365 Project Week #18 ~ ‘Flowers’

MONDAY:

Today marked the first day of term for many people and, in true British style, the weather was beautiful. I’m sure it’s not just me that remembers soggy Summer Holidays followed by an opening school week of scorching sunshine whilst you are stuck inside. As none of my family had school this year (the Smalls aren’t big enough yet and my Mum retired at the end of last term) we were able to spend the day outside in the garden enjoying the welcome warmth. Tori and Arthur’s sunflowers looked magnificent – bold, bright and, in one case, EIGHT feet tall!!

TUESDAY:

I had a bad hair day today – I must have rearranged it about ten times and it was still all over the place all day. *grumble*

Aside from that I had a good day – I got a mountain of the housework done, went out for lunch with English Folkfan to celebrate her birthday and rounded the day off at Official Writer’s Club (where I got some good feedback on my not-so-short story). The weather has been beautiful again but you can tell Autumn is on its way as soon as dark falls – there’s the fresh, cold taste in the air that you only get at this end of the year.

WEDNESDAY:

Kids home a bit earlier than usual today so not as much housework finished as I had hoped. No matter – I’d rather spend time building Duplo towers and reading stories than washing floors anyway. Dyed my hair back to brown this evening – the blonde was growing out past acceptable and I can’t afford to go back and get it dyed again at the moment. Wonder if the kids will recognise me in the morning…

THURSDAY:

Quiet day at home with the Smalls today. We watched Bambi and danced to some music then they amused themselves with their toys whilst I did a bit of housework. The man came with the Veg Box just in time for me to make dinner so we got to have broccoli (which is conveniently a flower…) and carrots with our home-made burgers!

FRIDAY:

Another day at home the the Smalls today. Arthur is teething a bit so was permanently attached to my leg which made everything difficult. Spot the difference between my two hair shots

SATURDAY:

*wails* My baby is growing up!!! As of yesterday Tori announced that she wanted to wear Big Girl Pants instead of nappies. People have been asking if I was going to potty train her for ages and I have tried on and off for the last year but she’s just not been interested (or, to start with, was mortally afraid of toilets and potties) and it was fruitless. However, letting her get a bit bigger and investing in a musical duck-shaped potty seems to have done the trick. Even Arthur has had a go! It only seems five minutes since Tori was wobbling her way to her feet – it’s a bit strange seeing her run around the house in pretty flowery knickers. When did she stop being a baby and start being three??

SUNDAY:

Today was my final fling with London 2012. I was a Games Maker for the Paralympic Marathons in the same spot (more or less) as I was in for the Olympic Marathons. If anything it was even more magic – the sun was shining, the atmosphere was buzzing and there was a definite party feeling in the air. It felt like an ending but not in a bad way – everyone was smiling and laughing and cheering – it felt hopeful. I even got a stunning flash of one of the London peregrines as it worried the pigeons over Trafalgar Square.  Duties complete I jumped on a train and then met up with Caius to head on up to Leeds for a few days.

Living In History

As this post publishes I will be somewhere in London in the middle of my very last Games Maker 2012 shift. I posted here about my Olympics experience and when I get home and organised I will post about my day at the Paralympics too.

Just for now though, on this final day, I wanted to share my thoughts on the whole London 2012 event.

I’m not going to lie, despite applying to be a Games Maker, I wasn’t really that interested. I thought it was going to be an over-expensive, disaster riddled flop. I didn’t think everything would be built on time or very well, I didn’t think the event as a whole would be successfully organised and I fully expected us as a country to be aloof and snooty as we sometimes are.

I was pleasantly proved wrong.

Instead I have watched unfold an event that will definitely go down in our country’s history as a triumph. It has not been without issues but they have all been dealt with sensibly, efficiently and quickly. It has not been cheap to produce but instead of the cost being entirely frivolous effort has been made to re-use and recycle as much as possible – right down to the sand in the Beach Volleyball courts.

I might not like the way everything was handled – for example I think some of the branding policing was a bit over the top – but the overall result was amazing.

We pulled together as a country and made it work. We made people welcome and as I mentioned previously, the streets became the place to be. Everyone was friends with everyone else, people were helpful and funny and the atmosphere was light and electric.

I was a cynic. I was proved wrong.

In the best possible way.

Team GB 2012 : Our Greatest Team.

All of us. The athletes and their coaches and friends and family, the people at LOCOG, the Games Makers and everyone else too. All of you. All of us.

WE were Team GB and WE made it happen the way it did. No amount of organising could create the atmosphere in the country over the last few weeks – that was just down to us.

We made history. We lived it.

Awesome.

On Being A Games Maker at London 2012

Well it’s all over and done with. The London Olympics 2012 are finished – the Closing Ceremony complete, medals won and handed out, anthems played, races run, shot-puts thrown and show jumps cleared.

And I made it happen.

Well, I helped.

My shifts were out on the road for the Cycling Road Races and Marathons – a place where I feel quite at home from all my years helping to marshal at the London Marathon and other London road races. So even though my specific roles were different to what I was used to and the locations were new to me, I was in a familiar environment.

The Road Cycling events were first and I was thrown in at the deep end by starting my Games Maker journey as a Team Leader on a section of the course. This meant I suddenly had to drag up people skills and learn how not to sound like an idiot when using a radio. (When they took my radio back off me at the end of the weekend I felt a bit lost without my earpiece and not starting every third conversation with ‘Sector Two, Sector Two this is Team Leader Five’)

Despite Road Cycling being an entirely new sport to me the basics of the system are the same when you are a marshal on the field of play – ‘keep people and things that shouldn’t be on the road, off the road’ and ‘be on the alert for anything not-quite-right that could be a threat to the race or competitors in any way’.  They are simple rules and not rocket science – you just need to be firm but polite (a good dose of stubbornness also helps).

The weather tested everyone’s patience on the Sunday but the atmosphere was amazing. Despite thunder rolling around the buildings and rain bouncing back up off the road way over our shoes we were buzzing so much we continued to laugh – facing the odd disgruntled Londoner who was more interested in getting to work than watching the race with good humour and grace. We even persuaded a few of them out of their grouches and got smiles out of them through the rain!

As Team Leader I was in charge of keeping my eye on a team of 14 other Games Makers all trusted with the task of manning pedestrian crossings over the course. We had 3 crossings between us and although most things went swimmingly we had the odd issue such as random cyclists who thought they could ride on the course during the race and an Olympics Official driver who got their times wrong and was driving the wrong way up the course at an inappropriate moment. Everything got sorted out quickly and efficiently and the end result were two very successful races.

The pace of cycling surprised me – I’m used to very tired people running past me, not a mass of cyclists zooming by. It was exciting and by the end of the weekend, when I hung up my Team Leader epaulette, I had a taste for it and went home determined to glue myself to the Time Trials later in the week.

‘Team Awesome’ ready and raring to go before our first Cycling shift!

Next up were the Marathons – each a week apart and each with their own mental weather! The first week was the Women’ Marathon and, no word of a lie, it was very nearly a swim. We were posted down by Trafalgar Square and the road was basically an inch deep stream for half of the race – there was no escaping it. We were SOAKED. Again though the buzzing atmosphere on the streets kept our spirits up through the thunder – not even torrential rain was enough to drown the spirit of London. People were laughing and joking and talking to everyone as if they were old friends – even though most of the time the people had never met. I’ve never known anything like it, not even on London Marathon day. It was awe-inspiring. Certainly my faith in human nature was a little restored by the whole thing.

The Men’s Marathon was an entirely different beast. It was scorching hot and the crowds were twice as huge (and they were pretty big last time!)  so we had to keep our wits about us when making sure people got to cross the road safely. It was the final day of the Olympics and there was electricity in the air (thankfully not as lightning this week though). Spirits were high (some people had clearly had wayyyy too much spirit for that time in morning…) and the sound of the crowd as the runners came through was deafening. And more than deafening whenever they spotted a GB kit in the mix.

One of the stand out moments for me though, of my whole time working as a Games Maker, came in this race. One of the athletes, I think it was a member of Team USA, dropped out on the corner just past our post and walked back up the course towards and past us to a place where he could safely get off the course and as he walked, with a Games Maker at his side, the crowd went wild with respectful applause. Shouts of encouragement rang out and I didn’t hear one person say anything disparaging or cruel – it was heartwarming to say the least.

After our duties were done we headed across London to the Olympic Park so that I could see it – we even heard the Spice Girls doing their final rehearsal and sound check before heading off home to watch the Closing Ceremony from the comfort of a sofa. I wasn’t expecting it to feel like so much of a big ‘ending’ as it did – it wasn’t until it was over and the cauldron extinguished that I realised just how much it had all meant to me.

As a nation Team GB did amazingly well, but on a personal level the London Olympics  2012 were a triumph and a learning curve that I will never forget and will always be proud of.

I had to overcome things like ridiculously early mornings (4am is not my friend), facing the tube alone, fear of the unknown and my nervousness when placed in any role of responsibility where other people look up to me. I worked myself up about these things a bit before hand but when it came to it I just took a deep breath, set my alarm clock and jumped right in. The people I would be working with wouldn’t know my hangups so I made an effort to not show them and overcome them. I like to think I was successful (I definitely defeated the early mornings and the tube) and the confidence I felt in myself grew considerably throughout my experiences. That confidence is something I can use in everyday life now the Olympics are over – whenever I’m faced with something new or daunting I know that if I go into it with a smile and the attitude of ‘I can do this’ then chances are, I can do it! Or at least give it my very best shot and be able to stand proud at the end and say I tried.

And they gave me a funky Baton as a thank you present which, you know, is REALLY COOL!

My Olympic Dream

I suddenly realised that I never actually wrote this post. Only thought about it. Sorry!

Back in July I posted about attending my Games Maker Selection Event at Warwick University and my hopes at being chosen as a volunteer for the 2012 Olympics in London. Well, I got my results back finally and…

I GOT IN!!!

*mad bouncing around and cheering*

I have been offered places in the Athletics and Road Cycling Field Of Play Teams and I have eagerly accepted them.

This means I am going to the Olympics.

I. AM. GOING. TO. THE. OLYMPICS.

And I am so excited I can hardly breathe when I think about it. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity and I am going to make the most of every minute.

So there you go, Carole Finds Her Wings is an Olympic Games Maker for the London 2012 Olympics. It is official.

*grins like a fool*

Olypmics Games Maker 2012 – The Next Stage

On Wednesday I set off on the next stage of my personal adventure to try and be a part of the London 2012 Olympics. Months and months and months ago I filled in the application form to volunteer as a Games Maker, sent it off into cyberspace and sat back to wait. Well a few weeks back I got an email inviting me for an interview at a ‘Selection Event’ at Warwick University in Coventry so I booked my train, stocked up the freezer with milk for Arthur (which he duly refused to consume) and, come Wednesday, I set off to see what the day held in store.

It was my first ever whole day away from Arthur and the first time I had visited the Uni so I was a bit nervous before I even started to consider the interview and event itself! The train trip went well and I arrived in plenty of time so I located the right bus stop (which my friend who attended Warwick kindly told me how to find and which bus I needed to get – eliminating a bit of worry) and then went off in search of something to eat.

Conveniently the first place I spotted was a Burger King just over the road from the bus stop – eating there meant I could cross something off my Day Zero list too! After lunch I had a bit of a mooch around the shops before heading to the bus stop.One double-decker bus trip later (Top deck, front seat – of course) I found myself at Warwick Uni for the first time and was ever so slightly horrified by how massive it was. I knew my Uni was small but you could fit all of our buildings into one department of this place!!

I was still over an hour early arriving on campus so I went for a bit of an explore to try and relax a bit. It sort of worked as I sat and watched a bald magpie hopping around and found the most beautiful water lillies in a water feature.

Then I went to find where it was I was actually supposed to be going even though I was still half an hour early. I found the place and was asked to hang around until my alloted time – so I went and sat on a small hill and had a conversation with a very curious squirrel whom I christened ‘Colin’. I told him about how nervous I was and asked him what he thought were the best things to say in the interview. Passers by most probably thought I was completely mad. (They were probably right.)

Once Colin had gotten fed up of me and climbed a tree and it was only 5 minutes til my Event time, I went back and joined the other people waiting to go in. Finally they let us in and I forgot to be nervous and started being excited instead. We were welcomed, given an overview of what was going to happen and in what order, given pink wristbands to wear and offered some Cadbury’s Heros to munch on (I approve of their choice of sponsors! ). Then our photos were taken and it was into a small exhibition about the Olympics before watching a short film designed to stop us panicking about the interview as well as thank us for volunteering and introduce a few of the Olympics Sponsors.

Then it was interview time and all my terror came flooding back. Luckily my interview was led by a lovely chap who set me back at ease and aside from talking at forty-thousand miles an hour when answering the first question I think I did okay. I calmed down, slowed down and almost enjoyed myself. I think it went okay and there were no questions I couldn’t answer or were difficult to understand.

Finally we were asked to write on a big notice board which would be put together with boards from all the other events to make a Games Maker wall where everyone who went for an interview had left their mark. I did my bestest handwriting and even managed to spell my name right

Then I jumped back on the bus back to Coventry with ages left before my train (I was possibly a tiny bit over-cautious when booking my trains), went for a mooch around some more shops, bought some bargains in a clothes sale, treated myself to a large slice of cake and then went to get my train.

First train was on time and all was going well…then the second one got steadily later and later and later. 40 minutes huddled on a strange station waiting for a train delayed due to a ‘fatality on the line’ wasn’t particularly fun and meant that I missed my next connection too. Eventually I made it home having watched a beautiful sunset and eaten a very overpriced sandwich and packet of crisps.

I was tired but happy – Sy met me with a cuddle and a cold glass of vodka and lemonade which rounded the day off nicely and I have a good feeling about how it all went. Fingers crossed this was only the beginning and there will be more to come on my Games Maker adventure.

Now all I have to do it wait until at least October (?!?!?!?!) to see how it went. OCTOBER! That’s forever away. *sigh*

Making It Happen…Or At Least Trying To…

As some of you who follow me on Twitter (or, God forbid, actually know me in Real Life) will know, I have applied to be a ‘GamesMaker’ at the 2012 Olympic Games. For those not in the know a ‘GamesMaker’ is one of the thousands of volunteers that come together to help make the whole event work – afterall it doesn’t matter how much preparation they do, if no-one is there to help when it all kicks off the whole thing will be a disaster.

They’re getting enough bad press as it is at the moment what with the whole ticket thing (I didn’t apply for any and thus wasn’t one of the disappointed many, however I know several people that were and I know how irritated they are with how unfair the ‘fair’ systen turned out to be) so they could do without it all falling apart on the day too.

So, I filled in the three hundred page long application form (that may be a slight exaggeration, but only slight. It did take nearly 3 hours…) months and months ago then hovered around my hotmail account waiting for news. Finally, two weeks ago an email appeared – I’m through to a selection event – HURRAH!

This means I have to go to Warwick University on the 13th July for an interview and to have my picture taken (must remember to brush my hair properly…) and to watch a motivational video amongst other things (I’m a bit hazy on the details).

An interview. Erk. I haven’t had an interview since, well, um…ever? Applying for University was probably my last interview and the one interview I remember from that went something along the lines of:

Lecturer: We aren’t actually running the course you applied for next year but we have integrated it with our English Literature course.

Me: Oh. Why didn’t you tell me this before and I wouldn’t have bothered dragging myself all the way out here…

Lecturer: Our English Literature course is very good. Would you like me to tell you about it?

Me: Um. No not really. I hate English Literature.

Lecturer: Tell you what, I’ll just give you this course outline. Enjoy your look around campus. Sorry about the weather.

Me: Thank you. For absolutely nothing.

Yeah. I didn’t go to Camarthen Uni. I hated it. But we did see two beautiful Red Kites on the way home very close up so it wasn’t a total waste of a (very wet) day.

I digress. What I’m trying to say is I’m not right up on interviews and I tend to say ‘um’ a lot. And they’re going to ask me about my experience and stuff and I bet I’m going to get muddled and sound like a twerp.

But you never know, I might be okay and not look like an idiot and maybe, just maybe, I might pass and get through and GO TO THE OLYMPICS! Which would be epic.

This sort of thing is a once in a lifetime opportunity and yes it means that I am going to have to find my way to Warwick Uni on my own and leave Arthur behind for the first whole day since he was born (and hope that 1. he decides that drinking expressed milk from a bottle isn’t too much of a hardship afterall and 2. my boobs don’t explode – I may take a change of top and my breast pump in my bag just in case) BUT if I do get through and get to go it will be an experience I will never forget and never ever get the chance to repeat.

Exciting much?!

Have you applied to be a GamesMaker too? Have you had your interview? Is it scary? Did you get tickets? What for?