(addon – I’ve spotted all the hits come in looking for info on Martin Wolfram – I don’t know much, just what I saw on the telly. Will keep looking and add a link if I find anything. Hope he’ll be ok when that shoulder fixes !)
… Please turn off the torch.
That’s from one of the pen & paper role play gamers in a little group that’s been going for years (on hiatus at the moment – ill health).
This Olympics (and this will be the last Olympics post for a while – honest) has been pretty awesome. It’s had everything :
On at a good time, so you don’t have that “stay up longer or go bed at reasonable time ?” timezone competition thing. Beijing was ahead of the UK, so the time zone was quite hostile.
Information – the London2012 website has been outstanding for getting results, updates, scheduling and just generally getting information out there. With the diving, I was occasionally seeing results and updates come through before the commentators and crowd saw them. (That’s partly due to the delay on the feeds).
Coverage – this has been unrivalled. Huge number of channels with great camera work on them all. It heralds the digital age coming again. For Beijing, the multi channel streaming architecture wasn’t as mature and the hardware we have to show it nowhere near as ready. I didn’t but I suspect I could have watched some of the coverage on my phone, like I listen to internet radio on it.
I suspect the coverage may have plateaued there though. I’m not sure it can be taken that much further, apart from maybe Picture In Picture selections like what was promised with TV decades ago.
Stories – There’s been stories all the way. Good ones, Bad ones, Embarassing ones, Heartwarming ones, Inspiring ones.
Good ones – the way it’s all come together, with the conduct of the games being such that it’s allowed the athletes to come to the fore. One thing I can remember from Beijing are the stories about the smog, no such worries about London although the rain made things interesting at times.
Bad ones – the non-trying badminton players and the occasional bad referee. Yep. These stole the headlines but it was dealt with appropriately.
Embarassing ones – remember those Arabian signs ? Oops ! (Paul McCartney counts too)
Heartwarming ones – that clip of Victoria Pendleton showing the heart symbol will be shown for a very long time. As will those of our boys and girls being in tears on the medal podiums.
Inspiring ones – all of the athletes. All of ’em. But especially Martin Wolfram who injured his shoulder badly during the diving and then proceeded to complete the competition with a useless right arm. Did well too.
But – what’s next ?
Back to life, back to reality. I’ll be looking forward to the Paralympics in a couple of weeks, followed by the 2014 Winter Olympics in Russia. I’ll give sport watching a rest for a few days (cricket’s on but will ignore until Thursday’s Test Match).
I didn’t get to go along to any events (feeling I missed out) but Olympic spirit was flowing well, even with those who I’d never believe it would catch. What is next ?
Catching up on the telly … Got lots of recorded stuff, lots of recorded films and 7 blu-rays have arrived that I haven’t watched yet. Lots to watch.
Cricket season is done – there’s another game but I’m going to be avoiding that. My back is sound but isn’t fixed yet. I’m being careful because it could go bang again easily if I twist wrong. Nah – my legs aren’t fixed yet.
Actually that’s another thing I’m going to have to change and that’s diet … I’ve done a little more analysing and come to the conclusion that neglecting certain things in my diet is why I’m having problems with legs, lungs and eyes.
Whenever you hit a problem with your body, try and analyse it. Don’t instantly go for the patch it over solution, as the underlying problem will still be there. The creams helped my legs repair some of the damage but it didn’t fix the underlying cause. I think it’s diet – I need to get the greens back in and the orange juice. I used to drink a reasonable amount of that, enough to keep me healthy. I think what’s happened is that my body’s run out of the essential minerals it needs to keep it healthy and I need to make the switch to get them back in.
We’ll see how that goes. Sainsburys tomorrow and I’ll break a habit by visiting the aisle with Green Stuff in it.
But yeah – I’m not repairing as quickly and as efficiently as I used to. Playing cricket one week needed to be followed by a week away in order to recover. There’s a lot of consistency between symptoms observed and things missing (Vitamin C, K and zinc) from my diet. And now I’ve identified that, it’s time to test the conclusion and see if it’s right 🙂
Besides – I’ve got bored of biscuits, munching raw crunchy cabbage will be suitable biscuit replacement :-).