helen-louise's journal

I have been quite spectacularly busy the past few days. Have been to the Paralympics twice, about which I will write more later. (Though I shall note that Richard & I were at the Athletics event described in section "You can come second and set a new world record", and had to puzzle out how that was possible.)

Today I was supposed to be at College setting up my first organic synthesis in something like 16 years, but my body decided to give out on me entirely and I spent the day asleep. I will be making a chalcone on Friday instead, and am getting progressively more anxious. Since it does not go back as far as 1996, my livejournal does not relate the story of Evil Pink Stuff, which was the last organic synthesis I ever did. It was supposed to be o-benzoylbenzoic acid. Absolutely none of the starting, intermediate, or final compounds are pink. Neither was the catalyst I put in & am pretty sure removed correctly. Yet pink was what I obtained. Pink, gelatinous precipitate, instead of a fine white powder. Gods only know what it was. I'm not sure I had enough time to do all the tests to find out. And I'm traumatised enough by other happenings that year not to want to poke into the box of Here Be Dragons that contains, among other things, my second year lab reports - though definitely curious enough to consider it.

Another point: my phone is being strangely evil of late. I used to frequently comment on livejournal (and deadjournal) from it, but for some reason when I type now, I keep hitting the full stop key by mistake. So I end up with Sentences. That. Look. Like. This., which look terrible and require lots of painful correction (since I don't get on with touchscreens), unless I take the artificial and non-ergonomic step of only hitting the space bar with my left thumb. This slows down my typing, and is actively uncomfortable, and as a result I'm not commenting on anything anywhere near as much as I used to. I've got to figure out if it's me or my keyboard at fault. (Hand positioning, or sticky keys? Or some sort of software "upgrade" that's making the keyboard more sensitive?). Anyway, it means I'm not replying to things when I want to, since I mostly do "social" internet from my phone. But I still love you & care about things in your lives.

So I've been saying to myself for a while that I really ought to "sort out" my Paralympics tickets. I know that I'm going to the Wheelchair Rugby on Thursday 6th September with hiddenpaw, skibbley and yoyoangel, but I hadn't sorted out who else I'm going to see what with.

Well, oops and also bollocks. I was really certain that I was going to see the Athletics on Sunday 2nd September. But the tickets I have are actually for Saturday 1st September - which is also the day of Brighton Pride! Also more botheringly, I have two seats together (the wheelchair & "wheelchair helper" seats*) in Block 153 Row 25 - and a single seat in Block 253 Row 55! That's absolutely bloody stupid. I wish I'd noticed that earlier. All of that.

The start time for the Athletics is 7pm, but the London 2012 website reckons I'll need to be at the Olympic Stadium by 5pm to go through all the "airport-style" security charade. Theoretically, this does allow me to go to Brighton Pride at least long enough to see the parade. But it will be a very long day, and stressful, and involve too much train stress, and... argh! Especially frustrating since I found out at BiCon who has the secret "community" wristbands, so I could have got into Preston Park for the paid part of Brighton Pride for Not Much money rather than the Stupid Amount that they want to charge...

It's a bit late to sell the tickets now, especially as two of them are wheelchair + helper seats. And who the hell is going to want to sit on their own surrounded by complete strangers? Argh.

The other events aren't a problem - they are "general admission", although I presume they have a specific place or places to stick wheelchair people. (The map shows a wheelchair park, but not where wheelchair users get parked). The actual event I have tickets for starts at 7pm in both cases, but the tickets are all-day passes and you can go to any event in that venue that has spaces.

So... Who wants to come and see Sitting Volleyball with me on Tuesday 4th September? If we get there early enough, there is the possibility of also seeing some Wheelchair Fencing, Powerlifting or Boccia. (Other events on Thursday 6th September include Wheelchair Tennis, 5-a-side Football and Goalball). I have 2 spare tickets, but it isn't as simple as "the first two people to comment here get the tickets", because I'm also communicating with people via email. The tickets are £15 each, which includes an all-zone Travelcard, plus recorded delivery post of the tickets. (Or Special Delivery if you are paranoid enough).

Post below if you have any questions :)

* this is not actually what the free ticket is called, but I can't be bothered to look up the official Paralympic term.

Re: this post - I've applied for Paralympics tickets as follows:

Athletics on Saturday 1st - 3
Sitting Volleyball on Tuesday 4th - 3
Wheelchair Rugby on Thursday 6th - 4

Now to see what I get.

All of the applications I've made have been for the afternoon or evening slots because I Don't Do Mornings, but the Sitting Volleyball and Wheelchair Rugby tickets both include whole-day passes to get into other events if there's space.

People who wanted to go can fight among themselves once I know what I've got (although if I get Wheelchair Rugby one ticket is reserved for hiddenpaw) :D