Saturday, September 06, 2008
6th Sept. Lots more rain, but not in Beijing.
Is it raining all over the world?
Floods in the UK and lots and lots of rain. Floods in Thailand. And the tennis in the US open had to be called to a halt as torrential rain fell, just as our Andy Murray seemed to be in with a good chance of beating Nadal and making his first Grand Slam final.
But there was no rain in Beijing for the opening of the Paralympics.
What a joyous, beautiful and happy show that was.
Disability was embraced - as it should have been for such an event.
Countries of the communist world have come a long way in dealing with the disabled. In 1980 Russia refused to stage the paralympics - "What disabled? We don't have disabled people here!"
The ballet to the music of Ravel's Bolero would always have been sublime. It was so different - the performers wore ballet shoes on their hands and their arms clothed in white tights were used as legs.
But the 12 year old ballet dancer in pink at the centre was so beautiful. Her upper body was that of a trained ballet dancer, which is what she was/is. Her lower body was in a wheel chair, having lost a leg in the earthquake in May. She left the wheel chair only to be lifted by the male ballet dancer.
Floods in the UK and lots and lots of rain. Floods in Thailand. And the tennis in the US open had to be called to a halt as torrential rain fell, just as our Andy Murray seemed to be in with a good chance of beating Nadal and making his first Grand Slam final.
But there was no rain in Beijing for the opening of the Paralympics.
What a joyous, beautiful and happy show that was.
Disability was embraced - as it should have been for such an event.
Countries of the communist world have come a long way in dealing with the disabled. In 1980 Russia refused to stage the paralympics - "What disabled? We don't have disabled people here!"
The ballet to the music of Ravel's Bolero would always have been sublime. It was so different - the performers wore ballet shoes on their hands and their arms clothed in white tights were used as legs.
But the 12 year old ballet dancer in pink at the centre was so beautiful. Her upper body was that of a trained ballet dancer, which is what she was/is. Her lower body was in a wheel chair, having lost a leg in the earthquake in May. She left the wheel chair only to be lifted by the male ballet dancer.
And it was a wheel chair athlete who lit the Olympic flame. He sat strapped to his chair and hoisted himself inch by inch up to the point where the torch could reach the cauldron at the roof of the stadium.
Oh and did you see that amazing performance of white arms sticking up through a sort of stylised sea - all being used to represent beautiful birds? Stunning!
We all have some form of disability - less than those competing in China, but no disability removes one's human spirit; or it needn't do.
When I say we all have a form of disability I mean simple things like no matter how hard I try I really cannot draw well.
Some people just cannot sing - as contestants in X Factor have just been demonstrating to us.
Old age brings all sorts of disabilities.
We have to accept our strengths and our weaknesses and get on with life as best we can, trying to achieve at least some of our goals.
The only time we ventured out today was to the post office with a parcel. I am waiting for just one payment at the moment and I have been waiting too long. The customer has had a reminder about his cheque that he promised.
I described another 9 items today and listed them.
I must now wait a week before I list any more. When one goes away we have to make sure that people are not going to need anything when we are not at home.
And we are off to Wales for a long weekend in a couple of weeks.
This evening I have sorted out the timekeepers' duties for a meeting tomorrow.
I am the chief timekeeper. I have 12 people to form into a team and to make sure all the duties are covered.
The one thing I wish was covered is the seating for the timekeepers. We could all be wet and working with soggy bits of paper.
This will be our last track meeting of the season.
If it happened to be dry then we would go to Dorking in the morning for the car boot sale. I am cautiously optimistic as Gordon Brown said of the UK economy!
Goodnight.
Oh and did you see that amazing performance of white arms sticking up through a sort of stylised sea - all being used to represent beautiful birds? Stunning!
We all have some form of disability - less than those competing in China, but no disability removes one's human spirit; or it needn't do.
When I say we all have a form of disability I mean simple things like no matter how hard I try I really cannot draw well.
Some people just cannot sing - as contestants in X Factor have just been demonstrating to us.
Old age brings all sorts of disabilities.
We have to accept our strengths and our weaknesses and get on with life as best we can, trying to achieve at least some of our goals.
The only time we ventured out today was to the post office with a parcel. I am waiting for just one payment at the moment and I have been waiting too long. The customer has had a reminder about his cheque that he promised.
I described another 9 items today and listed them.
I must now wait a week before I list any more. When one goes away we have to make sure that people are not going to need anything when we are not at home.
And we are off to Wales for a long weekend in a couple of weeks.
This evening I have sorted out the timekeepers' duties for a meeting tomorrow.
I am the chief timekeeper. I have 12 people to form into a team and to make sure all the duties are covered.
The one thing I wish was covered is the seating for the timekeepers. We could all be wet and working with soggy bits of paper.
This will be our last track meeting of the season.
If it happened to be dry then we would go to Dorking in the morning for the car boot sale. I am cautiously optimistic as Gordon Brown said of the UK economy!
Goodnight.
