Thursday, 30 August 2012

Feeling Proud (kind of..)


I’m writing to you from bed. I’ve been here since 3pm.

As I got in from Paralympic shift 2 of 9 it dawned on me that a bank holiday boozy bender in Manchester was perhaps not the best mental or physical preparation for this madness. But no matter, it will all be over soon and I’ll be stuck back behind a desk so I’m going to enjoy as much as possible while it lasts!

I had decided to venture up to Manchester after cancelling a couple of weekend shifts. I thought I’d take some peppermint tea and we’d watch X-Factor and Total Wipeout and an array of appalling DVDs (has anyone seen August Rush??) and generally chill out and reminisce away not just a duvet-day but a whole duvet-weekend.

But no. Ooooohh no. Silly, silly me.

Before I’d even arrived at Euston for the train to Manchester I’d been told I was buying a weekend wristband for the whole of the Pride weekend. Good job I’d had that haircut I had needed, and had packed a few suitable clothes!

I can’t imagine I’ll tell you all about the weekend. Probably because a lot of it is blurry…

Friday looked promising… We were staying in! Alas, off we trotted to the local Sainsburys  to stock up on the ingredients to make a huge vat of mojito! And you can see the result here… rum, ice, soda, sugar, mint and lime. In a Union Jack bin. Classy bitches.

On Saturday morning we left Withington and headed in totown to watch the Pride parade. SO MANY PEOPLE. So many in fact I felt quite overwhelmed but Jenla was on hand to thrust a Strongbow in my direction and so, it began. I was supposed to go back to Withington at some point to change and see X-Factor(!) and pre-drink, but that didn’t happen. In fact, I didn’t make it back until after 5am on Sunday. Instead, I flitted from group to group and bar to bar meeting up with lots of people I’d not seen in months. Which was totally excellent, of course! But, when you have a drink at every stop it becomes easy to understand why the rest of the night was a blur.

Sunday required a serious Nando’s.
After we’d smashed that chicken’s back doors in we headed into town to an apartment-hotel where some friends were staying. Beer and brandy came next. Then there was dancing – oh how I love to dance – and singing and that was still at the apartment!
Sunday night I ended my Pride celebrations in the only way I know how – in Coyotes dancing next to the speakers so I can feel closer to Lady Gaga – idiot.

But a happy idiot.

On Monday I woke up and couldn’t find anyone at the house. Well, Rose was there but definitely several bodies missing! At 11 I got a phone call – they were alive, phew! – and all at the apartment. So I gathered my belongings, unable to believe that it was time to head back south already. We rendezvoused on the Canal, said some friendly goodbyes, headed for some much needed food (how good is Barburrito?!) then for the train.

Crackin’ time. Good one girls!
Wouldn't say I was particularly proud. Definitely pissed.

So here I am, back in full swing of ‘lympic-mania.
Unfortunately for you, since I missed a week's post I didn’t get to tell you all about my fun weekend at Primrose Hill and at a seminar about algorithms and metadata…………. We'll skip that I think. 

Until next time,

Bren x





More pic from this weekend and last:















Tuesday, 28 August 2012

Jen


So, it appears I’ve missed a week. Or two even, I don’t know..
August has been mental. I’ve been so busy, and when I haven’t been busy I’ve been totally knackered.

No. No, sorry, that’s a shit excuse.

Ok, I admit it, I’ve been avoiding this blog, putting off, thinking I’ll do it tomorrow or tomorrow or tomorrow... The best thing about tomorrow is that it never actually arrives.

I’ve done quite well over the past year in telling you all about what I’ve been up to but the moment has arrived where I’ve suddenly realised I’ve been keeping a very public diary and am aware how many people read it. I’m sure that sounds stupid, I mean how have I only just realised?.. But it was like a thunderbolt - I’M KEEPING A DIARY THAT DOESN’T EVER LOCK. There really hasn’t been anything (much) that I’ve not included in these posts, but it has been a properly shit two weeks and writing about it has not been top of the list of things to do. But I’m committed now, so deep breath and here goes...

I found out two weeks ago that a beautiful, intelligent, funny hilarious, caring, smiley, wonderful friend had passed away. Jen was 26 years old. She spent her all-too-short life caring for others. She was a mummy to baby Ava, a nurse to hundreds of NHS patients, a rock to her BFF Jenla and a bloody lovely person for the rest of us to have spent time with.

One of my favourite times was, as per, on a night out in Manchester. Jen was staying at ours and we were all Canal-bound. Jen in her mile-high stilettos and the rest of us in our Primarni pumps dancing through the night until we all rolled out of Cruz at 6 or 7am. And the next morning, eyelashes half way down her face, ‘good morning, where the fuck am I?’

If I’m honest, I’m not really sure what I believe about the afterlife. But I’d like to think she’s out there somewhere getting up to all sorts of shenanigans, and if not then I hope she’s resting in peace now.

Jennifer Murphy
02/10/1985 - 12/08/2012

Normal service resumes later this week.

Until then,

Bren x

Monday, 13 August 2012

London 2012 - 'We did it right'

The London 2012 Olympic Games are over.
7 years of preparation and anticipation, 18 months of scrabbling to secure tickets, 8 weeks ‘negotiating’ a few days annual leave, 5 days training to be a volunteer and now it’s all done. Well, not all... We’ve got the Paralympics in two weeks time but please let’s have a breather and reflect on what a BANG TIDY job we all did. Right from the spectacular opening ceremony to the madness of the closing ceremony, everything was fantastic. Even the Aussies think so!

There have been so many highlights I could go on and on and on... Mo Farah, Jess Ennis, Katherine Grainger and Gemma Gibbons just some of my favourites. I also surprised myself by really getting into the boxing competitions and we did fantastically well in both the men’s and the inaugural women’s contests with 5 medals, including three golds. And the coverage, OH THE COVERAGE! Didn’t the Beeb do well! TV, radio, web, etc... all marvellously delivered by outstanding and knowledgeable presenters and commentators (I’m starting a petition to see DAME Clare Balding, she is fantastic!)... And all we paid for it was about £5.50 from our license fee – super!










I saw Giggsy and the rest of Team GB play football at Old Trafford, and handball and hockey inside the Olympic Park. Mum and Naomi also got to the ExCeL to see the Women’s Freestyle Wrestling event too. As well as all that I sat with thousands of other at the big screens outside the Velodrome whilst The Real McHoy won yet another gold medal and cheered on the Brownlee Brothers as they swam, cycled and ran for glory. I’ve smiled at people, said hello as I passed, taken photos for them, even hugged one guy (I got carried away watching Sir Chris) and enjoyed every minute of it.

Amid all of the Olympic business, Jenny and Jenny’s sister Robyn have been staying with me for a week or so too. Robyn started the baby fancy dress company Little Babas and won the opportunity to sell her products in a pop-up-shop in Richmond. Its part of the Mary Portas backed Pop-Up Britain scheme, involving new entrepreneurs and giving them a platform to show people what they can offer. Staying with me and going to the shop every day over in Richmond has meant a long commute across London every day but hopefully it will all prove worthwhile!

I met up with Amy who was down in London with some Merseyside Constabulary colleagues on a 2 week attachment with the Met and had a day off – we went to Hyde Park to visit the Live Site and had a great time! 4 huge screen showing different sports, a stage where we saw Nicola Adams and her gold medal, ice cream, beer and music from Temper Trap, Ocean Colour Scene and Feeder.

I’ve also found time to visit some of the Olympic National Houses – Casa Brasil put on a show every night with samba beats, more beers, and even the sunshine came out to say hello and I got chance to catch up with Heather and Jimmy.
In between all of that, mum, Naomi and I climbed to the top of the O2 arena too!

So yeah, it's been a fairly busy ol' week...

I’m now back in the office for a couple of weeks during the ‘Transition Period’ between Olympics and Paralympics. But there is no time to rest! We’ve got the start of the Premier League season which this season includes no fewer than SIX London based teams, and the annual Notting Hill Carnival over the bank holiday weekend. I’ll be doing a few Travel Ambassador shifts here and there but it’s mostly back to the desk job for me until the Paras start on Wednesday 29th August.

So during the ‘break’ I’m making sure I get all the important stuff done... I’ve sorted out my Fantasy Premier League team for starters! And Lord knows I need a haircut, I currently look like a shaggy dog but what with my hairdresser being in Stratford town centre I just haven’t been able to face it.

The tag-line for the Games has been #InspireAGeneration. And I think it has worked, for me at least. I’m now looking into, statistically, which Olympic sport is the ‘easiest’. I mean, who doesn’t want a free jolly to Rio in 2016?! I think I might have go at wrestling and see how I get on...


Until next time,


Bren x

More pics:







Saturday, 4 August 2012

The Olympic Games


Hello from Olympic London.
I write to you an exhausted, broken woman. I’ve just got home after completing the eighth eight hour shift in eight days, I have one more to go then I have two days off. They will be the hardest earned days off I’ve ever had.

But back to last week for a moment…
After Amsterdam, I spent a few days at home which allowed me to visit Old Trafford for the first game of the Olympic football tournament for the Team GB Men’s football team. Dad and I had a great time sat in the lower tier just 5 rows from the front. We saw the ‘warm up’ game between Uruguay and the UAE which was fantastic. The UAE bossed the first halft going ahead after 20 minutes. Unfortunately Uruguay pulled it back and went on to win. Then, out came the GB boys to warm up. The crowd went mental at the sight of Giggsy and co and the atmosphere continued to build right up to kick off. It was an entertaining game and a 1-1 draw was a good starting point. A week on and GB have now qualified top of the group and continue to the quarter final played tonight!..


The next day I caught the train back to London where I managed to avoid the majority of the crowds even as I neared east London. I grabbed a few beers from the fridge and put my feet up to watch the entire opening ceremony. Thee firework from the stadium just up the road made the house shake and they were just visible from the back garden. An incredible effort by Danny Boyle and everyone involved and it really got everyone in the mood for the excitement of the two weeks following.

A 1am bedtime was not the best preparation for my first station shift but up I leapt at 6am, excited and enthusiastic. I arrived at West Ham just before 7am and worked until 3pm. It was fairly busy, but not horrendous. I actually quite enjoyed it. I was helping people get to wherever they needed to be and everyone was in a great mood. Saturday evening I had lots of guests! Traum and Calla were here to see an event at Earls Court so stayed here for the night. Connie and Jenny, recently back from New Zealand were here with family and stayed over and Rosie came to London for a day in the sunshine and a night here where all 6 of us got to catch up over a few drinks and a take away. More of the same on Sunday (minus the take away)! Then there was Monday…

On Monday I was at Canning Town where they’d put a one way system in action just in time to confuse and frustrate commuters on their way to work. I got through it but the crowds came thick and fast and with the Excel centre just down the road we had thousands of people interchanging. I’ve also done a shift at the London Media Centre – this is an overspill building for 13000 journalists that couldn’t get accreditation for the Olympic park. It hosts press conferences and photo ops for the sponsors and invited athletes. It sounds very exciting, and I'm sure it was, except on the day I was there not a single press conference was scheduled! Gutted. Day 4, 5 and 6 I was really feeling it back on the stations – partly due to the hangover thanks to an impromptu Africa reunion… But then, on the morning of day 7 something spectacular happened. I got a phone call. A phone call asking me if I was available to work inside the Olympic Park.

I leapt out of bed!

I had an incredible day. It was long and so so busy but I just didn’t care. We went behind the scenes for lunch and I saw the BBC and Sky Sports broadcasting balconies. And as it hit 7pm I whipped of the TfL branding and launched myself towards the nearest cold beer faster than Usain Bolt! That treat of a day spurred me on through today and I cannot wait for tomorrow’s final shift to be over because then I can look forward to two days off and two days spent in the Olympic park as a punter rather than working. I’m off to see  handball on Monday and hockey on Tuesday. All that stands between me and more Olympic Park funtimes is a tiny little 8 hour shift at Canning Town. I will grit my teeth, grin and bear it. It’s safe to say that this is the busiest I’ve ever seen the stations and apparently we broke the record for daily passengers on our network last week and that was before the Athletics even started, with an additional 80,000 people in the Park per session I’m sure we’ll break it again.
 
It will be a bit of the shock to the system returning to the office on Wednesday. I’m glad I’ve done a bit of front line work but not sure I’ll be volunteering to do 9 shifts in a row again. Ever. But then, we’ll never have the Olympics in London again. It’s only here this one time* so enjoy it everyone!!

Until next time,

Bren x

*I realise it’s been here twice before and it may very well be here again, but probably not in our lifetime.

More pictures from the Olympic Park: