Paralympic Flame Festival - Belfast

 

I am from Eglish in Co Tyrone so that meant that we had to travel for an hour in the car. My Mom and my Aunt came with me. I listened to my headphones on the journey.

 

 

 

Rosie  from Livenet gave us all wrist bands to allow us in.

We went to the festival and there was a bit of a wait because of security. There was a big stage and there was  the music  playing. It was seriously loud. The first thing I had to was do an interview then I met Rosie’s friend and her kids Daniel and Scarlet and the baby. A lot of the time when I was bored I talked to Daniel.

 

 

 

There were a lot of things on TV screens at the back showing of the Paralympics and the NI athletes and what they do. They were also advertising that Paralympics show, a show on channel 4 and certain sports from that show.

 

 

 

 

 

They were giving away a lot of free fruit which I found to be slightly confusing especially apples and bananas..

 

 

 

I got a few interviews with wheelchair athletes. One made a joke which showed me he was comfortable with me and with  who he is. He also gave me big compliment on my interview technique. I also talked to the lord mayor of Belfast but I asked him the wrong types of questions but when you know little this will happen. Perhaps we should have written the questoins down but it was OK.

 

 

 

I also went into this sports area which had all of the different sports that you can do. I tried the curling from the seat and I learned that is to do with weight and power and  also power in the arms. I tried the wheelchair basketball and learned that was to do with where you shoot from and how you shoot ....its all to do with getting the ball high. I also tried the blind football and that was a quite unique experience as you can see absolute black and it makes you think how people can live their lives like that. I also looked at the boccia and what I have seen of them on TV interests me.  

 

 

 

 

I managed to see the last part of Joe Mc Eldreys song list and an amazing fire display.  We saw the NI flame being lit and all the people who were doing the jobJ Janet Gray who is a blind skier carried the flame onto the stage. . There were a lot of people there . I thought that the flags coming in were Dublin flags but I think that they were supposed to represent something,as when they moved closer they appeared to be triangles. We then went home and I would say that the Paralympics was a good experience for me and in parts I did enjoy them.