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60th Birthday Party

60th Birthday

So, the Big 60 arrives at last! It was difficult working out what to do to mark the occasion, but in the end I opted for a relatively quiet family get together.  Fortunately the date coincided with Jonathan's last day in the UK before heading back to California, so we were able to have the whole family together (minus Mum unfortunately, as we didn't think she could cope with the late hour).
The afternoon kicked off with a visit to the theater, arranged by Jessica,  to see a spiffing performance of Chariots of Fire, which reignited the Olympic fever of 2012.
Then on (via a slightly tortuous route) to the Bull's Head by the river, for pre-dinner drinks, followed by dinner itself in Annie's.  The staff at Annie's were very welcoming, and I think everyone enjoyed the menu that I had chosen.  At then end of the meal I was treated to a birthday surprise when a birthday cake in the shape of a guitar was carried in.  Apparently Adam had trekked half way across London to collect this cake and bring it to the restaurant!   Thanks to Jessica and Adam for making it a very special day.
In choosing birthday presents,  friends and family had followed my suggestion that I would prefer experiences rather than material things.  Consequently, I received many inspired gifts for events and outings over the coming months, which I will try to review in future blog posts.

Suzi and Ben Wedding

Olympic Victors Parade

From Olympic Victors Parade

As Games Makers, we were invited to enter a draw to be one of the lucky 10,000 invited to watch the Olympic Victors Parade from a specially allocated vantage point on the Mall.  Unusually for me, my name came up, as did five of my ten fellow Gamesmakers from my Eton Dorney team.  So we arranged to meet up for a pre-parade drink at St James Park, before heading off to our allocated viewing area on the Mall. I was not quite sure what to expect but found the we were in standing area right next to the parade endpoint at the Victoria Monument.  Luckily there were plenty of giant video screens around so that we could see the parade as it progressed towards us from its start at Monument.
It was good to see the athletes again for one final time slowing off their hoard of medals, and gratifying that so many of them took the trouble to scrawl a thank you message on their whiteboards  to the purple crowd as they drove past.
The entertainment at the end was a bit naff, and predictably Boris and Cameron both tried to jump on the Olympic goodwill bandwagon in their respective speeches.  Still, a fun day out and a fitting end to a great summer of sport.

Paralympics

From Paralympics

Having failed, after many attempts, to get tickets for any Olympic event, we decided to apply for Paralympic tickets, so that we would at least have the chance to experience some of the Olympic venues at first hand.  I applied many months ago, well before the last minute rush in August, so had plenty of events to choose from.  In the end  I went for wheelchair basket ball and athletics, which I hoped would offer some exciting action.

Both events were on the final Saturday of the games, starting with the basketball at the Greenwich Arena. Alison had been working as a Games Maker at the wheelchair basketball event all the previous week, so I was hoping that she would have become expert enough to explain the intricate rules of the game to me.  This only worked to a limited extent as it turns out that the rules for this sport are so complex that even so-called experts only have a rough idea of how it works. Nevertheless  it was fun enough to watch even with my limited understanding.

From Paralympics

In the evening we headed over to the Olympic Park to the athletics stadium  after first having a walk around the park to see some of the other venues, including the iconic velodrome, and to take in the overall ambience of the site.  Then it was time to go into the stadium itself, and thankfully on this occasion we were much nearer to the track than  on our previous visit to watch the opening ceremony rehearsal.  We were then treated to a wonderful mix of track and field events, covering virtually all the disability categories.  For me, the highlights were the high jump, where a new world record was set, and the men's 400m, which was won by the Paralympic poster boy from South Africa - Oscar Pistorius - who was clearly a big hit with the crowd.  
The only slight disappointment of the evening was that there were no Team GB finalists in any of the events (except for the javelin, where our guy was disqualified), so it was harder to get quite so passionate about the outcome of each race than perhaps would have been the case for some of the events earlier in the week where Team GB had the chance of a medal.  Nevertheless, the mainly UK crowd still got behind the athletes of their adopted nations, and the roar was still deafening as they approached the line.  Certainly a great end to a magnificent 10 days of Paralympic sport.

London Mela

From London Mela

Carnival time comes to Hounslow and Ealing!  The London Mela is held annually in Gunnersbury Park, which is only a short walk from Brentford, so no excuses for not joining in on this festive occasion celebrating South Asian culture.  Particularly since the event director was Tim's brother Julian, who has been running this show since its inception ten years ago. Even better, he had arranged for us to be granted entry to the VIP tent, where we were treated to Nepalese food and beer courtesy of the Nepalese ambassador to the UK.
Entertainment include a Bollywood dancing lesson, a spirited performance by the Chinese Red Poppies drum troupe, followed by the Mela carnival procession.


The finale of the evening was a performance by the Philharmonia Orchestra of an Indian composition by Holst, and another piece written by Ravi Shankar.
To wrap things up, we had an electrifying (literally) performance by the Lords of Lightning. Difficult to describe, but hopefully the video gives some idea.