Back in Blighty!

Fantastic day. Slow-ish start for three of us who didn't have work / school. Actually slowish for the 4th one too who had to spend almost half an hour dealing with his holiday facial hair before putting on a proper pair of shoes and becoming a respectable working man. Though apparently he managed to keep the holiday vibe going so well at work someone said he was holding his coffee cup like a beer glass!

Meanwhile our slow start to the day had a forced speeding up as the Sainsburys delivery I had ordered for first thing got delayed by an accident and with not a scrap in the house we had to get dressed to leave the house in search of breakfast. A few hours of unpacking, washing and eventually putting away the enormous shop when it arrived. Also lots of catching up on the Paralympics before we left for our own evening at the Olympic Park. We arrived early and were able to meet with friends who had been there all day. Had a fun and interesting time at the Ottobock centre which showed lots of the history of the Paralympics and some of the technology and equipment involved. And gave the kids the chance to take on an obstacle course in a wheelchair.

This was dinner before leaving our friends to head into the Olympic Stadium for an evening of athletics. Many different events - 100m finals, 1500m finals, 5000m final, discuss, long jump. Every event had something amazing about it and it was great to experience the roar of a GB gold. Though the real highlight for me was the men's single amputee high jump. The World Record is 1.96m and tonight they went to 1.74m. People with one leg can jump over me. It was all quite emotional and certainly inspiring. We all had a fantastic time and I hope the kids will remember it.

I have done nothing to contribute towards the putting on of either the Olympics or the Paralympics and I am only an adopted Londoner and yet I feel a quite unnatural amount of pride at how well everything has gone and what a great job 'we' have done. I do wish they would let us have it again.

Lesley x