Bronze for Fran

Daughter Fran has just won a Bronze medal for Great Britain at the Paralympics in Beijing. D0 metres Freestyle class S3.

One more race on Monday.

This is a fantastic place and event.

DW
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China 3

On the subject of Transport, I have come to a place a bit further away from the hotel than I was at the end of my Forbidden City walk yesterday. I took the Tube: stress and hassle free and it cost me just 2 Yuan to get here: that's 16 pence.

Stick your rickshaw laddie!

Meeting up with an old mate of mine from Malawi and Kazakhstan later. He's working on social security reform. Haven't seen him for about ten years.

DW
Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device

China 1

This place is magnificent in the scale of the way it does things and there is an energy here that isn’t obvious everywhere else I go.

 

The Beijing Paralympic Games is being hosted on a grand scale, the event locations are grand and superb: talk about photogenic. I have been over to the water cube (cube? Whoever named it the cube must have been away sick when they were supposed to be learning about shapes in maths at school. It’s a cuboid) twice. The aquatic centre, to give its proper name, is right next door to the bird’s nest stadium and together they make up a magnificent spectacle at night. Thousands of people throng there too to enjoy the sights and the music driven water fountains.

 

I have been to watch some swimming events then and they are brilliant. Can you imagine winning a man with no arms winning the backstroke event? It happened. Can you imagine someone who is wheelchair bound winning the 100 metres freestyle event? It happened. These athletes are serious people. Life has cut them a dashing blow from birth or as the result of an accident but that didn’t leave them rotting in bed and wondering what to do. They have taken life at the full and they are doing something positive.

 

I watched the men’s Boccia final last night: a game akin to crown green and flat green bowling. The two Portuguese gentlemen in the final were wheelchair bound and clearly severely disabled. There they were though, playing this game to a high standard and giving it there all. I have said it before and I will say it again: those lousy young people in the UK and the rest of the world who mope around with “nothing to do” need to watch these athletes and think again.

 

On a thread on the Have your Say section of the BBC website there was a woman who said it is sick that the Paralympics is being held at all. I know who is the more sick don’t you? I couldn’t respond to that woman at the time but there were lots of people who put her properly and firmly in her place.

 

DW

China 2

Igot a taxi to the Forbidden City yesterday as I was worn out from all of my exertions and my right knee is giving me jip. As I walked to the entrance I was enticed by at least three men on bikes to buy a Lolex: cycle by Lolex watch salesmen they were.

 

On my Facebook page you will see a photo I took of a sign of a notice on the back window of a car that said “Baby in Road” ... I kid you not!

 

When you hear an older local speaking on their mobile phone before you see them you will immediately think:

 

There is a huge argument going on; or

This man has a grudge against the State and he is trying to get the world to listen

 

So Loud!

 

On arrival at the entrance to the Forbidden City they were drilling their guards. The guards in green uniforms were being drilled in turning left, moving forward one step ... all very balletic I have to say.

 

I heard and then saw my first Russian people today: three lots in the end.

 

By the end of my tour around the Forbidden City I was absolutely worn out: my knee isn’t painful but it is draining my energy. I was hiding from the rain and studying my map when a local who spoke English asked me where I was going. I told him Chongwenmen and he said he’d get a rickshaw for me ... cut a long story short, we set off with him manually pedalling me in his rickshaw. He then stopped someone in a motorised rickshaw. I paid the first man who then paid the second man. Deal done I thought and off we went. Very flexible mode of transport and we got to my hotel pretty quickly. When we stopped this driver asked for more money. Well, no language in common so I told him to follow me to the hotel where I asked one of the Hotel lads to help. Cut a long story short, he wanted the full fare from me. In the end, what this meant was that I paid the full fare. The fixer took one third for fixing the deal. The driver wanted 100%. I paid twice!! Now, it wasn’t much and all the driver wanted was the one third that the fixer took BUT I won’t use anything other than a formal taxi or the underground again. I paid a lot more for the rickshaw than I did for the taxi so that’s rubbish for a start.

 

DW

 

Beijing

I made it! It’s a long way from Khartoum to Beijing when you have to go via Doha, Dubai, Amsterdam, Manchester, Halifax, Manchester and Dubai. But it’s worth it.

 

I arrived at around 3:30 pm and after a false start when I couldn’t find the travel agent’s representative and then went to the wrong hotel I got to the proper hotel at around 5pm. Unpacked and then went straight to the Aquatic Centre to see Fran. Well, I SAW Fran but only across the pool. We’ll meet today.

 

Fabulous swimming centre and it’s right next door to the bird’s nest stadium which is just brilliant at night all lit up in red, orange and gold.

 

I travelled the length of Beijing to get from my hotel to the Olympic Green station and had to change lines twice in both directions but I only got lost right at the end when I left Chongwenmen station by the wrong door. I walked around a bit and then found a very helpful group of people willing to help me and one of them spoke English very well. She had no idea where I should go but found a man who did!

 

Off now to Tian’anman square and all that surrounds it before heading back to the aquatic centre this evening.

 

I have taken some snaps with my phone’s camera so far but will take my proper camera with me today.

 

Zai jian until later

 

DW

On the way toBeijing

I am flying Emirates to Beijing and am half way there: currently sitting at Starbucks in Dubai International Airport waiting for my connecting flight. Here are a few observations for you.

 

The first thing I did with Emirates’ fantastic entertainment system was to listen to Drip, drip, drip little April showers ... from the Disney cartoon Bambi. Can’t beat it.

 

I then watched a film about two schoolboys’ daft antics. English film with English actors set in England, in the main. One excellent moment, though, involved the really cool French exchange boy. This boy wanted to light his cigarette but didn’t have any matches or a lighter. He got several boys to line up and hold hands, with him as the last one. The first in the string of lads then touched the live wire in the street lamp they had opened up. Touch the wire, boys all jiggle a bit and French fag bursts into flames. Fantastic!

 

Two oldish Lancashire Lassies sitting across tbe aisle from me, this happened:

 

Stewardess (Korean I think with a pretty good English accent) said, as the plane was landing: Sorry, guys, can we just have your seats forward please?

Lancashire Lassie 1: (In true Lancashire Music Hall gormless style) Yer wot?

 

I cringed.

 

The pilot told us that as the weather in Dubai was warm and humid we should be careful as we went down the steps of the aircraft as they might be slippy.  I followed the two Lancashire Lassies out of the plane. Lassie 1 was OK but Lassie 2 immediately started walking very slowly and gingerly and held out her arm and hand getting ready to grasp the hand rail for dear life a full five metres before she got to it. They were then the slowest two down the steps by far.

 

As I drank my coffee I looked from time to time at the departures screen. As planes took off they were removed and new ones added ... as usual. As we got nearer and nearer to my plane being listed I started to watch more frequently as I didn’t know the gate. This is true: when it got to my plane being next to being listed, they didn’t update anything for around 10 minutes. So I got sick of looking and opened up this laptop and started typing this. As the computer was booting I took a look at the screen and lo and behold, in true watched pot never boils style, they updated the listing as soon as my back was turned.

 

DW