So, much time has passed since I last posted. My Brother and his wife have moved to New Zealand, I haven't bought any new darts, my oche has been buried under piles of stuff, my Micra has been replaced by a Mondeo (with towbar Yay!), and to top it all off a couple of weeks ago I crocked my knee while pulling my boat out of the water.
Much poking by the doctor revealed no apparent damage to the internals, so some form of muscular tweak. It has certainly improved and isn't far from being back to full strength, still taking it a bit careful to avoid further damage.
Also of note recently were the Olympics. Many things have been written, some good, some bad. I personally love the Olympics, if I went through life seeing nothing but Olympics I could be perfectly content. Highlights for me were in the sports I have been involved in myself, cycling and sailing. Medals everywhere! Chris Hoy and Vicki Pendleton were both awesome in the Mens and Womens sprint events, to have kept focused and to have upped their performances from the Worlds while everyone else languished behind was exceptional. On the water my highlights were Ben Ainslies Finn gold medal, another peerless performance while all around were losing there heads in the earlier windless races, followed by a dominant performance in the delayed Medal race. Kudos to Zach Railey, nobody really tipped him before the games, but he sailed a calm, consistent and intelligent series to secure the silver medal. Another highlight was the performance of Percy and Simpson in the Star, two ex Finn sailors who kept there heads in the medal race to win Gold when it was far from a foregone conclusion.
But all told it was an amazing event, as ever. Roll on Vancouver 2010.
But wait I hear you say, have you not forgotten something.
Indeed. The Paralympics are on. Unfrotunately with the much reduced coverage on the BBC I haven't been able to see very much of it at all, but what I have seen has been inspiring as ever. Maybe if less money was spent sending enough pundits and commentators and presenters and summarisers and teaboys and so forth to outnumber the athletes, they could have afforded to give us the comprehensive coverage the Paralympics deserves.
After the debacle of the Womens wheelchair 5000m when there was a large crash on the penultimate lap and an official decided to wander across the track as the remaining athletes comitted to the final sprint and nearly got flattened leading to the returning of the medals and a rerun, and then the issues with the lane orders in the Mens 800m race resulting in protests and withdrawals of protests which nearly resulted in a rerun, I feel the athletes deserve better too. I'm sure the Paralympisc is a serious logistical operation, but I feel it unlikely that there would be two different lane order documents for any events in the Olympics, and even more unlikely that a rerun would be ordered AFTER the medal ceremony.
These athletes at the end of a four year cycle of training and qualification deserve better, and hopefully over the next four years and beyond these issues will become a thing of the past, just another growing pain along the road...
