Driver Training - Part 1

Ok so I have to admit that I have been living in the UK for over 3 years now ( what??) and  have never needed or wanted really to drive here. I am a strong believer in public transport and friends basically.

But what would I not do in the interest of the Games?

Driving on the wrong side of the road in the wrong side of the car, seems small and petty from this side of the ordeal but 4 days ago I was not strutting.

Luckily Hannah at work had faith in me and let me drive her mini around the work car park in Basingstoke and even take a roundabout in her lovely Mini, which I think was a lifesaver and helped me get over the initial fear.

Nevertheless, last Sunday morning, waking up at 6 am (!!)  to get to the Fleet Depot in Stratford was not the beginning of a rather stressful day. First the Jubilee line ( = my lifeline to get to the Games this Summer, being the most convenient Tube line) was down for “planned engineering work”. And then the buses that are supposed to replace it are just not. So I have to take a cab to get to Victoria Station before winding my way through London. And it’s 6am. 

On a Sunday.

NOT FUN.

Got there on time though by some miracle.

And it's in for 3 hours of what could have been “ Death by Powerpoint” and actually turns out to be quite bearable because I meet up as usual with good people and we get through these sessions with the help of cynicism, caffeine and solidarity.

The Olympic Village

The afternoon comes on, it’s a beautiful day, with the sun beaming out and we are the lucky people who get to spend it on motorways and making our way through the heart of London, rehearsing itineraries.

Rancor aside, it was actually mostly fun…if stressful : The 2 other girls with me in the car turn out to be French and Spanish and are also either nervous or not used to driving on the “wrong!!” side of the road. So I think our trainer, who was there to assess our skills, was relieved we didn t have any accidents. To be fair he was lovely and didn’t try to teach us anything but actually was positive and supportive

But my, I haven’t had to concentrate that much on something in quite a while. Driving other people just increases the sense of responsibility.

Our pretty cars

BUT they are lovely cars to drive, all fancy and “green” ( well for a diesel car at least…and yes I see the irony) : they turn off when you’re stopped in neutral gear, there are smooth and sound, they hold onto the road , they have lovely logos all over the place so we can t be missed on the lanes this Summer ( and people in London can sigh with envy or hate at us cruising round on special roads that turn their transport routine upside down) and they are BMW 3. So really, I cannot complain ( well not more than I ve done so far).

So that was Driver Training Part 1. Part 2 is in 2 weeks and they will let us go in the urban jungle with just the sat nav and fellow Gamesmakers for tools and hope we reach destination.

I saw Barbara (our boss, the head of the NOC-NPC Volunteer programme) and she told me that unfortunately I will not be able to visit the Olympic Village before my first shift  as all the available dates do not work for me for work reasons ( and Gala!) so I will just have to be super efficient on the first day and rely on my team!

The Basketball Arena

Speaking of team I haven't yet gotten the names of the other 2 Gamesmakers looking after Haiti,but we should get an email in the coming days so we can get to know eachother and meet up before it all kicks off.

Royal Artillery Barracks ( Shooting)

All fun and Games.

I’m loving it ( special bow to the sponsor)

Haiti?? Haiti!! Haiti...

Yes, that is the delegation i have been assigned to:


Haiti.


And like myself, the reactions i got were mixed at first and then get more and more positive. 




Last Thursday, the " reveal" day. was the day when we saw how our dear LOCOG bosses had nothing to envy from the X-factor : the suspense management was just incredible. We were in the room for about 10 min before knowing that the guys on the same table and with the same number as yourself were going to be team-mates...then we waited another 15 min before it was revealed that this evening they were assigning delegations from the Americas...and another 15 min before actually going through all the countries one by one and discovering which one was your own. Emotions ran high.




Big Countries like Jamaica, USA and Canada were allocated just at the beginning leaving the majority of us little time to be disappointed before actually knowing which country we had. 


I was sat on a table with about 8 people and we all got allocated Caribbean countries : Haiti, St Kitts, Dominican Republic...and weirdly, Peru.


Whilst the Haitian delegation should comprise about 16 athletes which means they get 4 volunteers, only one other member of my future team was able to make it that evening : Harry, a British student who has lived in the Antilles and knows all about them and actually speaks creole and French with something of a Caribbean feel ...quite fun to listen to actually. His knowledge is amazing and makes me wonder once again "why me?" I've never been to Haiti and visited Guadeloupe a couple of years ago but i know that is very different place.


Anyway, all the more for me to learn.


I must say i have not yet done all my homework on Haiti, so like you, i know it's poor, suffered a terrible earthquake 2 years ago and well, not really any famous athletes!


But, watch this space, i will soon be an expert and snob anybody who doesn't know the names of the last 5 presidents ( or is it dictators?) and the date of independence of the country! 


I'll probably have more to tell about Haiti before i go onto my next training : driving. gloups.


Thank you all for your comments and reading. and yes, one day you will see me in my uniform :-)

UDAC or the IKEA trip

Today is another big one!!


I picked up my uniform and accreditation and all sorts of goodies!


Trekked over to the UDAC ( Uniform Distribution and Accreditation Center) this afternoon : it's a massive warehouse that could house 10000 people easily and all set up in different queues for different areas - ID verification, helpdesk, accreditation area, waiting area, shoe trying on area, clothes trying on area,  uniform distribution area and finally checkout and Oyster card area...hardly any queues for us today but i m sure some days must be absolutely rammed as they need to get 70000 people through there before the Games.




Of course my triple citizenship confused their system for a while and i feared i would need to go back home to get my 3rd proof of ID ( had only brought 2 along :-))




but all is well!! 




Met up with my new buddy from sunday bagging Mario and we did the process together




Shoes are super comfortable and the uniform itself is not too bad either: they wisely did not put up any mirrors in the changing cabins so you need to rely on the opinion of your fellow Gamesmakers ( girls with girls , boys with boys of course) to make sure you've got the right size. iiiiiiii.not exactly the kind of clothing i wear everyday so a bit nervous but it turns out fine!

The whole experience is just like IKEA ( to borrow a lady's analogy today) : follow the signs on the floor, take something here, take something there, lose all sense of direction and check out with a bag full of stuff you're not quite sure of!








Best part is the accreditation.Note the "ALL" on mine : means i can access ALL venues!! 








This is getting so close i can almost touch it!!

And to finish off the day, i received my invitation for the Driving Training part 1....the adventure continues!

A busy weekend - Part 2

Sunday morning, i got up at 7.00. First shock to the system, especially for a girl who has pretty much been travelling non stop for the last 2 weeks and hasn't has a proper lie-in in ages.


Crawl up to Stevenage, north north north London, sort of the equivalent of Basingstoke for those who know, even more roundabouts and less soul, if possible. Let's not even mention the closing of Finsbury Park station for flooding reasons (This month of April has broken all records of raining. horrible.), which was where i was supposed to switch over,nor the 15 min wait in the freezing corridor at the station before pick up time.


But hey!! still here to tell the tale, right?


So we get to the John Lewis warehouse, and i discover that thankfully there are about 20-25 of us sacrificing their Sunday to....FILL UP 7500 GOODIES BAGS for the Paralympic Athletes.






The 25000 Olympic bags were done on Friday afternoon and Saturday (all day).


target is 4000 a shift (5 hours) so it s no fooling around...












5 or 6 elements in each bag, amongst which lovely home-made pennants made by kids, sewing circles, retirement homes, you name it, from all across the UK...Beautiful and also quite moving, each being unique and full of little messages to wish the athletes the best of luck.

So we're off, everybody regroups in teams of 4-5 people and settles in packing, wrapping, putting on the palettes, putting into storage, counting etc...every gesture boring and repetitive but you can't let go as the whole chain of people depends on you and your rhythm. I met some great women and with some chit chat, speculation about delegations, the whole thing was super pleasant. In the afternoon, i chose to be a runner, ie making sure everybody has plenty of stock and getting bags from one place to another. and my, that was exhausting and super super intense.

We did so well and finished at 3.30, a whole 4 hours before the official end of the shift. The poor afternoon shifters only worked for about 30min before we wrapped it up!!

Great sense of accomplishment i can tell you...




Tomorrow i pick up my uniform!!!

A busy weekend - Part 1

This last weekend of April was Olympic for sure and full of good surprises.

Saturday, Module 4 of Training, City Edge, Dalton : I got there 40min late because of the bus taking double the amount of time it had predicted. felt super sheepish sneaking into the full room. Any way...we learned all about Doping, Ticketing for Athletes and Team Officials, a whole new raft of acronyms and weird vocabulary ( a life saving glossary is on its way says Barbara, our boss...fervently praying here), how to deal with media requests, how to use Social media before during and after the Games, and quite a few tips and tricks about Cultural Awareness. This last part what quite fun, we learned all sorts of "strange" customs, lots of laughter and quiproquos on the international tables ( they all are!)

AND AND AND AND : we learned that on Module 5  we will know to which delegation we have been assigned....not only the continent but the actual country..whoop whoop!! and that is in 3 little days for me!!! 

Of course, once she had sad that the volume in the room went u quite a notch as people started to compare dates and the preferences they have been given...a french girl, Christelle on my table is not at all on the same day as me, but i seem to be on the same day as "english only" volunteers, so i m completely confused. it feels like Christmas again, can't wait for the surprise!! 

next comes Sunday....

99 days to go!

Yes everybody noted yesterday that there were 100 days to go...i prefer the double digit!


and it feels like i have just about 99 days of training coming up...


2 days next week : 
        Module 4 
        AND
        Gift bag packing somewhere super north of London


2 days the week after : 
        Module 5...i find out which continent i'm assigned to...whoop whoop 
        AND 
        UDAC session :i get my uniform and accreditation...whoop whoop whoop!




It 's getting super real. i 'm loving it.

UDAC - u d'ac?

Silly pun i know. 
About 10 days ago, Stella McCartney revealed the Team GB outfits for the athletes..
.


Now please compare with the volunteer uniforms



not quite the same designer huh?


Anyway, i booked a slot in May to pick up my Uniform and Accreditation at UDAC ( Uniform distribution and Accreditation Center)...and here comes some criticism (no i don't live in Lalaland all the time) : the slots they offer are only on week days and only between 10am and 5pm, which means most of us actually have to take a half day off just to pick 2 tee shirts, 1 pair of pants and some accessories. Now i realise they have constraints and restrictions, but surely, some weekend  or evening pick up dates could have been arranged?




Moving on...