Spot the ball competition

I visited Trafalgar Square at lunchtime to check out the Paralympics 2012 launch. Upon arriving at a cordoned-off area, a bustle of media types rushed by all fluffy microphones, pencil skirts and ginormous cameras. Sure enough, I noted Seb Coe beside two blokes who were taking off their suit jackets. I recognised Boris by his unruly mop and the other was his sidekick. They played doubles with two athletes - disappointingly, I haven't been able to find their names on the news sites so I'm not sure if they are participating at the paralympics or not. I imagine they must be. Shame on the media for not naming them.

In the evening, I went with Fred to see the London Sinfonietta play pieces by Arvo Pärt. I'll list them here so I remember which tunes they were:

Partita, Op. 2
Spiegel im Spiegel
Für Alina
Mozart-Adagio
Fratres

They were all wonderful, but "Fratres" was particularly stunning. The great thing was that the concert was short, not that I wanted it to end, but sometimes you can have too much of a good thing and it's better to hear an hour and let the experience sit in the brain while you have a cup of tea.

As it was, King's Place was buzzing with festival goers so we stayed there for a little bit, viewing the hard-hitting images by Sean Smith, a Guardian photographer of war zones in Iraq, Afghanistan and the Congo. We then took our cups of tea on a walk from King's Cross down to London Bridge via Bloomsbury, Fleet Street, Embankment, and the Cutty Sark. A fab night.