MONDAY:
The kids are home….
TUESDAY:
Walking to Unofficial Writer’s Club (& Dinner)
WEDNESDAY:
The kids have been away…
THURSDAY:
Floor – One. Toddler – Nil.
(grazed forehead & bloody nose-tip)
FRIDAY:
Friday Night Date: Dinner out (and in the sunshine!), cinema double bill and stargazing/satellite/ISS spotting.
SATURDAY:
Watching Mo Farrah win Gold #2!
SUNDAY:
Walking to Olympic Park on the Final Day. Saying Goodbye.
MONDAY:
Time to head home after my busy weekend but first I had time to relax in the sunshine by the fountain in Stevenage Town Square before my train left. Then we had a mini birthday celebration for Tori at my parents’ house with cake and a few presents before dropping them off with their Dad. A quiet but enjoyable evening at Monday Night Snooker before falling into bed at home to exhaustedly sleep off last week!
TUESDAY:
I did very little today until I had to drag myself to Unofficial Writer’s Club where we had dinner, drinks and a good whole-hearted discussion about Ivy’s ‘Beer Board’ story plan – lots of ideas flew around and it felt like a very productive and creative evening 
WEDNESDAY:
We watched the Olympics a fair bit today – lots of action on the water. Exciting stuff 
Then after picking up the Smalls it was off to visit baby Riley for a while before home for more Olympics fun.
THURSDAY:
Today was Tori’s ‘Official’ Birthday (It was her birthday on Saturday 31st but as I was away we decided to postpone our celebrations til today). We started the day with cards and presents before jumping in Felix (the car) and heading to Telford Town Park. Tori had a whale of a time until the heavens opened and we had to run for cover! After a quick lunch we went on a bear hunt to the Build-A-Bear Workshop to get Tori a birthday present of her choosing. We left with a new family member ‘Splash’ the teddy; He’s bright blue with jellyfish and fish all over him and he’s holding ‘Nemo’ (I’ll let you guess what sort of fish he is) in his paw. After that we headed round to visit English Folkfan for *more* presents and lots of fun exploring her garden – we didn’t find any frogs but the Smalls had fun popping seed pods and seeing what they could float in the pond. Finally it was time for home and Monster Cakes then bath time and bed. Busy busy busy!
FRIDAY:
Quiet day at home involving exciting things like washing up, more Olympics and CBeebies.
SATURDAY:
Another busy day which started out with breakfast in Spoons with Caius, Liberty, The Boyfriend, the Smalls and Meggy. Then Meggy, the Smalls and I headed off to her house. After a bit of time chatting with her and Scott, I vanished off to catch a train to London ready for my next Games maker shift tomorrow, leaving them to babysit. Three hours on the train later got me to Stevenage then it was straight in the car with Chrystal and Nad to head to our friends’ house where we are staying the night. After getting ourselves all packed and ready for our early start we settled down to watch the FANTASTIC evening of Olympics Athletics – the flowers Chrystal bought as a ‘thank you for having us’ present turned out to be extra appropriate!
SUNDAY:
Today’s Games Maker shift was WET! In a thunder storm kind of way. Great fun as always but my socks were still wet when I got home at half past eight in the evening having picked up the Smalls and driven home with Meggy!
MONDAY:
Today was a scorcher! And also our final session of Games Maker training before our shifts. That’s it now – next stop will be the actual events! Once our session on the Mall was finished (including a welcome glimpse of the Beach Volleyball Teams training in the sun) our little crew went for a stroll through St James’s Park and out for a lovely lunch. Then Chrystal and I went for a mooch in the shops for a bit and each returned with shiny new Radley handbags before braving the underground and trains home.
TUESDAY:
Today was another hot one – enough to drive me into a dress for the day! It was an easy day today – I took full advantage of being away from the Smalls and stuck my nose firmly in my books and did very little but enjoy the weather. Caius arrived in the evening and it was nice for the four of us to have dinner outside as it got slowly dark. Finally feels like Summer.
WEDNESDAY:
Day three of Summer – me and Caius headed off into London together – first off we went and did a scout to see where it is I will be working during my Games Maker shifts so I’m familiar with the area then we just decided to wander. Our wanderings took us to Harrods and we splashed out in the Ice Cream Parlour - Nutella ice cream is actually the most heavenly thing on earth, I have decided. A bit more wandering and a stroll through a practically tropical Hyde Park which is being transformed ready for the events in the coming weeks nicely rounded off our day before we headed back to base. Then we went for dinner with Chrystal and Nad before going with Nad to watch a race meet at his running club. Exciting to see some of the country’s best junior athletes in action!
THURSDAY:
This afternoon we went and watched Chrystal compete in a show jumping competition at her stables. She and Winston came 3rd and I had lots of doggy cuddles whilst I watched with the lovely Poppy (in the picture) and bouncy little Bubbles.
FRIDAY:
After a very tasty lunch out, Caius headed off home and I made my way to stay with some friends who live nearer to central London ready for me to make my way to my first Games Maker shift tomorrow. It’s a very early start so I needed to start out as close as possible. I had even more doggy cuddles whilst watching the Opening Ceremony, this time with Rupert (pictured) and his big brother Smartie before falling into bed to grab a couple of hours kip.
SATURDAY:
This is me, four o’clock in the morning – all dressed up and ready to go! Men’s Road Cycling event – EXCITED!
SUNDAY:
Second shift complete. Have had the most amazing time working on the two cycling Road Races – the team I was working with were brilliant and that atmosphere on the streets was nothing like anything I’ve ever been involved in before. I certainly feel proud to be even a tiny part of the Olympics and walking through London afterwards and doing a bit of sightseeing on my way to the train home (I had to go see with Buckingham Palace is like when there is NO traffic around at all – it doesn’t happen often when I’m in London) it was awe inspiring taking in the feeling of the city. There is something in the air in London right now and it makes your heart race and you can’t help but smile. Having a silver medal in the Women’s race today certainly helped of course!
Today was my very last Games Maker training session – it was gloriously sunny and toasty warm. After the session was over and we headed out out St James’s Park it suddenly dawned on me that this is it. That was it. No more training and practising, no more ‘getting to know your team’ or collecting my uniform. I’ve done it, I’ve got it, I’m as ready as I’ll ever be.
The next step is the Olympics themselves. My proper Games Maker shifts, in London, in my uniform, in front of the world. I’m a little bit nervous but mostly excited, especially for my shift at the Men’s Road Cycling after the successes in the Tour de France – I don’t doubt that the atmosphere is going to be AMAZING. I can’t wait.
~
London in Summer is not something I have ever really appreciated before today. Usually the second I get into central London I want to leave again – it frightens me, overwhelms me, makes me feel like a rat in a trap, makes me want to jump in a woodland stream and wash the city off me. I hate it.
But today it was different. Maybe it’s because I have been more frequently and faced it as an adult as well as a nervous country teenager, maybe I’ve become braver, I *know* I’ve got more confidence in myself than ever before but somehow today it was different. I have still come home feeling grimy but that’s just a city for you – other than that I wasn’t desperate to cling on to someone else’s coat-tails in case the pavement swallowed me and was happy enough to nip into GIANT shops on my own for a browse (treated myself to a new Radley handbag as a belated birthday present and everything!)
It was beautiful in a totally different way to the beauty of the countryside I am accustomed to. The noise, the shapes, the lights, the people, the animals. For the very first time, I think I fell a little bit in love with the Big Smoke…
Lesson #35
Don’t audit life. Show up and make the most of it now.
We all have things where we could have gone and done something but said ‘meh, I don’t fancy it today’ and then never got the opportunity to do it again.
Do it. Whatever it is, do it. Take a day off work and go. Get a babysitter in and go. Whatever you have to do to get there, do it and GO.
Being a GamesMaker for the Olympics is costing me a small fortune in train fares and using up almost all my babysitting quota for the next five years but I’m still doing it. It’s a once in a lifetime chance, so what if it means I have to miss out on a few meals out or buy less treats in the foodshop. I’m only getting this opportunity once so I’m grabbing it by the horns and doing it.
Go on. Live your life now. You only get one.
*
What are these Lessons In Life? – See my first post here to find out.
This time last week I was sat in Wembley Arena with over 9,000 other people at my London 2012 Games Maker Orientation Training Event.
It was about half way through, probably about 10.30am, that everything suddenly started to feel less like a dream and more like something that is actually going to happen.
Seb Coe, Jonathan Edwards, Eddie Izzard, Hew Edwards and various other people were mere feet away from me talking me through the basics of what I had signed up to do.
I had a brilliant seat – right at the front – so I could see everything and could really feel the atmosphere and excitement flowing from every corner of the room.
I had chatted away with all the people near me, knew where they had travelled from, their names, whether or not they wanted it to snow later. We talked about anything and everything as if we were old friends who just hadn’t seen each other for a while because we already felt like part of a team. I probably won’t see any of them again because we were all volunteering in different areas but that didn’t matter because we were all in the same boat. All part of the same thing and we were all equally as excited. You could practically touch the buzz in the room – it was like a drug.
By the end of the event I was excited, motivated and felt like I could take on the whole world. I can’t wait for my next training event and can’t believe that the event itself is only a few months away.
And I’m going to be part of it.
Just…..wow.
