248/366/2012: Inside the Olympic Stadium
It wasn't until we went and watched the arrival of The Torch in our town that I began to get excited about the Olympic Games, by which time there was no hope of obtaining reasonably priced tickets to, well, anything. So, when cheap tickets to this session of paralympic athletics appeared on the website, I jumped on them and reasoned I'd deal with the practicalities of everything to do with getting there and managing two children there on my own when I actually had to.
I thought it was a really interesting session - we saw all of the long jump and medal ceremony, the final and medal ceremony of the women's shot put (which had a Team GB athlete in it), some javelin, some running/sprinting, some wheelchair events...
The atmpsphere inside the stadium was incredible. The noise from the crowd had a real 'booming' quality that just hadn't come across on television. I hadn't realised either that loud music is played even while the athletes are competing. The rhythm of the crowd's noise (and mexican wave!) was broken somewhat for the near silence needed for the blind long jumpers, who I found fascinating.
I loved it there, I'd go back today, even just to explore the Olympic Park (which we didn't get to do, more on that later) but there is just NO WAY I would attempt this again with the children. No way. It was just a catalogue of little things that made the day incredibly stressful: -
- firstly getting us all out of the door with all our carefully packed bags etc for 7.30am
- tube journey went okay. The driver tannoyed that Stratford Station was incredibly congested so we really ought to get off at West Ham 'and cross the footbridge' to the Olympic Park. Okay, I thought, that seems sensible and the footbridge sounds fun. Got outside West Ham station to see signs telling us it was a TWENTY FIVE minute walk from that point. With a 6 and a 4 year old. E saw the signs and *freaked*. But with the heavy flow of people behind us it was near impossible to double back and get on a train to Stratford.
- The route was very clearly marked and set out, even portaloos on the way. We stopped for a toilet break, Hugo was *obsessed* with the little flushy handle lever thing to the point he wouldn't let go of it, didn't listen to me/concentrate and his shorts ended up in a big puddle of (what I hope was just) water on the cubicle floor. This gave him a reasonable excuse to recommence whinging.
- Hugo very much liked the metal barricade fencing along the route. He went a bit Rainman and HAD to touch every.single.bar of the fencing. This made for very slow progress.
- The security clearance sections were well managed and fast moving. I'd remembered to just bring empty water bottles to fill up inside so strolled right through the sections where people were having to hand over liquids. Our bags went through the scanners okay, there was some hushed muttering over my bag though. I thought nothing of it, had loads of metal eg camera, phone etc in it. They asked me if I had any liquids. "No, none", I said as I fished out my empty water bottle to show them. "No juice boxes, cartons...?", they asked. And then it dawned on me that when I'd packed the children's lunch box the previous evening, on complete autopilot I packed two cartons of juice. Doh. They were confiscated *weep* but the lovely, lovely security superviser came over, had a look and let me keep them. I could have hugged him.
- I did really dislike the fact that water fountains were so cynically scarce to force as many people as possible to buy drinks.
- The children moaned all the way through the session. They were bored. They were hungry. They were so so so so so so SO hungry. And bored. They wanted to go home. They wanted to curl up under the seat and just go to sleep (really. Well that's what they said, there was no evidence of that actually happening). They fidgeted and squirmed and actually for the most part played with the little light box things on the back of their seats, and didn't even pretend to watch what was going on.
- and then to top it all, on the way out of the stadium, Hugo jumped down the stadium stairs and cut his knee open. Cue Gamesmakers running over to ask if we needed first aid. We didn't, but you'd never have guessed it from H's performance. So I had to mostly carry him out of the park (but still with the barrier-touching obsession going on), and take a detour into Stratford Westfield's M&S for cakes in order to get home.
I think perhaps they were just a bit too little to get much out of it tbh. Or perhaps what's really needed is a 1:1 adult:child ratio. Am very disappointed I didn't get to explore the park some more or fully concentrate on the events we saw. But, for all that, it's a once in a lifetime event and we made it. They will always be able to say, "we were there"!
248/366/2012: Inside the Olympic Stadium
It wasn't until we went and watched the arrival of The Torch in our town that I began to get excited about the Olympic Games, by which time there was no hope of obtaining reasonably priced tickets to, well, anything. So, when cheap tickets to this session of paralympic athletics appeared on the website, I jumped on them and reasoned I'd deal with the practicalities of everything to do with getting there and managing two children there on my own when I actually had to.
I thought it was a really interesting session - we saw all of the long jump and medal ceremony, the final and medal ceremony of the women's shot put (which had a Team GB athlete in it), some javelin, some running/sprinting, some wheelchair events...
The atmpsphere inside the stadium was incredible. The noise from the crowd had a real 'booming' quality that just hadn't come across on television. I hadn't realised either that loud music is played even while the athletes are competing. The rhythm of the crowd's noise (and mexican wave!) was broken somewhat for the near silence needed for the blind long jumpers, who I found fascinating.
I loved it there, I'd go back today, even just to explore the Olympic Park (which we didn't get to do, more on that later) but there is just NO WAY I would attempt this again with the children. No way. It was just a catalogue of little things that made the day incredibly stressful: -
- firstly getting us all out of the door with all our carefully packed bags etc for 7.30am
- tube journey went okay. The driver tannoyed that Stratford Station was incredibly congested so we really ought to get off at West Ham 'and cross the footbridge' to the Olympic Park. Okay, I thought, that seems sensible and the footbridge sounds fun. Got outside West Ham station to see signs telling us it was a TWENTY FIVE minute walk from that point. With a 6 and a 4 year old. E saw the signs and *freaked*. But with the heavy flow of people behind us it was near impossible to double back and get on a train to Stratford.
- The route was very clearly marked and set out, even portaloos on the way. We stopped for a toilet break, Hugo was *obsessed* with the little flushy handle lever thing to the point he wouldn't let go of it, didn't listen to me/concentrate and his shorts ended up in a big puddle of (what I hope was just) water on the cubicle floor. This gave him a reasonable excuse to recommence whinging.
- Hugo very much liked the metal barricade fencing along the route. He went a bit Rainman and HAD to touch every.single.bar of the fencing. This made for very slow progress.
- The security clearance sections were well managed and fast moving. I'd remembered to just bring empty water bottles to fill up inside so strolled right through the sections where people were having to hand over liquids. Our bags went through the scanners okay, there was some hushed muttering over my bag though. I thought nothing of it, had loads of metal eg camera, phone etc in it. They asked me if I had any liquids. "No, none", I said as I fished out my empty water bottle to show them. "No juice boxes, cartons...?", they asked. And then it dawned on me that when I'd packed the children's lunch box the previous evening, on complete autopilot I packed two cartons of juice. Doh. They were confiscated *weep* but the lovely, lovely security superviser came over, had a look and let me keep them. I could have hugged him.
- I did really dislike the fact that water fountains were so cynically scarce to force as many people as possible to buy drinks.
- The children moaned all the way through the session. They were bored. They were hungry. They were so so so so so so SO hungry. And bored. They wanted to go home. They wanted to curl up under the seat and just go to sleep (really. Well that's what they said, there was no evidence of that actually happening). They fidgeted and squirmed and actually for the most part played with the little light box things on the back of their seats, and didn't even pretend to watch what was going on.
- and then to top it all, on the way out of the stadium, Hugo jumped down the stadium stairs and cut his knee open. Cue Gamesmakers running over to ask if we needed first aid. We didn't, but you'd never have guessed it from H's performance. So I had to mostly carry him out of the park (but still with the barrier-touching obsession going on), and take a detour into Stratford Westfield's M&S for cakes in order to get home.
I think perhaps they were just a bit too little to get much out of it tbh. Or perhaps what's really needed is a 1:1 adult:child ratio. Am very disappointed I didn't get to explore the park some more or fully concentrate on the events we saw. But, for all that, it's a once in a lifetime event and we made it. They will always be able to say, "we were there"!