Games Maker Day 6

Well a little later than expected (...only 3 months later) I am finally getting a chance to update my blog!

"Surely you won't remember" I hear you say... well fear not! Every single moment, memory and conversation captured is still as clear as day!

So, day 6.. Wednesday - I  had Tuesday off (yaaaaaaay) hence skipping a day on the blog!

Today we arrived as usual for our morning briefing under the lip of the aquatics centre roof. We were greeted by the ever so loud and flamboyant Mary (Staffing Manager) who instigated her usual morning "hokey kokey" dance followed by her own version of "heads, shoulders, knees and toes"!

Today we were given a horrible colour so as in true GM style we switched (again) to Pink with Michael as our Team Leader. Pink was Britannia Row - we were stationed by the Copper Box which held Goalball. We were at the end of the bridge and supposed to be in charge of controlling the traffic flow, as well as the normal CDM Games Maker duties of giving directions to venues, toilets, ticketing queries and of course not forgetting the big bowl shaped structure a.k.a. The Olympic Stadium! :-) We seem to be answering many, many questions every day and we must be close to nearly 2,012 questions!

As you can see from the photo I took above, the Copper Box (situated behind the big RUN sculpture which is a piece of the "Art in the Park") is not very copper looking - it is more black! One of the most common questions when stationed near the Copper Box seemed to be "Why is it called the copper box?". Well, it is called the Copper Box as the top half of the Copper Box is clad in 3,000 sq metres of external copper cladding which has been recycled. As it ages it will have a unique appearance that will develop a rich natural copper colour.

Just where we were was right by the programme stand so all day we could hear this young lady shouting "get your programmes" it was just like being on a market stall really. I think by the end of the day I was going to be dreaming about the special offer on programmes. The crowd control is probably one of the hardest things as you can imagine trying to get thousands of spectators to move to / walk down one side of the bridge right by the BBC studios was no mean feat especially when the security guys weren't exactly helping.

We all went off and had our lunch breaks. As the temperature was slowly increasing there began to be a sever lack of cold food selections in the workforce dining area - this lead to me having the same thing for about 4 days... Falafel and Humous Salad, followed by the obligatory Banana, bottle of drink and of course the trusty Nature Valley bar!

At the end of our shift we all decided to go for a drink one of the bars just outside of the park. We ended up going to the outdoors Heineken bar which had a large screen showing C4's coverage of the Games. There was a few of us so we sat down on one of the picnic bench tables as you can see from the photo below.

We stayed for several hours and had many conversations with passers by, spectators, staff and even athletes from Cameroon. Towards the end of the evening our party size was dwindling and there was just Laura, Matt and I left. We chatted and spoke to the Athletes from Cameroon as you can see below.

We then got chatting to various members of the RAF and Royal Navy. It was so surreal just turning round and having conversations with the Armed Forces. Sometimes you forget that they are just "normal people" too! They were drinking Pimms and we pitched in and bought them a couple of pitchers just to say thanks for all that they have done over the London 2012 Games. Many people didn't realise these serving members of the armed forces gave up their leave and time off to stay at Hainault and commute down to Stratford every day at 4.00am on coaches to man the security gates - they often worked over 16 hour shifts with very few breaks!

All in all it was another great day and ended off nicely by spending time relaxing and chatting to various people who were also very humbled by all the volunteers efforts at the Games.

Until next time and thanks for reading... x

Game Maker Day 5

Well today was a pretty awesome day too actually!

It all started off early again actually. Easier today though as it was Monday and the trains are back to normal. I must say though, that it's the only Monday I've ever worked where I have been happy to work on a Monday. :-)

We got deployed to blue team again which was a bit disappointing as we fancied a change, however, after the briefing we saw our old team leader Michael who was short so we moved to his team (we were going to move anyway as we didn't really want blue) which was pink which is Britannia Row in Sector 4. This area of the park is one of the busiest as you have to come past us to make your way to Eton Manor, Riverbank Arena, Basketball Arena and the large screen also known as Park Live.

It started of with Laura and Lou on BOH access point Alpha and Matt and myself on BOH access point Bravo. We chose to cover these first so we could get it out of the way and over and done with as quick as possible as this is fairly boring - for those of you that don't know it involves checking the acronyms on people's accreditation to ensure they are allowed access to this BOH area. We then went for breakfast and I spoke to a few people I had met on previous days and it was nice to catch up with them.

We got back to our area and Matt and myself were by the bridge which was quite busy. We dealt with the usual queries from spectators and guests and this helped pass the time. It was exceptionally busy today on the park as there was actually 5,000 selected Sainsbury's staff that had tickets for several events throughout the day. This was as a sort of reward and recognition thing for around 5-6 staff from nearly every store over the whole country apparently.

We suddenly got a quiet period between venue ingress and egress and Matt and myself took the opportunity to go and visit the Coca-Cola sponsor showcase (The Beat Box) - it was designed by Londoner Asif Khan.We asked how long it would take and they told us 20 minutes and eventually the showcase team persuaded is to go in. I can't really describe it. It was great and very interactive and especially good for kids. You start by walking around the outside and you touch and play with the interactive panels that make up the structure.
These interactive panels play sounds that make up part of the Mark Ronson ft. Katy B sound track used to promote and advertise the games and Coca-Cola. Once you get to the top after recreating the soundtrack you can have your photo with the Paralympic torch with the Olympic Stadium as the backdrop - best of all it's free! On the way down you go past the name of several torch bearers and some of the future flames which vary from actors, performers, doctors and architects! At the bottom you are given a limited edition aluminium bottle of Coca-Cola which you drink whilst celebrating the future flames in the circular room whilst listening to the move to the beat song.

We spoke to Michael and the other sector 4 team leader and had a general chat about the volunteering and Paralympics in general - this was good as we got to chat to him for quite some time and also about several of the other team leaders. The other TL then has us a ticket for the athletics. Michael offered it to Matt and myself. I then said to Matt that he could go as I would be seeing some athletics on Thursday night. He had a great time and even saw the David Weir victory ceremony. We heard the roars from the stadium whilst we were in the workforce canteen, it sounded incredible.

The afternoon was fairly busy too, we started off in the same area as earlier on that day which was good and the afternoon went really quickly actually. There's a rule that we aren't really supposed to give out maps to spectators for some reason. I think it's to do with being a sustainable games. Anyway, I gave out the most I've ever given out yesterday. I seemed to be handing them out to everyone who walked past at some point. For some time now we'd seen an American sitting on a bench about 50m away from us. He went to get lunch and Michael our team leader went and spoke to him. He came over with him to Laura, Lou and myself. It turns out he was John Register an American athlete who won Silver at the Sydney Games in 2000 for long jump. John used to participate in the Olympics until he severed an artery and eventually had to have his leg amputated above the knee. He took part in swimming just 18months after his operation and then eventually built up enough strength to take part in long jump. We got to see Johns Silver medal and hold it. He then let us wear it and pose for photos. This was a bad idea as once the four of us had it members of the public started queuing up to have their photos with him. It was quite ironic as I don't actually think they even knew who he was! Anyway he left as he was presenting at a nearby hotel later that afternoon.

Eventually it was time to go home and our relief came to take over. We were all looking forward to this point as most of us lot have got a day off on Tuesday. Yaaaaay!

Our relief were having their briefing and Michael said we could leave. Matt and I thought we should walk back through the gardens on the way back up towards Stratford gate as it was less busy than going across and down Britannia Row. As we got half way across the bridge a spectator came running over to us and shouting about a little boy being badly injured. The first thought that ran through both mine and Matt's mind was "oh my god the kids fallen into the river!" but thankfully we didn't have to jump in after anyone. There was a little boy down below lying on a bench with a severe cut to his forehead. I ran towards the nearest security marshal with a radio as I didn't have one on me at that point. She radioed through to the VCC. Matt and I ran down to the scene to help out before the first aid team got there. But there was no first aid in sight. I ran back up to the closest first aid which was med centre alpha up by street market and showed Tim the medic where to find the boy. We left the wheelchair and ran back down. I then ran back to collect the chair so we could take him back up safely and look at his injury more closely. On the way up, Rhys, the little boy was crying so I gave him my one an only limited edition Coca-Cola pin marking 500 days to go until the games. He was chuffed and automatically stopped crying. Matt and I made our way back up stopping the crowds and people walking in the path and once in the med centre filled out our LOCOG Incident Report Card and checked if him, the parents and his little brother were okay. Once we found out they were we headed off home around an hour later than we should have.

And that's the end of that eventful fun packed day... I'm looking forward to having tomorrow off and doing very little at all. Although I say that now but I'm sure I'll end up keeping myself busy and watching all the latest sporting events on Channel 4 in between the numerous ad breaks they seem to be cramming in every 5 minutes!

Games Maker Day 4

Day for was supposed to be my second day of late shifts! Seeing as I had enjoyed the early starts and the buzz that was around the Olympic Park in the mornings I decided to change all my shifts to early apart from the final Sunday (9th September) as this was the Closing Ceremony and this would mark the end of London 2012! 

So yet another early start, which by now I didn't really mind as I have done a few now. It started of with me waiting for a few others before we checked in. As this was a Sunday there was a few travel problems so we didn't actually arrive until about 7.15, however, I still had to leave at pretty much the same early time to make my connections. We got placed on orange today which is Sector 6. So this was from the Acer sponsor showcase all the way down to the Eton Manor walk which is towards the wheelchair tennis. We headed off on our 20 minute walk over to the information point to meet our team leader for the day. This was Phil, a nice older gentleman who seemed to be well knowledgeable about the area we were working in. We started off by going for a quick reccie to see what was in the area, we walked around Street Market to see what this had to offer so we could correctly inform the spectators and guests if they asked us. 

It was raining today so as usual we go issued with the horrendous plastic "Next" branded ponchos - these didn't last long as the rain was just a quick light shower for an hour or so and then it was time to take of the jackets as the British sun came out again this morning. As you can see we had great fun getting Laura back into her poncho after she had her photo with the marching band. 

A couple of hours had passed and it was our turn to go on our break so we headed over to breakfast. As usual on the way stopping to help anyone who looked lost/wanted photos taking or just general information about the park. It was a bit of a surprise today too - we had Matt and Alice on our team again which was nice as we all know each other quit well now as we've been together a few times previously. It's good to be with a few familiar faces as you get to know people, have a laugh and enjoy yourself. Upon returning to post we got to see the marching band among a few other acts around the park. 

During this stage of the whole Games Maker experience I have done most of the various positions available. These are ticketing on Stratford Gate (Blue), Ticketing and Way-finding on Greenway Gate (Green), Info Point on Greenway Gate, Crowd Management and Venue Ingress and Egress across the Olympic Park. The two areas I haven't worked on yet are Orbit Circus (Sector 2 - Red) and World Square (Sector 4 - Yellow).


After heading over to the information point to pick up some maps we picked up the large Mandeville cardboard cut-out. I carried this around Sector 6 and this gave the little kiddies a chance to have their photo with it, along with a few adults too I must add! I got spotted by the medical team and they asked if we could take it over to see a couple of kids in Medical Centre Alpha. After pleasing the kid the team of first aiders got to work on "fixing up" Mandeville. He wasn't too well so after picking him up in the Medical buggy he was whisked into a treatment bed to be seen to. He had his blood pressure and temperature checked and after a few minute he seemed back to normal - maybe this was something to do with the kind people from Cadbury's Chocolate bring round some Heroes for all the volunteers! :-)

 Anyway enough of that.... after lunch we spent the afternoon chatting to spectators, directing people, answering queries etc. and we got wind of the fact there was a day pass ticket working its way round our team of 20 odd Games Makers! This automatically made our ears prick up. We would ave the chance to go and see some live basket ball action in the Basketball arena. Eventually it got round to my turn after the others and when I got to go in this was absolutely incredible. No way at all does the Basketball arena look temporary - it the the largest temporary venue on the park and is ten stories high! Once inside the atmosphere was electric. The crowds cheering, the teams chanting, the noise was amazing and there wasn't even a competition on at the moment, they were just warming up! The teams were Canada and Germany who were about to kick off before I made a swift exit to allow both Alice and Matt the chance to come in before we had to go for the day. I left and let Alice in with the ticket, once Alice was out I waited for Matt and we headed back towards Stratford to make our way home.

Another fairly busy day today which ended on yet another high as we got to see some Basketball action in the Basketball Arena.

Until next time people and thanks for reading Day 4 of my Games Maker journey!

Games Maker Day 3

Well today was another early start where I headed off around 4.15am. It seemed strange getting on the tube today, it felt like there was a lot less volunteers on the tube and a lot more Friday night drunks on the first tube home from their wild night out in town. This morning I met a couple of other Games Makers at Cherry Park check-in where we pleaded to be put on a more lively site such as yellow, however, this team was already full so we got stuck on blue - a first for the other two but a second time for myself and Alice.


Surprise surprise... our TL for the day was again Michael. we strolled down to our gates for the morning and we were on lanes C & D (I would have taken a photo but no one is allowed to take photographs in the PSA). By the time we'd had our briefing it was time to open up. Our TL had to pop off a few times and he asked me to explain the breakfast situation to all the 16 Games Makers on our team. We had a very quiet start that seemed to pick up very quickly until the point whereby no one on our team got to go and have breakfast except from those who went very early before the busy period and those who complained to Michael or myself in his absence! This was a bit extreme as it wasn't actually a suggestion from Michael, it came from the Security Group Leader for our lanes.

Anyway, swiftly moving on... after a morning of scanning tickets at the PSA, resolving spectator queries and manually entering the ridiculous print at home tickets that don't print correctly it was nearly time to think about shutting a few lanes down. Ours was a fairly quiet lane compared to others in Stratford Gate so ours started to close at 11.00am.

Before the final lanes closed there was a lady with her 3-4 year old excited son who was bought over to me by one of the other team members as Michael was busy and I had his radio - the ticket was reading as "refund" which I knew by this point meant they had been refunded and re-sold. So not to upset the little boy I offered to take them over to the Box Office to find out the whole story with regards to these particular tickets. I left it in the hands of Box Office who were trying to find any spare tickets available for them to purchase instead as they'd made their way all the way from Norwich.

After all our lanes closed we had the chance to go and get something to eat and have a bit of a sit down in the workforce break area. And as our lanes didn't open again until 3pm we didn't have to go back until then!

After lunch there was about 6 of us (Michael, Louise, Laura, Alice, Matt and myself) who went for a bit of a wonder around the park. We went into various showcases to see what they were all about in case anyone asked us. It was interesting that you can actually view the past energy data and energy consumption for each venue since it was built if that your kind of thing!? We then tried to blag our way into the Stadium, however, as boldly as we walked up to the security gates we got refused entry as our accreditation doesn't say STA (Stadium). It was worth a try though as you never know! Hopefully closer to the last day the games makers will get a chance to go and view it inside. Well those who haven't had a chance to get tickets anyway. Then we went and had a bit of another sit down, this time in the public areas near Park Live. This was good, we got to see various sporting events on the large screen. By this time it was getting closer to 3pm so on our way back towards our team leader we stopped off at the Coca-Cola pin trading centre. Now this was a whole new experience! We are new to the whole pin thing, however, we had a brief explanation inside as to how this works so we got going. We selected 2 pins each and I chose one of the Velodrome and another one of me holding the Paralmpic torch! :-) (photo above) On the way out we said goodbye to a couple of people and that was us done for the day.

Until tomorrow....