Strutting around London: Paralympics Opening Ceremony.

Having had tickets for the closing of the Olympics, we were very much looking forward to attending the opening of the Paralympics. We are lucky to have known one of the Australian Paralympians, Louise Ellery, since before her first Paralympics in Athens. Sally & the kids met her when her weekly training sessions coincided with the kids' swimming lessons in Canberra. Louise and her mum and Sally and the kids (then 5 & 3) were usually the last out of the changing rooms and would end up going for hot chocolates afterwards. Mark later met Louise when she came to talk about the accident that injured her and her Paralympic goals to students at the school where he taught.

In the lead up to 2012 and the Paralympics, Aisha had done some school and Girl Guide projects about Louise and become Face Book friends with her. The kids were thrilled to be able to spot Louise as the Australian team entered the stadium.

Louise Ellery (seated) waves the flag.

Not surprisingly the greatest welcome was for the British team, which came in last.

The Kangaroo came with us again and brought a friend along with him - 'Pig' who travels with world with friends from Sally's work. The Roo was warmly welcomed and Pig was very pleased to add the Paralympics to her impressive list of travels (it's a long story!). Having heard endless "Hope he has a ticket" and "A kangaroo!! Are you from Australia?!!" comments, we ended up telling people that the Roo was actually a Canadian jumping squirrel. A few actually believed us, briefly.

Roo gives pig a hand.

The ceremony was great and we felt it was better in fact, as well as being a little more comprehensible, than the Olympics opening we had watched on TV. Having Steven Hawkings lead off was an inspired and inspiring choice and gave a clear theme to the evening. Again we had pretty good tickets for this ceremony with our seats closer to the action but about a third of the price of the Olympic tickets.

The athletes' parade was shorter than for the Olympics because fewer countries and athletes were involved. It did still take a long time though and we marvelled at how the 'games maker' volunteers kept up their dancing/waving routines the entire time!

By comparison to their Olympic colleagues, the Paralympic athletes were far more colourful with traditional costumes, or variations of them, worn instead of uniforms. As well as that it was moving to see the quite small teams that some countries sent - notably for us Timor Leste, Syria and Palestine.

Mexico's team in multi-coloured ponchos

Pink Shorts for men. Yay !

Palestine.

Syria.

Timor Leste.

Naturally we showed our true allegiances.

At the end of the night.

We did stand dutifully though and sang 'God save the Queen' - especially as she was there.

Perhaps the most amazing part of the evening was the 'unveiling' of the inflatable statue of Alison Lapper which appeared in seconds seemingly out of nowhere. The statue itself was a stark reminder of the reality of the games that lay ahead. Click here to find out more about the real Alison Lapper.