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: