6. Less than one month to go!

A couple of days ago, it was one month to go to the start of the Games.  A giant set of Olympic Rings is set up on Tower Bridge (25 metres wide, 11.5 metres tall and weighing three tonnes!)  The Rings will be in place all the way through to the end of the Olympic Games and will be a major feature in the way that London promotes itself to the rest of the world as an Olympic Host City.

For those of you in London, you should definitely make some time to go down to the Thames, set up a nice picnic/drinks somewhere with a good view of Tower Bridge, and watch the light show.  Every night, there will be a 60-minute light show to illuminate the Rings and the bridge.

Show start: 9:15pm

Light show start: 9:45pm

Rings Light Show: 10:00 – 10:03pm. 

Here is a bit of a preview (especially for those of you not in London), and here is a nicer one but with no music.

I might try and get down to see the light show some time next week - as I only have a couple of weeks till my team goes on venue and some of our transport systems become operational, as athletes begin training at ExCeL.  It's all on from 14 July - training our staff and then a "lite" operation of 7am - 11pm until Games start on 28 July, from which time it's 5am - 1:30am!  I'll be doing an 11-hour shift each day, with one day off each week - I'm lucky, some different functional areas are working straight through each set of Games.  

It's sort of starting to hit home what a commitment it will be - between 14 July and 8 September, I will pretty much not have any social life - it will be work and sleep, work and sleep.  There are tons of amazing concerts, shows, gigs and exhibitions etc. going on in London this summer, largely due to the Olympics being in town and the London 2012 festival.  That's not to count all the normal goings on, the festivals, parties, picnics, etc. that normally happen of a summer in this amazing city.  I'll be missing out on all of these, but on the plus side I guess I'll be saving some money!  And of course, I'm part of the Olympics - that easily tops all the rest.  

The job is going really well, I feel like I'm really settled in the team and still (!) learning heaps every day.  There is still a mix of planning and preparation, we are not quite ready with everything in place for the start of our operations yet.  I'm involved in all sorts of things, from scheduling shifts on an online system, to helping to figure out how we will feed staff that are stationed too far away from the workforce break area.  I'm feeling more confident that I understand how our systems operate and what we can do in the event of a contingency.  

A new word I learnt last week - "Invacuation" - means to stay put indoors in the case of an emergency, if appropriate.  I also learnt about radio protocol - you're supposed to say their call sign first, twice, to make sure they pay attention and realise they are being spoken to, and then your call sign so they know who you are - e.g., "Sport 1, Sport 1, this is Transport 4, over."  It's a bit exciting as I haven't used radios before, but I am aware that the novelty will probably soon wear off; especially as I'll be carrying two radios and have to listen to two different channels of chatter, and also have my cellphone.  If somebody calls me on my mobile, I'm not sure how I'm supposed to listen to the two radio channels as well at the same time... 

News just in!  Just saw that Nadal lost in the second round at Wimbledon to the currently ranked 100th Rosol.  Just goes to show, upsets do happen, and I'm sure there will be plenty to talk about at the Olympics! I'm going to try to find out about some of the less well known sports and research athletes to support, to get into it more and get excited about the Games as well as my job.  If you're interested in doing the same, Handball and Wheelchair Rugby are good places to start.

In my view, however, the most crazy Olympic "sport" has to be the Modern Pentathlon: "The competition starts with fencing in the Copper Box followed by a 200m swim in the Aquatics Centre. The athletes then leave the Olympic Park for Greenwich Park, where they will complete a show jumping course on an unfamiliar horse. The day concludes with the combined event, in which competitors complete a 3km run, including stop-offs at shooting points where they must hit five targets."  Mental! 

5. The Kit

This week I went to collect my uniform - exciting!  Beige trakkies, purple and red polo and matching light jacket - we'll look just like this:

(except we won't be looking up into the distance, we'll be running around shouting into radios and cellphones, both at the same time.  Also, unlikely that  Dick Dastardly and Muttley will be hanging out with us).


Here is what London 2012 had to say about the uniform:

The design of the uniform has drawn inspiration from the heritage and culture of the UK, influenced by the historic Grenadier Guards uniform and sporting heritage but also reflecting British modern design.

The colour scheme is based upon a contemporary twist of a regal purple and poppy red and will provide a distinctive look, allowing Games Makers to stand out in the crowd.

Here are the matching purple and red shoes we are wearing - a mixture of sports and high fashion:

Just kidding!  Uniforms are sponsored by Adidas, duh!


I was also given my accreditation - an A5 laminated ID pass that must be worn clipped around the neck at all times.  This is what distinguishes someone who has back of house access only, to someone who go to front of house, or even field of play.  According to my accreditation, it looks like I won't even get a glimpse into any of the arenas, as I only have back of house access. If you don't have the right accreditation for a particular venue, you can't get in (unless, of course, you have a ticket to an event).  

I also got a tiny satchel:

(This person has really small hands, cos they make the bag look kind of normal-sized - it's not, it really is tiny!)

That's the only bag you're allowed to take into the venue as a workforce member, and that has to fit your water bottle, and a fold up umbrella - well, the games are going to take place during an English summer, and I was half expecting something like this to be part of the uniform:  

(sadly, nothing like this in the uniform bag).

On Friday I met a Canadian girl who is a criminal defence lawyer in real life, but for the summer she is, like me, a deputy venue transport manager (for one of the venues within Olympic Park).  She had also worked at the winter Olympics in Vancouver in 2010.  From her experience, she suggested getting shoes half a size bigger than normal, and really thick padded sports socks, as your feet swell from so much standing and walking around every day.  Yikes!  I'd already picked up my shoes (in my normal size) by then, and we are also issued grey adidas socks - but I think I will be buying a couple of pairs of thicker sports socks just in case... and lots of plasters!

4. Fush and Chups

Three weeks in and I'm feeling like part of the team, and I think I get what's going on!  The picture just becomes clearer and more focused with every day that I'm involved.  I've been able to start asking relevant and insightful questions, which always feel better than asking stupid questions.  What has become more clear to me is that there is one job which based in the office and involves planning, meetings, working on computers and printing out documents.  There will be a second, completely different job, when it is Games Time - no office, no computers or e-mail, no desk, no meeting requests, no documents to work on.  We will be on our feet, dealing with the unexpected and unplanned, and communication via mobile phones, radios and face to face contact will be the key to successful event management.  Additionally, we will also be leading teams of paid staff and volunteers.  I attended a leadership course this week which was a lot of common sense but also provided some valuable insights on leading a team outside of an office environment.  We will need to make quick decisions, lead by example and ensure our team members have their needs met and stay motivated.  This all sounds obvious, but it will also be in the context of 12 hour shifts, potentially boring tasks and long hours of standing in outdoor weather conditions.  It's something I don't have that much experience in, so it's a challenge I look forward to.  

Something that will help me in meeting that challenge is teamwork, and I'm grateful to have a friendly and supportive team.  In my team, there is one American, one Canadian, one Aussie, one Scottish Pakistani, one English person of Middle Eastern descent (haven't found out about that detail yet), two Greeks and me.  It's quite a diverse bunch, which is really cool - there is no one way of doing things, and people come from a variety of backgrounds, including some with masters degrees in transport, a farmer, a sports scientist and me, a commercial lawyer.  

Around the open plan office you can hear a number of different accents, although it seems like, on our floor, the dominant one is Australian!  One of the London 2012 "hosting actions" is "Distinctive" - provide the personal touch, let yourself shine through.  So, I have decided to consciously use my Kiwi accent.  "Why wouldn't you be using it anyway?", one might ask; "You've only been in the UK for a year!"  Well, the problem is my name - Wendy.  From the get go, as soon as I introduce myself to someone, I have found that unless I say it in a way that sounds to me like "Wandy" (sort of rhymes with Dandy), people screw up their faces, probably because they're too polite to say "Windy?! What kind of person is called Windy?"  I've also had to clarify on a number of other occasions a certain word I was pronouncing.  This was even though in my team at my last job, there was one American, one South African, one Scottish, one Turkish, one Welsh and three English people.  Anyway, I think it's because of the need for "Wandy" that soon after I started working at my last job, I started consciously (and recently, increasingly less consciously) rounding and opening my vowels, particularly "e" vowels.  You know how some people have a posh "phone voice"?  Well it's like I was adopting a "work voice", basically meaning that I spoke with a quasi-international blended soft accent at work.  

I began feeling concerned recently when I noticed the open vowels creeping into my normal voice, even when talking with other Kiwis.  I was shocked, however, that in my first week at LOCOG, two different people asked if I was American.  What?!  This has got to stop!  So, I'm going to be "distinctive" and embrace my Kiwi accent.  The Aucklander's accent isn't a thick Kiwi accent anyway, and in the LOCOG environment I'm sure there won't be any problem being understood.  When we first moved to the UK and met a Kiwi who had been here for 9 years, I was surprised and very impressed to hear her speak with a Kiwi accent.  I guess people have different views about this sort of thing but for myself, I'd like the way I speak to be a conscious choice.  Maybe I'll even start bringing back phrases like "choice", "sweet as", "stink" and "yeah nah".