Epic disappointment

Today is June 10.  On this day in 1829, the first boat race between the universites of Oxford and Cambridge took place.  In 1935, Alcoholics Anonymous was founded.  In 1940, Norway surrendered to Germany.  In 1967, the Six Day War ends in Israel.  In 1977, Apple shipped the first Apple II computer.  In 1999, Serbia withdrew from Kosovo, ending NATO air strikes.  In 2003, the Spirit Rover was launched toward Mars.  Actress Judy Garland, attorney F. Lee Bailey, biologist E.O. Wilson, and politician John Edwards were born on this day.  And in 2011, the Olympic ticket lottery ended with approximately 250,000 applicants receiving no tickets whatsoever.

Including me.

Despite applying for over 100 tickets at 20 events worth over £7500 (US $11,000), I got nothing.

And to add insult to injury, the news also reported that less than half of the British tickets were available. The rest were given to corporate sponsors.

I've been told I will have "first crack" at tickets for the remaining events, but I have to point out if I wanted to go to the remaining events, I would have applied for them!!

Fortunately -- and reflecting the shambolic nature of how London has handled this -- the tickets have been allocated by country, but EU rules dictate you can't discriminate against other EU members.  Thus, even though I didn't get any British tickets, I can still buy German tickets.  And the good news is they are selling them "first come, first served" rather than by lottery.