Perhaps Channel 4 shouldn't have used news presenters as commentators. Channel 4 has a number of other Channels (can think of three off the top of my head) could not one of these have been dedicated to Paralympic coverage (like the BBC did with BBC Three for the duration of the Olympics). They did have other streams but this was not available to Freeview viewers.


We want to see action, not see one race and then spend the next 20 minutes dissecting it in the studio missing other races (Yes, this did happen).

The best C4 coverage by far was the closing ceremony. the commentary was minimal just enough to explain what was happening and even the commercial breaks were done at the righ time (mostly). Pity the rest of their coverage was very poor.

Despite my gripes I really enjoyed both games and it was a great triumph for LOCOG, the ODA and even the GLA.

Special mention must go to the volunteers, they made the games.

Olympic and Paralympic games

As I'm sure everybody knows London has been hosting the Olympic and Paralympic games this summer.

I've been to one Olympic event and two Paralympic events (so far, still two more to go). Venues vary but none (so far) have had a hearing loop. Very poor show especially for (in the main) newly built venues. What annoys me is not that they have none but that I specified when I applied for the tickets that I was deaf/hard-of-hearing.

I went to Olympic volleyball at Earl's Court Convention Centre, no complaints about the seat locations, happy with those , just very little leg room, however, not LOCOG's fault as it was an existing venue.

Went to the Olympic stadium on Saturday evening, definitely no complaints about the seat, front row of the top tier, perfect view, a little more leg room than Earl's Court.

Went to the Aquatics centre on Sunday evening, seats were OK, no issue with leg room as the tiers are so steep. However, what they don't tell you is that there's the equivalent of about five/six storeys of steps upwards just o get into the main venue and then another storey or so of very steep steps to get to our seats. However, as the wings are a temporary structure it's almost forgivable. 

I have further tickets for the Equestrian events and Wheelchair Basketball later this week. Never been to the Dome before so looking forward to it, just a little wary about the Equestrian events as

What I will say is that even with a hearing loss, the atmosphere in all the venues was incredible. LOCOG have done a very good job and all the doom and gloom merchants have been proved wrong.

Cricket

For a team that is supposedly the best Test side in the world we were dire against Pakistan in the three tests played in the UAE. Whitewashed in the Tests. However, we did get revenge in the ODI series and Twenty20 matches. Whitewashed them in the ODI series and won the Twenty20 series 2-1.

Unfortunately, we're just too unpredicatable in Test Cricket, we only retained our number 1 ranking because a test in New Zealand (v. South Africa) was rained off meaning that South Africa couldn't overtake us in the rankings.

Let's hope we can win the two tests in Sri Lanka this month. Although if the umpiring is like that from the warm-up match last Thursday we have obstacles to overcome.

Apologies and recent events

Was away on camp with JLGB in the past week. It was mentioned that I hadn't posted recently so I'm going to attempt to post more often.

On camp the theme was "USA", this included occasionally singing the Star-Spangled Banner, having a minor official from the US embassy as a guest on the Open day and in the Officer's Mess reciting the Pledge of Allegiance on the first night.

Got back today about 3 p.m. and as per usual have not had enough sleep (four hours last night) and my feet are in pain.

My last post which was over two years ago mentioned both the England Cricket Team and the latest Harry Potter movie.

Well, England just won the third test of a series of four against India we have now won the series as we also won the first two tests, however, this series is not just another series. Since we have now won it, we are now the top Test team in the world. Alastair Cook was by far the outstanding player of the third test scoring 294 before being caught contributing to an England total of 710 for 7 before declaring.

Currently too knackered to think straight so may post again when I'm more awake.

Cricket (again!) and The new Harry Potter film

Firstly, the second test at Lord's - what a great performance, especially by Andrew "Freddie" Flintoff. Five wickets in his final Test at Lord's getting his name on the Honours board. Leading 1-0 after the second test is an achievement in itself, even though the Australian team were predicting a 5-0 whitewash (although they did the same in 2005). Comprehensive victory -'nuff said.

Saw Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince at the weekend, was actually pleasantly surprised, heard so much about the focus on romance that I was surprised to find it wasn't that prominent. Was also surprised at the "intermission" haven't had an interval at a cinema since I was little. Only scene I disliked was the wheat field and destruction of The Burrow, totally unnecessary especially as it's not in the book , could have been better spent using a scene actually in the book like Voldemort/Riddle's application to work as a teacher (featured twice in the book not even once in the film) or any other memory mentioned in the book but not used in the film.

Cricket

What a great display by the England Team yesterday. First test ever played in Wales and therefore at this venue (ECB is actually the England and Wales Cricket Board).

Loving Ponting's criticism his comment "They can play whatever way they want to play. We have come to play by the rules and the spirit of the game and it is up to them to do what they want to do." is rich coming from a man whose team regularly used sledging to put off opposing batsmen.

Tube strike

The tube strike currently in London is a complete joke.

Although I'm working from home today, yesterday I had to go in as I was presenting the finance figures to the Senior Management Team. I left home over two hours before I normally do. I then discovered the tube was running from my local station, although I couldn't take the final leg by tube, it still only took me 10 minutes longer then normal and consequently I was in work before 8 a.m. I am so thankful that I work flexitime.

A tube strike where over half the network is running is not "paralysing" London and obviously means that nearly all the ASLEF drivers are working (make up 40%) of all drivers and a number of RMT members are not striking.

The RMT's demands are frankly outrageous:

a. 5% pay rise
b. A reduction in hours without loss of pay
c. No compulsory redundancies
d. And reinstatement of a driver who flouted safety rules (allegedly a close friend of Bob Crow).

We are in the middle of a recession, inflation is in negative figures, a 5% pay rise is frankly unrealistic.

As for reinstating a driver who flouted safety rules, considering they've gone on strike over safety rules in the past, it is the height of hypocrisy.

Elections and the new Cabinet

Disaster for Labour, lost all the councils they held. I can't see it being that much better in the Euro elections.

However, what I really have a problem with is the fact that the Business Secretary (who's been given a "super-Department") and the Transport Secretary are both unelected officials. Surely all Cabinet Ministers (except obviously The Leader of the House of Lords) should be MPs not Peers. More to the point another two peers are being created (Lord Sugar and Baroness Kinnock). Surely Brown didn't have a problem finding MPs who are faithful to him to fill two of those positions - Transport Secretary and Europe Minister.

After these disastrous results and the refusal of Brown to admit any fault on his own part he is a "lame-duck" Prime Minister and the sooner he goes to the polls the better. He must know that in a General Election whether or not his is the Leader of the Party the Tories are going to win (probably by a Landslide).

Nick Clegg and MPs "parachute" payments

Any MP who loses or resigns their seat at the General election is entitled to a "resettlement Grant" of up to £64,000- tax-free!

If an MP loses their seat to a rival party - fair enough.
If they step down - no way! This is even more crucial if they are stepping down due to expenses revelations. Whilst I don't normally vote Lib Dem, Nick Clegg has it totally correct these MPs should leave Parliament with no pay-off.

Football

Overjoyed that Barcelona beat Manchester United. They've not managed to make history and were outplayed. So they've won two major trophies the League Cup and the League. Not counting Mickey Mouse cups like the Community Shield, Super Cup and the Club World Cup (Two matches does not constitute a tournament).