Jubilympics!

What a year 2012 has been for big events and celebrations in the UK. The Queen celebrated 60 years on the throne this Summer which included a weekend of parties, concerts, parades etc and Gretchen and I decided to travel up to London to take part in the Sunday celebrations which started with a church service in Westminster Abbey followed by a procession back to Buckingham Palace and then the Royal Family came out onto the balcony for a flypast. Gee and I headed up to the Mall where there were huge screens showing the service in the Abbey and thousands of people draped in Union Jacks milling around and jostling for a good position to watch the procession later. We both bought hats and flags and then stood in the 6 deep crowds to await the Queen in her carriage. It was a long wait and t played havoc with my back! But when he Queen drove past the atmosphere was electric and it felt good just t be there and to share it with others. After she drove through the Mall we al waited to fie down he Mall towards the Palace. We got much closer to the Palace than we thought (just to the left of Victoria's monument)and we were surrounded by both Brits and foreign visitors, a real cosmopolitan mix. We were close enough to see the Queen on the balcony and we were right underneath the Lancaster Bomber and spitfire when they flew over the Mall. The cheers, the laughter, the sheer joy in the crowd is the one thing that will stay with me from this experience. It was great to be a part of it. Throughout the late Summer the country was glued to their TV sets watching the London 2012 Olympics and on 6 September myself,Gee, Sophia and Verity went up to the Olympic Park for the evening Paralympics events in the Aquatics Centre. It was great fun to be in the park and everything was planned and run with military precision. I was a little shocked at how high we had to climb to reach our seats in the aquatics centre but once seated we had a great view (see photo). Later in the evening, after the swimming finals had finished we went out to watch Johnny Peacock run in the 100 m final on big screens in the park. There were huge crowds round the screens and we could hear the chee

rs coming from the stadium before we saw the race on the sceen because of the time delay in transmission It was so exciting. And of course Johnny won Gold - Go Johnny! Our own little piece of the Olympics.