How i became a Games' Maker - Part 1

Ok, we've established my obsession with the Olympics.


When i moved to London in April 2009, i moved for work reasons and because i needed a change of air.I had in the back of my mind that i would be in the city for the Olympics but that seemed so far away...then it started hitting the news here and suddenly it hit me. So in August 2010, i did some Google research on how to become a "volunteer". It turned out the deadline was mid-September.

So one evening in September, when days were getting shorter, i settled comfortably in bed and started the process, which involves the usual "create a profile and password...which i'm always forgetting) and then a gruelling form asking me everything from the name of my grandmother to my shoe size. I'm a girl who has never had to interview formally for a job or anything ( im well aware of how lucky i am), so you can imagine i was thinking this was a bit OTT ( over the top), but i hung on, typed things in, erased, started again, only to stay with my original answer....then pressed the "Submit " button and o joy and miracle got an email saying that i had applied successfully...blablablabla...and learned that they would start interviewing in about 6 months (looooooong time.).

Now as i was applying, the form explained to me that there were 3 kinds of volunteers : general, medical and press. I have no medical knowledge but i do PR for a living so i thought "ahaa! they'll probably put me in that bucket"...It turns out they haven't and i can't help thinking that it's because one of the major competitors of my company is sponsoring the Games and well, maybe they didn't want to run the risk of me saying "bad" things about them. I wouldn't have ( i think!!) but it would have been a little weird.

Anyway, moving forward, winter 2010 comes along and while i'm getting plenty of emails from London 2012 to "sign up to this or that" and "buy this or that, it s got a logo on it and it squeeks", i'm not really getting any guidance on whether i'm in or out.

More in the next post, if you're interested.