Who would have thought that on a Monday morning on Olympic duty the first thing discussed would be David Simms and British ice hockey? It was nice to chat to Hayley Roach about it all and how she was about setting up the Steelers and that. Top chick she is.
I was in before the girls manning the media centre desk were so I was aiding the first media and photographers arriving as best I could. Then the girls turned up and took over and left me to get on with one of my usual jobs - distributing ponchos! Not that we needed them in the end as it didn't rain but it was forecast to,
Decent enough first game of the day New Zealand V Germany from what I saw of it from the media centre. Next up was a trip upstairs to the best views of the park spot and unsurprisingly it was full of spectators so had to clear them out as the photographers wanted their reserved spots.
Great to see South Africa avenge a 7-1 defeat from last weekend to come back and beat the USA 7-0 in a one-sided thrashing.
Lunch next and again a simple choice today - cottage pie topped with tomato or panko crusted vegetable cakes. When I asked what panko was and all they could do was show me some of the cakes but couldn't tell me what they were, I immediately chose cottage pie. Stick with what you know....Turns out, panko is a light type of breadcrumb usually used in Japanese cooking. Could have been very nice. A few green beans and a bit of a 'meat salad on a stick' is what the salad would be described as. Salami, ham and chorizo on a stick with a cherry tomato, gherkin and a pickled onion.
Back outside for game 3 of the day and it was Japan V China. Both anthems sound very much like film soundtracks, although Japan's is definitely a much more 'dark' anthem and quite scary to start off with. I hadn't realised the significance of the game until the announcer said "If China fail to get a point, then GB are confirmed to go through". Well all of a sudden Japan had 13000 fans! You could see it lifted them though as the girls played out of their skin and got a 1-0 win and send China home and Britain through to the semi-finals on Wednesday evening.
A friend managed to sort us out some 'upgrade cards' after pulling some strings and that allowed us access to watch some handball in the Copper Box (aka "The Box that Rocks!"). He was excellent explaining the basics of the game and it really helped us understand the game. GB were awful though, but the guys were giving it their all and giving the crowd plenty of "Come on!". Handball could well be the next big thing as we all thoroughly enjoyed it and I would recommend going to watch it if you get the chance to.
We were meant to go and see GB in the water polo this evening, but after almost 11hours of being in the OP and for the 4th day of leaving home well before 6am, I was just too tired to go, so I declined the ticket. I may well end up going to see some basketball tomorrow afternoon before work though, but will see how I feel in the morning.
Great day, but it's really sad when I think there is only 3 more shifts to go. However, the guys I've been working with have become friends and we're all keeping in touch after the Games and to me this is another aspect of the Games - Bringing people together. Pretty much all the people I've worked with I'd never have met or had any chance to meet without the Games, but I've made friends for life now I hope.
As an aside - I'd like to send a HUGE "Thank you" to my friend and his team in the Copper Box. It was a great experience and wish we'd come down more often. Thanks buddy and if you want to see some hockey, just let me know and I'll get you some upgrade cards for our venue.
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