Day 1

So my first proper day of shifts as an EVS (Event Services) team member is over. I feel like an athlete in training.  Can't say I really enjoyed the day.  The shift began at 2.00, after the usual queuing to find out our teams for the day (and to be given our first gift -they think such things as a little black book will motivate us to keep coming back) then a hike through the Olympic Park which is vast to be briefed by the team leader (missing most of it).  I was in the blue team which I think is the largest.  Our star jumping, group team leader led us off, back to Stratford Gate where we had entered the Park.  The team leaders stepped forward and shouted out roles and requested volunteers.  Those who had worked the previous days knew the best shifts and took those immediately but when photography was called out, of course, I leapt at it.  From 3.00 until 6.00 I stood at the main, Stratford Gate, on the Bridge, in the lane assigned to sponsors and corporate hospitality guests, asking everyone who walked in and immediately began taking photos of the Olympic sign and the stadium, if they wanted me to take a photo for them with them in it.  I must have used every type of camera and phone to do this.  Nothing memorable to report. Everyone was very nice and happy to be there and trusting to hand over their camera to a stranger.  I saw one girl who was throwing herself into the job and welcoming everyone into the park and was also accumulating phone numbers from the army staff. One American guy said if the rest of the day continued with people like me then it would be the best ever.  At 6.00 I was allowed a one hour meal break with the others in my team - two who barely spoke and a guy called Justin who is called Jane at weekends; he had lived around the world, trained as a medic and spoke fluent French but please don’t get the wrong idea - I am not with interesting people. 

We diligently reported back for duty only to find most people had disappeared into the venues.  We suggested the team leader find us other duties.  So two of us were assigned to ticketing.  I had not had the scanning training due to changing roles and actually was not very good at it.  It was really hard turning away many people, often from abroad with no more time, who had tickets for another venue, seen the event but travelled over specially to see the Olympic Park.  At least we were all consistent in turning them away.  All of them wanted to complain to the team leader and many did.  One persistent couple complained to the Group Team Leader who then proceeded to let them in! As ever - those that shout loudest! So much for consistency.  At 9.30 the team leader went home leaving us alone.  As usual our shifts had been duplicated  with security (same top but black trousers) getting paid, so when one person was coming in every 10 mins I decided to leave the work to those getting paid at about 10 pm.  Took an older guy with me who had travelled from Derby to do this and we walked out.  He gave me a kiss on the cheek as we said goodbye at the station - the nicest thing that had happened to me all day.  It would have been meeting up with Claire and Rob or Elaine whose texts I had unfortunately missed to say they were there and could we meet.

As for the weather, it started out dry and fairly warm then whilst we were on the main bridge taking pics, there was a sandstorm, the guests were entering, shielding their eyes whilst my hair was blowing around making me look like Amy Warehouse.  Then it became very cold and Stella obviously had not anticipated a cold  British summer night designing little wind breaker jackets.

Will I last? I doubt it.  Especially as this morning someone who is following my blog sent me another to read about how they are meeting famous people and athletes, getting into venues and having a great time.  I feel like I'm in the Rank and File and easily replaceable.  Hard to push yourself to do 14 hours with no fun!   

The Opening Ceremony - the best kept secret

…and its best kept that way! Danny Boyle made a plea to all the volunteers privileged to see the show on Monday and Wednesday to keep it a surprise for the rest of the world and he did ask so nicely!  Also, it would be a real shame to spoil the impact for you.  All the screens around the stadium were emblazoned with the hash tag #save the surprise.

I can give  you a few snippets which you may have already read about. It's called the Isles of Wonder.    The pre show is a grand theatrical production on a scale the likes of which have never been seen before.  The theme is England's green and pleasant land set to Jerusalem, emphasising the enormous historical and social change from the idyllic, tranquil, green, pastoral, land of cricket matches, maypoles, picnics, livestock and religion to the noisy, aggressive, protesting,  dirty, dark, factories and foundries, finishing with the forging of the steel-like Olympic rings - all very impressive. 

The second part is all about the NHS and Great Ormond Street Hospital with plenty of spare hospital beds!

The last sections were not revealed to us much but they are about culture and the arts with sequences about Britain's heritage from the 60s to present day - focusing on the best British films, TV, books and dance and I think will be more visual and digital for the TV audience.  The show begins with a quote from The Tempest read by Kenneth Branagh.  There's references to  Chariots of Fire, James Bond (I think he may drop from a helicopter),  EastEnders, The Beatles and an amazing contemporary dance routine plus much, much more.

The most striking observation is that it is all so quintessentially British, not sure of the appeal to the rest of the world.  It's clever, quirky, charming, funny, warm although a bit strange and even scary in one part, covering the whole spectrum from simple and down to earth to spectacular, awe-inspiring and inventive.  "Splendidly British and magnificently bonkers" was one quote.  Of course, it is the views and vision of a 50ish year old northern man if you asked him to describe Britain.  It didn’t reduce me to tears like the ones in Athens and Beijing but maybe tonight when it's for real it will as I stand with my beer at the BT concert in Hyde Park with my family and friends.  I do hope so!  I am positive you will enjoy it!

Go!

I am only just beginning to recover from Monday's shift - The first Technical Rehearsal of the Opening Ceremony.  I can't help wondering if I will last the duration.

Arrived early to prove to Ian that it is possible - he inserted all those comments about my ability to win medals for my unpunctuality!  Only to find that no-one expected all the volunteers to be on time and to get through all the security checks promptly so we were left standing with nothing to do but chat amongst ourselves and watch the Team Leaders trying to assert their authority and compete with each other for two hours outside the Aquatics Centre.  However, prior to this came my rejection at security - surely they have not read my blog and fired me already I thought but of course not, my accreditation had been cancelled due to changing jobs.  So went through the security check twice and they still didn't pick up that I had a large, full, water bottle rather worryingly.

Eventually the group team leader (yes its unbelievably hierarchical - we had 12 in our team and 3 team leaders - too many chefs?) pitched up having been briefed (which it obviously wasn’t) to inform us of our role for the day - apparently it will change every shift.  We were to stand in the main square - World Square - and direct the Olympic Family to collect their packs - we never did establish how you could distinguish someone in the Olympic Family from the general public or indeed the reason they needed to collect packs or even what they consisted of - despite my frequent questions.  Lisa, an exbookmaker and I (and no, you are not picturing her actually - she is a sweet, mild mannered, smiley lady from a village in Cambridgeshire) could foresee all the questions we would be asked by the general public whilst still trying to grapple with the notion of guessing the Olympic Family but no-one had any answers for us.  Many of the abundant leaders with walkie talkies it seemed couldn’t use them.  So not, unsurprisingly when the crowds were let in 3 hours later we were bombarded with questions that we couldn’t initially give them answers to and a number were of course annoyed and irritated.   So what was the reason the largest McDonald in the country wasn’t open likewise, the special, huge, London 2012 merchandise store?  They certainly missed a trick -they would have made a fortune.  However, I did get to practice my toilets this way line and a number of times - that was once we had established some time later which toilets were open.  Although  It took another hour before all the teams were aligned as people were bounced back and forth like table tennis.  Our roles were also in triplicate as we stood alongside people wearing sandwich boards with coloured badges (I think, we were never told, that these were really the people directing the Olympic Family with some kind of code) and then there was security - same top as GM's, different bottoms - who remained in the shadows beside us -  seemingly doing  less than us, certainly showing less initiative but getting paid. So much to learn already for the many leaders - that’s if they ask for feedback.

Once the show commenced at 8.00 we were left again with nothing to do for 3 hours so our very nice team leader - not one of the loud mouthed, trying to assert themselves gang - very kindly bought our little team of 4, a beer.  We knew it wasn’t allowed - uniform staff can't buy with the general public but again - were they really going to fire us?  We sat around talking for a while, utilised our meal voucher in the huge canteen with two small monitors.  I had hoped to see outside, around World Square, enormous monitors in order to see some of the action while we worked but they don’t exist.  It had been tiring but at least we had been busy and much more interesting than standing around making polite conversation.  Besides, I needed a rest from the overwhelming heat and sun - there is no shade whatsoever. 

As we walked back to our positions we noticed that a line of people - mostly army and stage crew - were standing waiting to go into the stadium.  We overheard the impressive stage manager saying that due to a lack of numbers they would all have to go into the stadium a number of times.  Our lovely team leader jumped on this and offered us as new recruits.  So we were tagged and enlisted.  The army thought it was great fun to have 4 lonely GMs (Games Makers) in their ranks and used us to sharpen their tongues.  All going swimmingly until a rather cute guy asked if I was babysitting him - so much for the sharp wit!  However, he then proceeded to entertain me for the next half hour (and 50 Shades of Grey actually came in useful - no, not like that but the witty retorts.  Although we did share a rope as I was the front of Cambodia and he was the back).  We proudly marched into the opening ceremony behind our flag bearer to a twinkling stadium and at that point I WAS Miss Cambodia - shoulders back, head held high - the only time I'll ever be a world class athlete.  But more about the stadium later as I attend the last Technical Rehearsal this evening as a spectator.  So will shortly be able to reveal the big secret you all want to know -what will David Beckham be doing?!  I already know a fair amount about the show as I sat with two dancers on the tube home.

The journey home was horrendous.  Left my shift at 11 ish feeling on a high from my show stopping performance only to come straight back down to earth as I hit the massive crowd waiting to get to Stratford Station.  We were penned in and released  in waves a few feet at a time.  It took 40 frustrating minutes to reach the station only to find that neither of my options  existed so had to travel by a different underground.  Needless to say, the trains were jammed to capacity but everyone was buzzing about the show.  The trains were like Friday night 11.30 party trains minus the alcohol reminding me of my EBN days.  Travelled on  three trains alongside volunteers and even got a hug goodbye from another dancer as he picked up his bike at Gunnersbury at 1.15pm. 

Overall, I would say it was a very mixed day with some significant highs and lows that left me exhausted as Ian's alarm woke me at 5.30 the next morning.

It's a once in a lifetime opportunity is the mantra Ian has been chanting at me for months as I have doubted my sanity at applying to be one of the 70,000 volunteer Games Makers at the London 2012 Olympics.  We want to know more about it so write a blog said Catherine and Annette over coffee together in Amsterdam. Even though they both thought I was mad to be doing this work for free, as most of my friends do (Claire especially). I barely know what a blog is was my retort.  Now here I am sitting on a beach in Turkey under a sunshade with time to kill, thinking about the three weeks ahead, writing what I think is a blog and entering the techie world.  Will it be Facebook next? Ann - you were my inspiration with the first of my friend's blogs arriving this morn.
My first shift starts on Monday evening, although I don't finish my training until Tuesday.  Yes, that is right but more of that later.  So the journey begins, as the Locog folk are fond of saying, as does the countdown.  This is my recap of the journey thus far for the benefit of the friends around the world who have not heard it, before I begin my (possibly) daily blog as a day in the life off an Olympics worker. 
First came the interview at London Excel - known as the Event Services Games Maker Selection Event. As an ex BBC employee I wasn't to be deterred by these fancy titles. I did my background research as I had advised countless HR clients in the past but found little to help about practical matters such as were jeans acceptable.  Made my first of many calls to the London 2012 team - no idea was the answer this time and plenty more. Decided to go for the professional, casual look with new blue suede boots and dress. Turns out I could have worn anything and didn't need to wear the too high heels. Still they looked good. Thankfully, Rachel, had previously been interviewed for a volunteer driver position so gave me a heads up with the questions.  Thank goodness she did - they were hard.  So as an ex HR person, I was impressed that they had good, standardised and fair questions.   Despite the early start to get Ben to his new senior school and travel over to East London in time, I took my first steps into the corporate Olympic world of sets and videos and SO many words and met a very friendly guy who made it more fun.  Good job - it all seemed so dry apart from signing my name on a sheet with thousands of others on a wall of messages. The interviewer was a bubbly HR person with children at school so we had things in common and carried on talking as we walked to the shop together to meet Lindsay, an ex HR colleague from Dow Jones, who happened to be the interviewer in the next booth.  Small world, we know, but I had already established she would be there when contacting her the week before despite not being in touch for about a year.  Had a sense she may be involved but no idea she would be in the next booth on that very day.  Those that know me well won't be surprised by this coincidence.
Heard quite quickly via email that I had been selected.  In the meantime, I began my endeavours to navigate the specially created website for the volunteers - have never made much progress.  Next stop, the Orientation Training Day, attending with Rachel.  Another early start on a Saturday morning of all things (should have seen the pattern) to another long distance destination - Wembley.  We had to separate as our numbers kept us apart and the first of the many lines, began, this time to get into the building.  I sat on a tiny seat between a very excited 30 ish year old man in an anorak from Plymouth and a very excited woman in her 20s from East London both of whom seemed happy to whoop it up at any opportunity, making me feel even more like I was missing something.  The lets get excited at anything gene?  Jonathan Edwards, the well known previous GB Olympic gold medallist and devout Christian, opened the morning with "this is the first of many Orientation days so we would be grateful if you didn't tweet, blog etc about it so we can keep it a secret".   However, he did say but you can tweet that I have a great butt - and indeed he did! That kept me amused for 5 mins  after our first Mexican wave for the cameras (who knew it was an Olympic sport?)…. followed by a lets all get excited now ……well there was an interview, conducted by Huw Edwards, with the just as I imagined Lord Seb Coe, followed by a Mexican wave (maybe we were trying out for the wave team), the Locog top brass - the CEO who tried to look casual and regular and the female head of HR - all corporately impressive. These were interspersed with imaginary running commentaries from a sports tv desk showing us different jobs for Games Makers.  But what was my role I wondered, not realising this would become a recurring theme.  I really hoped it wasn't catering, cleaning and waste as Jonathan Edwards had already made jibes about that group a few times followed by a Mexican wave (were we attempting the Olympic record for team waving).  Thank goodness for Eddie Izzard - my tiny saviour (yes not much bigger than me I noticed as we looked into each others eyes as he signed my sheet later and he clicked his heels).  His job was to teach us the mnemonic - I DO ACT and he couldn't remember it.  I love you Eddie!  I have practised it over and still forget it too.  And then a Mexican wave to finish, although by this stage my enthusiasm was under severe strain. Had they forgotten, we're Games Makers not competitors. We're not even to be allowed in the venues…but more of that later.  
Couldn't help discussing with Rachel with all her science and nutrition expertise - was it appropriate for the main sponsors to be McDonalds, Cadburys and Coke.  All fine in moderation she assured me.  So when I come up for air at the end and you next see me, I may have become the super size me!
The third stage, the role training day, or should I say the EVS Staffing Team Member Role Specific Training (RST).  Hurrah! I was finally going to find out my role. I trek over for another early start at some long distance place - this time - Hackney (the Olympic experience is being shared with the far flung corners of London), to join the long queue to enter the building. You know the pattern. We sit down in a room according to our individual numbers.  We do a role playing game which I have now completely forgotten. Followed by a lecture on health and safety.  As I am washing my hands in the toilets, late morning, I ask the professional coach (who did seem quite good - on loan from John Lewis as a fashion buyer manager) the very pertinent question - so what is my role? Come and see me before we recommence and I will tell you she said.  You will be working at the Olympic Park in the common domain I was informed.  I had already established that much previously but what exactly will my role be? You will find out later I  was told.  I soon found out the reason they wanted to keep the information from us for as long as possible.  It was a difficult job that no-one would want to do - sitting in an office for 10 hours checking that people had turned up for their shift, finding replacements and looking for patterns of late attendance or no shows.  Fun!  Didn't they know that I'm far more suited to the turning up late than spending all day looking for other people who have and trying to prevent it.
I saw the penny drop slowly round the room as people began to ask more enquiring and increasingly concerned questions about the role.  So where was our training for this?  Well, we did receive good training on how to try and get into a venue and be thrown out - just in case we had the wrong idea that we were at an exciting venue with lots of activities and might want a glimpse of some of the action.  Of course, we should know that this wasn't possible.  We were only working 10 hour days, at unusual times, in an office for free.
Stage four - collecting the uniform or more formally - the UDAC Games Maker - Uniform and Accreditation Collection.  It began with the same pattern - early trek to the back of beyond, yet more lines, to collect the delectable Stella McCartney designed uniform. Now that would be a real treat if it wasn't for the colour combo, and the khaki slacks (yes that is the right word to describe them) which we most definitely can't roll up.  Who do you know who wears purple and red together?  That's obviously the point that nobody else will look like us! The morning however, goes quite smoothly with each individual uniform item  having its own dedicated person, with their own system about which they all seemed very proud and actually all goes quite smoothly.  The family can't wait to see me in it but am keeping them in suspense for a reason!  Maybe I will sell it on ebay afterwards or keep it for the grandchildren although the umbrella will probably be worn out.
Then came the release of the shifts.  Oh dear!  I had been given a shift pattern that commences at 5.30 am (Olympian levels of lateness are a distinct possibility).  Those that know me well will be coughing and spluttering at the thought. Requiring me to get up at 3.00 am to leave the house at 3.30.  Argh!  There were quite a few of these as well as a couple of late nights finishing at 1.00 to get home at 3.00.  Yes, I know I have done this many times but its usually helped by a number of pink drinks and fun company.  I called London 2012 for advice and was told that it really wasn't a problem as I could easily travel from West to East London by night buses (regardless of the fact this meant going without any sleep). I was told take it or leave it but did manage to eventually find a person, Debbie, who I could email more than once and receive a reply.  I suggested they might want to offer me another position with different hours as I had almost completed my training and received my outfit - it would be a waste otherwise.  I was told they could only offer me a more junior position as a host out on the grounds of the Olympic Park but even these shifts would start at 6.20am (we're probably now looking at silver or bronze level lateness performances now rather than certain gold) and end at 11.00.  Oh but all those extra minutes of sleep make such a difference!  So I took it.  More fun surely to be out with the excited crowds than in an office sorting out boring shifts that no-one wants to do and suggesting they might also turn up on time. Of course this completely threw the Games Maker computer system.  It put me right back to the start insisting that I needed to go for another selection event, role specific training, Mexican Wave practice, etc. Thankfully, my new contact, Debbie, was able to sort it.
And now my first shift is in a few days.  Don't tell anyone but I have not completely finished my training.  They have rostered me to work Monday but I don't have my VST - Venue Specific Training until Tuesday.  Debbie has sorted that too and said she thinks I can get a quick on the spot training for Monday before I attend the proper training on Tuesday. Phew!
So I have been through the hurdles, completed the 800 metres and now in the starting blocks, in my colourful, designer uniform, ready and set but for what?  I still don't know what my role is going to be.  For months I have joked I will be saying toilets this way - maybe I was right.  I know its going to feel like a marathon of 10 hour shifts, 14 hour days, with 2 days off a week (not together), all early or late starts and finishes.  YOU deserve a medal if you have got to here.  However, I have been invited to the technical rehearsal of the Opening Ceremony (they lied, we will be allowed in to a venue and what's the chances of a Mexican wave?) so will be one of the first to see it and will post my views here.  I AM excited about that!