I’ve Got Some Olympic Tickets
I originally applied for £3234 worth of Olympic tickets, but in the end I only got £785.
This is just over twenty-four percent of what I tried to get.
No-one seems to know how the ballot has been organised. In many cases I applied for two tickets, as I’m not keen on going by myself.
I hope I haven’t got loads of single tickets!
As an engineer with a stromg statistics training, I think there might be more to this than we think. I just sent this e-mail to BBC Radio 5.
But the figures on what people have got, don’t add up.
It will be interesting to look again, after people know the events they’ve got.
I do wonder though, if the method of the ballot process has leaked out and speculators and ticket touts have made a killing.
After all, I’ve not heard of anyone, who’s got all they asked for. On the law of averages, that should have happened quite a few times, and some would be crowing with delight.
I do suspect though, that some will make a killing. Touts and criminals always find a way to make money.
Another World Cup Problem for Qatar
FIFA and the Qatari government have been put on notice about labour conditions in the build up to the World Cup 2022, according to this report on Bloomberg.
The International Trade Union Confederation and Building Workers International urged FIFA and the Qatari government to prove that migrant workers won’t be subject to “inhuman” conditions as the Persian Gulf nation begins to build stadiums in anticipation of the 2022 World Cup.
Do we really want to compete in a World Cup built by exploited labour?
But then our athletes went to Beijing, where human rights are non-existent and there have been two Olympics and two World Cups in the United States, where there is the death penalty.
Am I About to Pay for my Olympic Tickets?
When I log in to my Visa account, transactions don’t appear immediately. I do find this a bit strange, but it is the way it happens. After all if I draw money out of a cashpoint and then look at my account on-line, you can see the transaction virtually immediately.
So this morning, it would appear that there are some transactions to be processed on my Visa account for about £800. I did order about £3,300 of Olympic tickets, which may seem a lot, but I’ll never see another one and I knew I’d only get a percentage. So it looks like I may get about a quarter!
More on the Olympic Tickets
I have posted about the non-arrival of my Olympic tickets before, but tonight I got an e-mail describing the latest progress. This is an extract.
Thank you for applying for London 2012 Olympic tickets. As you will be aware, we have started to allocate tickets and are now taking payment from Visa credit and debit cards, as well as banking cheques and postal orders.
The vast majority of payments will be taken by next week (31 May), with the entire process completed by 10 June.
We will contact you before 24 June to let you know if you have been successful and, if so, which tickets you have been allocated.
So it does appear something is happening at last.
I do suspect though that lots of speculators have applied for lots of the major sessions and this is clogging the system up. We do know that things like the 100m metres final have been seriously oversubscribed.
My Olympic Tickets
I’ve still not heard, if I’ve got any Olympic tickets.
Has anybody else been notified yet?
Naming of the Districts of the London Olympic Site
After the Olympics in 2012, the Olympic Park will be split into five new districts of London.
There is a competition to name them.
I’ve just entered to name Area 5. I would like to call it Bazalgette City. And here’s why!
London has nothing named after the man, who probably did more to design and build the infrastructure of sewers, embankments and other public works that are still in use today. Without Bazalgette, London would have not become a modern city until much later. This area contains much of the immense Northern Outfall Sewer, which Bazalgette created that is now 150 years old and the area is also close to his Cathedral of Sewage at Abbey Mills. Hence if should be Bazalgette City and not Bazalgette Town, as every city needs a cathedral.
I’ll add other names I can think of later, but the competition closes on the 16th May.
Visiting the Lee Valley Park
Today, I needed to get to Blackhorse Road station for lunch nearby, and as Arsenal were at home around the same time, and this would mean a lot of people at Highbury and Islington station, I decided to take a more roundabout route.
The plan was essentially simple.
- Take a 73 or more preferably a 476 bus, as I hate the bendy ones, to Seven Sisters station.
- Take a National Express train from that station to Cheshunt.
- Walk through the Lee Valley Park, looking at the new Lee Valley White Water Centre for the London Olympics.
- Walk to Waltham Cross station for a train to Tottenham Hale and then to Blackhorse Road.
It wasn’t as easy as it should have been, as although the park was pleasant, there was an event going on and the public weren’t allowed into the White Water Centre.
But I was running late, so I had to get to Waltham Cross station. But don’t go there on a Sunday, as trains are only one an hour. I’d also been sold the wrong ticket at Seven Sisters, so I had to buy another. but it was only £1.30, so it wasn’t a problem.
It does look though, that they’ve got a good venue for the Olympics, as set where it is, you could take a picnic there on a train from Central London. I’ve put in for some tickets.
The Olympic Site Is Protected
I took this picture at the start of the Greenway just as it crosses the canal at the western site of the Olympic site, close to Hackney Wick.
A Pill-Box by the Olympic Site
Two guys in this pill-box with a couple of PIAT anti-tank guns could stop anything.
The Shape of Things To Come
BBC London has just reported live from a party in Canning Town. Some may think that the royal wedding is a waste of space, but not the East End.
Roll on the Olympics!
Northumberland Park Station
I made a mistake to get off the 341 bus and take the train from Northumberland Park station.
It might better be called No Rthumberland Park, as it had no staff, no timetables on the wall, no train information indicators and no trains for an hour. I actually had to phone rail information on 08457484950 to find out when the next train would arrive. There was though a betting shop on the corner and one of London’s last level crossings inside the M25.
Eventually, a train did turn up and I went all the way to Stratford for interest, rather than a quick journey. I then took the North London line and a bus home. If I’d stayed on the 341 bus, I’d have been home thirty minutes earlier. I will travel from Tottenham Hale to Stratford again, as it gives good views of the Olympic site, HS1 and the train sheds for Eurostar and the fast trains to Kent from St. Pancras.
The Anonymous Widower 