Our time as volunteers has come to an end.  As we watch the final ceremony, I can say that this household feels very much part of the Olympic party.  I spent my last driving day with a god amount of time in the Olympic Village trading pins with the athletes.  Since I also thought they’d want to have a photo with the Torch, I took that along as well.  It gave me the opportunity to hold one of the medals as an Estonian Wrestler had won silver and wanted to share the moment with the torch!

I have a slide show of some of the moments there and with the other drivers but I thought I would share the absolute excitement that even they shared at special events.  For example, last night I was in the Olympic Village when Mo Farah won his second gold medal.  The lobby was filled with hundreds of volunteers and athletes keen to watch Olmpic history and they weren’t disappointed.

My final ride from London to South Ruislip where our own car was parked to speed the midnight journey home to Oxford, a gentleman sitting across from me saw the parcel I was carrying.  I pulled the Torch from its sock and offered it for him to hold, which really delighted him.  When talking with Martin, I said that early on I had realised that this was as close as many Olympic enthusiasts would come to participating first hand with the Olympics.  It is what gives me the patience to let scores and scores of people have their photo taken with the Torch.  But when the athletes also wanted photos, it became clearer to me that the Torch was the symbol of the spirit of the entire Olympic experience.  The flame  or even the thought of the flame, lights up one’s imagination regarding possibility and ownership of a dream come true.

There were French visitors on the train who were quick to point out that they had lost the bid for hosting the Olympics.  I recounted the story that Jacque Chirac in the bidding said that London couldn’t host it as only Finland had worse food.  Finland had two votes in the competion which was exactly what London won the bid with.  They laughed and agreed that London had been an amazing host.  Everything had run smoothly and with such great welcoming from the population.  She pointed to me in my uniform.  I explained that 240,000 poeple had applied to volunteer in the Olympics effort as “Games makers”.  This involved a day of interviewing, two days of training, one day of accreditation and picking up the uniform and then ten days, at least of ten hour shifts…all unpaid.  The one woman who spoke English perfectly translated this to her two friends and they had me repeat this.  I further explained that it took me two hours each way to get in and out of London.  “Incroyable”  “Unbelievable” translated their intrepreter.  This simply wouldnever happen in France!  Well…it certainly did here and both Martin and I were a part of it all!  I will enjoy the memories forever.

Thanks for sharing this with us.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

All our time with the Olympics hasn’t been in a car!  We had decided when ticketing initially opened that the London Olympics was our vacation destination.  We put bids for the obvious choices, particularly the 100m Men’s final but realised this would be a high demand option.  Outside the main events, we put in for handball, water polo and the opening of Wimbledon’s tennis.  None came to us and at the end of the first round we had rowing and a Wembly preliminary football set of tickets.  Further bids resulted in even more football tickets (South Korea vs Gabon) and treasured athletics.  As a further bonus, a cousin couldn’t make the women’s football final with the USA vs Japan with the USA winning the Gold!  (Timothy wrote a blog about this match:http://oxfordunitedmatchreports.wordpress.com/)

The venues and the crowds are as amazing as the sport.  We have entered and exited Wembly for football with 76,297 other ticket holders, Eton Dorney for rowing with 20,000 and the Cannon of supporters who roared their teams to the finish line and the Olympic Stadium with 90,000 who are joined in the Olympic Park by thousands and thousands of others attending Basketball, Aquatics, BMX and other sports.  In all of these crowds there has been absolute congeniality, good will, excitement and international celebration.  Respect is everywhere.  One day in the Olympic Park at its biggest flow, only four people were arrested for ticket touting!  No drunken brawls, no theft, not aggressive exchange.  The police stop to be photographed with visitors.  The military personnel are serious in their security yet comforting in their welcoming.  Participating in all of this has given me great hope for my dream and ambition of Peace on Earth, Goodwill towards Men.  I have seen this in practice and it feels right.

I have attached some photos of the crowds and venues.  I hope you are enjoying this as much as I am.

Yesterday I took the Olympic Torch I ran with so that the Gamesmakers could have a look.  It was a great pleasure as they were more excited than I had anticipated.  I had further motivation as I also wanted to go to the Olympic village so that some of the athletes might want to have a hold as well.  I then went to the USA House to be available for any US VIP who might want a ride back to their hotel as there was an Olympic reception going on there.  Given I had the Torch, I asked if the organisers wanted me to take it into the reception.  I was given a Media pass and spent the next three hours talking with Olympians, Olympic Commitee panel members, and their guests.  We had a great evening with many taking advantage of the US Team members photograph to have their photo taken as well.  Finally I saw the original Olympic Torch from the 1948 Olympics.  It was a terrific day of volunteering.  Have a look.  As they say…”A picture is worth a thousand words”.  Have a look!!

My, oh my…between supporting the USA and UK teams, the excitement in this household is at a pitch.  The real excitement, however, is attending some of the venues.  We’ve been to Eton Dorney for preliminary rowing, Wembley for early rounds of football and have the Athletics to look forward to on Tuesday.  I have been able to visit many of the sites as a VIP driver as Martin and I found our pass allows us into the various venues (but not events as these are ticketed).

Early morning shifts mean leaving Oxford at 4:30 am to arrive in Park Lane for 6am.  I thought these were the harshest but now my afternoon shifts which run from 2pm until midnight are harder to get through as the level of activity is full flow.  The process is for driving volunteers who are based at Hyde Park where there is a parking garage of 1100 BMW’s all signed for the London 2012 Olympics, they head in bright purple and orange uniforms to the Park Lane Marriott.  There we are checked in, given a meal voucher (the food has allowed me to lose some weight as it is not nice!), allowed a Coco Cola product and then we check in for our assignment.  Both Martin and I have had WADA “clients” as the World Anti-Doping Agency attends most events.  We head to the garage to check in our cars…all signed with specific numbers, pick up our mobile phone, keys and security clearance and then London and the Olympic lanes are ours to explore until such time as we need to pick up clients.  We are based in Hyde Park due to the 29 Olympic hotels in the area.  At one point I needed to use the Ladies room at the Hilton only to be turned away as I didn’t have the correct authorisation!  They said the Intercontinental was more accommodating!!

When I have dropped off the client at the Velodrome, Excel centre, Olympic stadium or wherever they are going, I am allowed to park and explore until my phone rings again for another ride.  Last night I sat in the Olympic Village watching, with many of the athletes from the world, cheering Jessica Innes on to her Heptatholon victory.  The mood was electric.

I will say that 10 hours sleep after arriving back in Oxford at 12:30pm simply isn’t enough!  More news soon.