London 2012 Paralympics - Closing ceremony

The last day of the London 2012 games, with the closing ceremony of the Paralympics. As we walked through London following the pink signs, seeing the games makers for the last time, queuing for water, I kept thinking how sad it is that all of the hype and thrill of the games will be over tonight. We entered the stadium and took our seats...one row from the back. In a contrast from the Olympics closing ceremony, the athletes came out before the start of the event. The team for the GB athletes was deafening, and being part of the circling mexican waves around the stadium warmed us up nicely.

The warm up of 'bedtime' was a little odd, but then as the sun went down, Coldplay started their set.The lights on everyones seats meant we couldn't dance, but they were so effective synchronised with the songs. Classics such as 'Yellow', 'Paradise' and 'Clocks' made me so excited that my legs were jumping up and down! Then Rihanna came out, on a big truck. The sequence of machinery was a bit strange, including a huge fish truck.

Handing over the flag to Brazil was quite sad and I had a tear in my eye, I'd like to keep the games forever. Brazil's national anthem is quite addictive though and their set included Samba and singers. We had more Coldplay, Rihanna, Jay-Z and then speeches by Seb Coe and the Chair of the IPC declaring it the best paralympic games in history!.

At the end we sat waiting for everyone to leave as you can't go fair when you are one row from the back. The queues were huge for the javelin train and we were rammed in. Late train home, but I wouldn't have missed it for the world. It was stimulus overload for the eyes, the atmosphere can't be described, we were part of history.