Tennis – Well Eye Never

Merci Paris Part 2 – Paralympics Review

Following on from my review of the Olympics earlier this summer, we’ve just had even more spectacular sporting action with the Paralympics in Paris, which I’ve been absolutely obsessed with over the past fortnight.

ParalympicsGB did extremely well as per usual, scooping up 49 golds amongst their 124 medals, and it’s their many achievements I’ll be focusing on in this post of course. But it was great to watch elite athletes from all nations – of which there were 4,400 competitors from 168 delegations in total – as they shared their fascinating stories and showcased their incredible skills in 22 sports, featuring hundreds of events across a myriad of disability categories.

There were huge audiences supporting them with enormous enthusiasm as well, which was wonderful to see. They generated such an electric atmosphere, in stark contrast to the lack of crowds in Tokyo’s Covid-hit Games, so these have really felt like the first proper Paralympics in 8 years.

And it’s also great that the Games were more widely broadcast around the world than ever before, including on Channel 4. Indeed, the fact that there was barely any time difference with the UK made it possible for us Brits to watch everything live on TV and online, and to have full roundups at the end of each day with the highlights programmes and The Last Leg. So it almost felt like a home Games again, the closest we’ve had since London 2012.

All of which meant there was a lot going on all day every day, which was daunting yet exciting to try and keep up with. So in this extensive review post – which isn’t sponsored by anyone and all opinions are my own – I’ll go through all of Britain’s medal winners along with some of my other highlights, and I’ve also made a Youtube playlist to go with it as well. I hope you enjoy!

Merci Paris Part 1 – Olympics Review

What a glorious summer of sport this is proving to be. I don’t usually watch or write about a lot of sport, but the Olympics and Paralympics are one of those things I make an exception for, because they’re such massive and special events that I get sucked into very easily.

After the very quiet and stripped back events that had to be held in Tokyo in 2021, the first post-pandemic Olympics in Paris brought back the traditional atmosphere of excitement and drama that everyone loves about the Games, as we watched lots of incredible feats of speed, strength, coordination and agility in a wide variety of sports. It made such an enormous difference having the crowds back again to cheer on the athletes, for whom there was gender parity for the first time, with 5,250 men and 5,250 women competing. It’s not yet equal for the Paralympians though, so there’s still work to do there, and I’ll also be posting a review of those Games next month of course.

Once again Team GB have done very well, with a similar number of total medals to the last few Games. Not as many golds, sure, but some of the silver results have been very close indeed. The competition has certainly been stronger this year, and indeed there have been some notable stars from other nations who caught my attention as well.

So here I’m going to review a lot of my favourite highlights from the last couple of weeks, mainly related to the British team but with a few other people mixed in. I’m not affiliated with anyone involved, it’s just nice to relive the memories, and I hope you enjoy looking through it all too!

London 2012 Revisited – Paralympics Highlights

Soon after the sensational Olympics in 2012, which I’ve recently posted about extensively to mark the 10th anniversary, we then got to enjoy another couple of weeks of multi-sporting excellence courtesy of the Paralympics. Having disabled people take centre stage in these Games, for the whole world to see their stunning achievements, is always incredibly important and thrilling to watch. The Opening Ceremony took place exactly 10 years ago today as I’m publishing this, on 29 August 2012.

The Paralympics cannot change all of society’s attitudes and behaviours overnight of course, nor does it claim to do so. It clearly doesn’t represent every disabled person or impairment, nor the myriad of different ways we each go about our lives. These are exceptional athletes who have pushed themselves to their absolute limits, so their lives are very different to the rest of us in many ways. But even so, they are still people with conditions and experiences that many of us can relate to, and their exposure on a global stage undeniably helps to raise awareness, challenge misconceptions, and encourage greater acceptance and inclusion, in an engaging and entertaining way. It isn’t a quick fix for equality and inclusivity, and it’s totally understandable that some disabled people take issue with the way it’s promoted – there is a lot of work to be done beyond the Paralympic bubble for sure. But it is a very prominent springboard in the right direction, and I for one love watching it.

The London 2012 Paralympics were the biggest Games to date, and they certainly made their mark, by successfully extending and surfing on the tidal wave of intense enthusiasm that had been generated by the Olympics. They sold record numbers of tickets and attracted a huge TV audience, as people flocked to watch and support the biggest number of disabled competitors to date, many of whom were or became lasting household names.

So in this post I’m going to look back at some of my favourite moments of the 2012 Paralympics, with the aid of Channel 4’s Blu-ray set of the Games. There isn’t as much to talk about as there was for the Olympics, so I can go through it in just one post this time, but there are still lots of great highlights worth mentioning along the way. And I’ve also created a Paralympics playlist on Youtube with plenty of clips too. So I hope you enjoy!

London 2012 Revisited – Olympics Highlights – Days 9-16

Welcome to the next part of my trip down memory lane to the London 2012 Olympics, following on from my detailed reviews of the Opening Ceremony and Days 1-8 of competition.

This time I’ll be looking at the second half of the Games, as I continue going through the highlights on the BBC’s Blu-ray box set. As I explained last time, my main focus is inevitably on Team GB’s performances, but there are other stars who get a mention here as well, including Usain Bolt for starters.

I’ve also created an Olympics playlist on Youtube with lots of highlights, often from the official Olympics Youtube channel with their American commentators, along with interview footage and other related videos. There was certainly plenty going on, and I hope you enjoy this latest instalment of sporting memories!

September 2021 Favourites

Hello again, I hope you’re all continuing to enjoy yourselves safely. I’m happy to say that I’ve managed to get out to meet some friends and explore the city again at long last, as my aches and pains are continuing to ease off, now that I’ve figured out how I was over-correcting my posture problems. I’m still not cancelling my November NHS physio appointment yet, as I don’t want to tempt fate, but I’m feeling much better at the moment. So I seem to be moving in the right direction, touch wood!

That means I actually have some recent and upcoming London adventures to tell you about in this month’s post and video, as well as the usual mixture of entertainment I’ve been into. So it’s a bumper update this time. With the exception of a theatre show I’ll be mentioning, for which I’ve been kindly given a review ticket, nothing else in this post is sponsored or gifted. So I hope you enjoy!

Journal – July 2011

Welcome to another set of journal entries. This month I spent a lot of time sorting out all the stuff in the loft, bought some more DVDs and had some work experience students at work, while the big news stories have included the final publication of the scandalous News Of The World, the terror attacks in Norway, and the death of Amy Winehouse. I’ve also received some more jokes (not always clean!) from a couple of friends during the month, so I’ve included those for variety as well. I hope you enjoy!

Journal – June-July 2010

Things have calmed down a lot recently after the packed month of May, so these latest journal entries are a bit more spread out again. Still with a fair amount to mention overall though, as I’ve been out socialising with my friends on a couple of occasions, seeing a rather unusual cricket match on one visit, and I’ve watched some of the World Cup too, among other things. So I hope you enjoy!

Journal – June-July 2007

Following the excitement of my Spanish holiday, it’s back to regular life again for this next set of journal entries. I’ve combined 2 months together here, as I didn’t write a huge amount for either of them. But in amongst it all I did go out for a little social with my colleagues, bought some more DVDs, enjoyed the latest Doctor Who series finale, and I’ve talked about various news stories that have caught my eye. So I hope you enjoy!

Journal – June 2004

Here’s another selection of posts from my journal, with my last month of exams for my Accounting & Finance course at university. Euro 2004 has also been getting everyone excited, and I’ve found another top 100 list that I wanted to share. So I hope you enjoy going through this latest set of entries!

Journal – July-August 2002

Here’s another selection of posts from my journal. I’ve combined 2 months in one post here as they’ve been relatively uneventful during my summer holiday from university. There are still a few points of interest though, including a house invader, a fun charity event, a surprise from my university, my birthday, a bit more sport that caught my attention, and some more music and DVDs that I bought. So I hope you enjoy!

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