I had all the best intentions yesterday – I wasn’t going to buy anymore tickets! But as 11am came around, I just couldn’t help myself and there I was on the website seeing what was available… Rationalizing it to myself, I’ve gone for a couple more events on days when I was already either travelling through London or at the Olympic Park but was only doing one event that day. Hence I’m now going to see the GB Womens Football team vs Brazil (should be some match) at Wembley, and also going to see Handball in the Copper Box 🙂 I think with the Paralympics tickets I got the other day I’m now going to most venues in the Olympic Park at one time or another 🙂 Of course, the only main one I’m not going to during either games is the Velodrome, but luckily we went to the test event (which was fab and you can see pictures of here http://www.flickr.com/photos/zeetha/sets/72157629491630759/) so I don’t mind *too* much!
Category Archives: London 2012
More Tickets available!
Today more Olympic tickets become available, but after much thought I’ve decided not to go for any more even though it might mean I could try more venues and more sports. I’m going to enough, and I want to pace myself and also experience what sounds like its going to be EPIC coverage from the BBC! 🙂
I have seen online via Twitter and forums that many people are complaining that they didn’t get tickets, and whilst I feel a few are justified (i.e. have supported and gone to sports for years but didn’t get tickets for them, or are actually families of athletes) in most cases I feel this is a just a touch of sour grapes. For something that is SO popular, there were always going to be people who missed out and most people wanted to go to the popular events only (i.e. cycling, athletics, finals only). Also, at any event like this there are always going to be lots of corporate and package tickets – thats just life I’m afraid! If you are truly just going for ‘the experience’ as so many people say they are, then go to some of the other events or even the preliminaries.
For example today, there are loads of Volleyball events available but I bet they won’t sell out very fast. People will eventually buy them but will whinge about ‘only’ getting tickets to ‘a poor’ event. Its not a poor event, its got world class athletes who spend a lot of their time and (in a lot of cases their own) money preparing for just this moment and they deserve everyones support AND people will find that the atmosphere at all of these events will probably be much better than they are expecting as watching sport live is completely different to watching it on TV! Yes its disappointing not to get the tickets you want, and yes its disappointing not to be going to the ‘headline’ events but just be happy to get tickets to the GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH and go enjoy!!
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100 days to go until the Paralympics!
Today marks 100 days to go until the opening ceremony of the London 2012 Paralympics and I love that they advertised the fact on the white cliffs of Dover today! (http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/disability-sport/18126293) *grin*.
Although they may not get as much attention or people watching them these atheletes deserve even more of our respect and support than most of the able bodied Team GB so I for one will be going to see them live! I already have tickets for some events, but am going to try for more today at 11am when more get released as I really want to experience the Aquatics centre and Velodrome atmospheres as well as supporting ParalympicsGB!
Update – I got Aquatics tickets to see the swimming, but just couldn’t get Velodrome tickets, they’re like god dust!
70 days to go!
Today marks 70 days to go, and its also the day that the Olympic Flame finally arrives on British soil on the gold ‘firefly’ BA plane 🙂 Hopefully it won’t be pouring with rain when it arrives like it was in Athens yesterday for the handover!
I do hope that people will line the streets to see the torch, and there won’t be any (or at least not many) protests or disruptions. Lets get together and prepare to celebrate the Greatest Show on Earth!
TeamGB / ParalympicGB Supporters Scarves!
Ever since they were announced, I’ve wanted the official TeamGB and ParalympicGB supporters scarves (I know, sad right?). Only available from Next, I really wanted to see them before I splashed out on them though just in case they looked (in reality) a bit rubbish! Many times I went to the Next store in town, and even asked a couple of times (very much out of character for me!) but no joy. Finally this past weekend they HAD THEM ON DISPLAY! Woo hoo! Not quite sure how I’m going to wear them, but they look GOOD!
Olympic Travelcards
Finally after days of avoiding, I’ve got around to (or at least starting to) buy my train tickets so I can get to London for the Olympics. Luckily my other half is a seasoned commuter, so as we get a Zones 1-9 travelcard free with each ticket (yey!) I only have to buy tickets return to East Croydon – result!! AND I can buy tickets through Quidco getting 6% cashback – result again!!
Tenuous Olympic Marketing
As it gets ever nearer to the actual Games time, and especially as the Olympic Torch is nearly on UK soil, more and more firms are trying to cash in on the games but without paying for being an official partner. Todays tenuous marketing ploy comes from Easyspace who have sent out a ‘Celebrate the Games with 25% off GB registrations’ email which includes that we can confirm our ‘allegence by choosing a gb.net or gb.com’ domain! How bad is that???!
Ticket frustration
Whilst I have confirmed tickets, my mother-in-law and some friends are still trying to get tickets via the official London2012 site having failed in all previous ballots. Yet, despite this being the 7th, 8th or is it even more time that the tickets have gone on sale, the site is still struggling to cope and they are getting extremely frustrated! They are having all sorts of problems including just getting on to the site, and even if they get there the pages don’t load or they just get a ‘connecting’ page with no indication of what is going on.
Its a mess! Again!!! Ticketmaster have more than enough clout and money to have sorted this out by now – shame on you!
Lego Olympic Minifigs?
I’ve seen rumours recently that Lego are producing a set of Olympic minifigures for the Olympic market (http://www.brickset.com/news/article/?ID=2991). No mention yet of them on the official set but YES PLEASE!!!
In the meantime, maybe I’ll get myself this… http://shop.lego.com/en-GB/R2-D2-10225 Its smaller than the death star, so maybe my other half won’t notice when I put it on display…
Orbit finished
No, not us orbiting around the Sun (phew!) but the Anish Kapoor sculpture called the Orbit Tower at the Olympic Park. Apparently the idea is to take the lift up, and then walk down 455 steps do me a favour! I know you’ll get good views across London, and different views as you walk down but thats going to take for ever!
I never thought I’d say this, but now its finished the Orbit is growing on me. I’ll reserve judgement though until I see it in the flesh in oh 79 days! 😀