Paralympics!

I understand that having failed magnificently to even apply for Olympics tickets, we were going to, but managed to have a communal brain fart at the appropriate time and missed the application window, the denizens of the Gin Palace will be attending the at least one event in the Paralympics.

We have managed to get tickets, I understand, to both the basketball and the athletics, though we have the option of selling back one set if we wish.

I guess we will have to decide whether we can afford both sets and if not, where our preferences lie. I am casting an early vote for the basketball. When I was younger, it was the one sport I was even half way competent at (though not enough for anyone to pick me at school) and therefore the only one I was vaguely interested in at the time (oh, rebellious youth). I don’t find yer actual standard basket ball much of a spectator sport though. I’ve never been entirely sure why, though I think it may just be a touch too busy in a very confined space, combined with the fact that it is generally a rather exclusive game; if you are not freakishly tall, your chances of playing at any level diminish rapidly unless you have Clark Kent levels of athletic ability to compensate for the fact that you do not physically approach 7 feet tall.

Paralympic basketball, however, to my uneducated eye, seems to be based entirely upon the skills of the players. And the way they throw themselves around the court is frankly amazing.

So that’s my early expression of preference. But I’ll cheerfully go and see the athletics, too.