>PARALYMPIC CLOSING CEREMONY

Olympic Stadium, Stratford, London
9 September 2012

The Paralympic Games Closing Ceremony - an eclectic evening of music and magic as the most wonderful summer comes to an end! We grab our tickets and go along to Stratford to join in the party!

We had an amazing time in the Olympic Stadium, the atmosphere was electric and the crowd was loving it! We also had a very nice surprise waiting for us when we came to having our £50 tickets checked on entry - a platform had been built and was going to obstruct our view - so!... we had our tickets upgraded! We went to the booth and got handed our new tickets... We went from row 72 to row 9, right down by the athletes... a snip at £350 each!!!! What an incredible bit of luck... we had a perfect view of all the action and enjoyed one of the best nights of our lives!

Called 'Festival of the Flame', the Closing Ceremony of the London 2012 Paralympic Games celebrated the energy of festivals and the changing of the seasons. Coldplay lead the evening's celebrations with a live concert and were joined by Rihanna and Jay-Z. The band worked closely with Artistic Director Kim Gavin and co-designer and Paralympic Games Closing Ceremony designer Misty Buckley to play a set of their most iconic music alongside a cast of almost 2,000. The Ceremony celebrated the achievements of the 4,200 athletes at the Paralympic Games, and included a very high-energy handover to Rio 2016 and the extinguishing of the Paralympic Flame, signalling the end of the Games and the end of a brilliant summer!

Dave and Alex get ready to party

 

Just 9 rows from front!

The Mutoid waste company ride in to the Stadium

The Festival of Fire begins...

Rhianna joins Coldplay

Alex can't keep his hands off the pixels!

Ellie Simmonds and Jonnie Peacock 

light their torches from the Paralympic Flame

Carlinhos Brown helps Rio get ready for 2016

The Sky lights up over Stratford

Alex captures the action

Alex thanks a Games-Maker - it's all over!

GAMES OVER - BACK TO WORK graffiti spotted close to the

O2 - North Greenwich by FAIL BETTER

10 out of 10!

>COCA-COLA LNDN 2012 LIMITED EDITION

Exclusive outlets, London
Summer 2012

Coca-Cola - helped to keep London cool during the summer of sporting action. The iconic bottles went aluminium and you had to hunt hard to find them!

We all love a collectible - and these Olympic themed fizzy gems really got London 2012 excited! Coca-cola knows how to get the crowd going and these hyper bright bottles have been exchanging hands for £££'s amongst the eBay generation!  

Several different bottles were released during the summer and you had to be in the right place at the right time to get hold of the really limited releases. The Torch Relay had it's own selection as did the uber cool Beatbox in the Olympic park - the VERY limited Gold bottles got released in two minute bursts every time one of team GB got awarded a gold medal. The 3 boxed editions hit the stores throughout London late July and additional Gold bottles adorned the exclusive shelves of Selfridges.

Coca-cola has been releasing limited edition bottles for many years now. The wonderful aluminium bottles have only recently started to ruffle the feathers f the collectors. You can read more here

The limited edition London 2012 boxed aluminium bottles

Each bottle had a theme - swimming, track and athletics

The Beatbox designed by Asif Khan and Pernilla Ohrstedt

10 out of 10!

>PARALYMPIC - ATHLETICS

Olympic Stadium, Olympic Park, London
4 Sept 2012

The Paralympics - athletics in the stadium has been the hot ticket all summer. We go along to cheer on the athletes and soak up the amazing atmosphere... a truly unforgettable evening in Stratford!

It seems only moments since we last enjoyed the euphoric atmosphere of the Olympic park... we can't stay away! This time we head to the main Stadium to watch the athletics. We enjoyed many events including Javelin, discus, long jump and a hand full of track events. These athletes are so inspiring, their energy, determination and skill are next to none.

The high point of the evening had to be witnessing David Weir winning the men's 1500m race. The crowd was on it's feet and Dave and I have never shouted so much... we could hardly talk the next morning, what an experience. Amazing!

David Weir Team GB (pictured above) 

Our view of the 1500m race starting line up

Dave in the Stadium, you can see the flame far right

Alex could not wait to get his hands on the pixel generator!

10 out of 10!

>PARALYMPIC - SWIMMING

Aquatics Centre, Olympic Park, London
2 Sept 2012

The Paralympics - the thrills and spills, the cheers and the tears... these Paralympic swimmers are next to none - they are super humans!

What an honour to witness these dedicated athletes competing for gold. We had a brilliant few hours at the Aquatics Centre enjoying the competition. The atmosphere was electric, the cheering and support was out of this world.

Jessica-Jane Applegate (pictured above), swam a perfectly controlled race to claim ParalympicsGB's third gold medal in the pool with victory in the S14 200 metres freestyle. What a brilliant race - I have never shouted so loud!

We also managed to get some tickets for the 9:00pm slot to visit the top of the Orbit Tower. The view from the top was amazing and you could look down directly into the Olympic Stadium... what an experience! - pictures below.

Our view was rather good in the Aquatics Centre

The Olympic Stadium from the top of the Orbit Tower

The Orbit Tower is spectacular - pic from the ground looking up

10 out of 10!