Friday 27th July

Well we are packed and ready to go, taxi ordered and final touches to the beginning of the blog, hope thsoe who read enjoy, please use the guest book to add comments as we would like to know if you are finding it interesting or ask any questiosn you may have and will try and answer.

Train leaves Cheltenham for Paddington at 12.30, we should get to London about 14.30. Then check into our apartment, get some basics in the off to Hyde Park to watch the Opening Ceremony on the big screens, acts playing are Paolo Nutini at 18.45, Duran Duran at 20.05, Stereophonics at 22.15 and Snow Patrol at 23.25.

We hope to see Sandra B there and we are meeting up with  Caroline who will be celebrating the BIG 40, so Happy Birthday to her.

Trudy have not udpated the Paralympic schedule fully have added it below for now, you are the little section in yellow, but we will meet up at the forst weekend as well.

Enjoy the Opening Ceremony and go Team GB

Day 0 – We depart Cheltenham and 12.31, and take our First
Class seats, very comfy and not a screechy brat in sight. Nice relaxing journey
as we take a cup of tea and nibbles.......free of charge. We arrive at
Paddington at 14.30. First challenge are the stairs to the tube to Bayswater,
perhaps we should be in the weightlifting as (well me in particular struggle to
lug our cases up and over to get to the right platform). One stop later and we
arrive at Bayswater, we then head round the corner to find our apartment (I
think a cab back is likely!!!!). All checked in and free wi fi for the 16 days
we then have another set of stairs to negotiate before we manage to get to our
home for the duration of the games. Well it is snug to say the least, but clean
and tidy and we manage to find a home for everything. Once settled we pop to
the local Tesco metro and Sainsbury`s to stock up on a few essentials.

Now it is time to contact the birthday girl Caroline and
Sandra and clan to meet up at Hyde Park for the Opening Ceremony and concert.
We take the 25 minute walk down to the park and join the queue to get in. Sadly
there and no lady beach volleyballer’s there to frisk us just the usual airport
style security. Pretty much you cannot bring anything in, except yourselves.   Didn’t take us long to get in then it’s the
job of trying to find people which Miss O decides to do prior to purchasing a
pint (think the priority was not quite as it should have been). We find
everyone quite quickly and I am shuffled past the huge Cadbury’s tent so as to
not be tempted, (will visit that next time, as we have gold circle tickets on
another day, not sure what they are but intrigue us enough to probably find
out). We now have a beverage in hand and we compliment Sandra on her easy to
find tango costume. Queues for the bar are amazingly long but the system is
amazing and you are served in a couple of minutes (apparently not the case at
Victoria Park, more on that tomorrow)

The first act is Paolo Nutini, nice to listen to and gets
the evening under way. Next up is Duran Duran and we all have to search our
memory banks for the words, great fun and gets the mood set for the opening
ceremony. As if by magic the Red Arrows appear and a huge roar from the crowd
goes up, they are an amazing site. After Duran Duran finish, the action moves
to the various large screens dotted about the park for the Opening Ceremony,
the whole audience is transfixed with everything that is going on, the array of
nations there is fabulous and for us Brits there is a real feel of being proud
to be British!!!! Highlights of the ceremony are Mr Bean, James Bond and the
Queen and the lighting of the cauldron. However, the whole extravaganza was
amazing to watch. In between the performance and the nations we had
Stereophonics and Snow Patrol and we all joined Paul McCartney with Hey Jude to
end with.

The park quickly emptied and the place looked like a waste
disposal site, the porta loo’s stood up well to the challenge of the evening
and we began the tired, but elated feeling trudge back to our apartment. Our
feet are killing us but sadly we have not packed an extra couple of pairs. Once
back and settled with a glass of lemonade (yes lemonade, you did read it
correctly) to chill and catching snippets on TV of the ceremony we crash about
2.30. Up early tomorrow to get down To Wimbledon to collect tickets (who could
foresee what a trauma that would be) and watch the first round of tennis.