please empty your brain below
My goodness, that sidebar looks empty.

But thank heavens it's over. I've had enough of patriotism to last me several lifetimes. Polemicists left right and centre have been daubing essays about how "we found out who we really are". That doesn't even mean anything! It's the sort of empty feelgood vapidness you expect to hear from self-help books or company seminars.

How did you manage to purchase 14 Olympic tickets, but attend only 9 Olympic sessions? Is there some subtlety in the terminology I'm missing? (Ignoring the possibility that you simply didn't use some of them.)

swirlythingy | Homepage | 11.09.12 - 12:33 a.m. | #

From memory, DG took some friends/ relatives to some of the events - I presume that would account for the disparity?

Adrian | 11.09.12 - 1:07 a.m. | #

that's a lot of days holiday ?

Jon Allen | 11.09.12 - 4:18 a.m. | #

The one figure you left out and I am rather curious about is the number of tickets applied for, especially for the main games, in order to get tickets for 9 sessions. I've been thinking that your success might be as a result of applying for single tickets, but you are certainly allowed the smugfactor.

Ham | Homepage | 11.09.12 - 6:55 a.m. | #

Number of Olympic tickets applied for in first round: 36 (40% success rate)

Number of Paralympic tickets applied for in first round: 13 (100% success rate)

diamond geezer | Homepage | 11.09.12 - 7:00 a.m. | #

Smugness completely and utterly justified!

EskimoPie | 11.09.12 - 7:52 a.m. | #

Glad to see you've written up the report and done the accounts already. Smugness all in order. Just watch out for that gaping void that's looming.

allotmentqueen | Homepage | 11.09.12 - 8:38 a.m. | #

You've had a great time, so what are the chances of Diamond McGeezer making the trip north of the border for the Commonwealth games in a couple of years' time?

Waterhouse | 11.09.12 - 8:54 a.m. | #

Quick point: There aren't 36 different Olympic sports - there are 26; it's just that some have different disciplines. (Important as the IOC cap the number as 28 different sports, which is the numbers London was due to have on the day it won the bid - Baseball & Softball were dropped two days later)

dg writes: I've updated the post to 26, ta.

Jordan D | 11.09.12 - 9:11 a.m. | #

When it looked like you were going to be at the Olypmics virtually every day, I thought to myself that this was probably going to be your summer holiday this year! Thanks for bringing us with you. : )

CornishCockney | 11.09.12 - 9:18 a.m. | #

I'm curious to compare my own haul, and surprised to learn that I went to more London Prepares test events than DG:

Olympic ticket haul

Number of test events attended: 7
Number of Olympic tickets purchased: 4 (all in initial ballot in April 2011)
Number of Olympic sessions attended: 2
Number of different Olympic sports seen: 1 (out of 26) - Archery
Number of days at the Olympics: 1 (out of 17)


Paralympic ticket haul

Number of test events attended: 0
Number of Paralympic tickets purchased: 22 (20 purchased in initial ballot Sept 2011, 2 purchased once they went on general sale in 2012)
Number of Paralympic sessions attended: 10 (counting a day pass as one session)
Number of Paralympic ceremonies attended: 1
Number of different Paralympic sports seen: 13 (out of 21)
Number of days at the Paralympics: 7.5 (out of 12)


Smugness at going for loads of Paralympic tickets back when they were only somewhat popular rather than the massive demand there has been recently: 11

Darren S | 11.09.12 - 9:21 a.m. | #

Quite, @CornishCockney, I thought that too. What a grand holiday! No grumpy hotel guests/staff to negotiate, no major travel problems, use your own currency etc etc. Everyone full of joy. Ah, just like being a child.

B | 11.09.12 - 9:24 a.m. | #

Smugness very justified. My thanks to you and your commenters for all the helpful guidance.

Andrew | 11.09.12 - 9:46 a.m. | #

DG, how did you see 10 sports at 9 sessions? Did you go to the Modern Pentathlon?

I did 8 sessions at the main Olympics, watching 8 different sports, in 8 venues, on 7 days; 5 events were in the Park, 1 in Earls Court, 1 in ExCel, 1 at Wimbledon, so will give myself an 8 smugness factor!

Mikey C | 11.09.12 - 12:43 p.m. | #

Thanks again for all your advice DG. I was unsuccessful for Olympics tickets and applied straight away for the Paralympics. I got fantastic athletics and swimming tickets at a very reasonable price.

Cornish monkey | 11.09.12 - 7:08 p.m. | #

My smug factor would be around 10 - 7 Olympic tickets, and 9 Paralympic.

BUT without DG's guidance way back when on what to apply for, and superlative commentary ever since, my family's Olympic experience would not have been half as good.

Hats off sir.

Will | 11.09.12 - 8:00 p.m. | #











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