Alan Murchison's blog by Alan_Murchison

At the weekend I had the chance to attend a British Airways open day at Heathrow. I always like to travel and thought it would be a great chance to look around some planes and BA had lined up lots of activities. Also it was a great family day out with the kids. I also managed to slip in another Olympic event in my 2012 challenge and to be honest, the highlight of the whole day was meeting a couple of the guys from the Paralympic Wheelchair Basketball team. Ade and Ian Sagar were in training as they were off to the European Championships. They were getting able-bodied people to try their hand at wheelchair basketball to showcase the sport and also give us all an idea how difficult it is.

Now I have watched a British team in action before and trust me when I say these guys take no prisoners when it comes to competition and aggression on the court. The skill and technique required is quite something and then to manoeuvre at pace about the court is very hard. You then throw a basketball into the mix and you have one very tough, skilful and challenging sport. These guys train as hard as any athletes and I cannot wait to follow their progress in 2012. Mia my 5-year-old loved ramming people! I was a little bit nervous when she was hitting an Paralympic athlete, however he was a big boy and could look after himself.....just.

We then had a very small but exclusive performance from Alexandra Burke. WOW! Now I really enjoy X Factor but I could not believe how good she was in real life. Quite often some artists just don't make the grade live, but she was absolutely brilliant. Really talented and boy could she sing. She looked amazing and I am now a fan. In fact so much so, that I would pay to go and see her again. She was nearly as good as Richard Ashcroft live, but ever so slightly prettier!!