Day 3 – Saturday 21st July

There’s a well-known saying about London buses – that you wait ages for one and then several come along at once.  Apparently that culture has transferred over to London 2012.  I arrived early in case there was any news I needed to take my time reading.  The rest of my team from the morning shift were taking a break, so I joined them.  I sadly learnt that Mitzi had been moved to the Puerto Rican team, where they needed a Spanish-speaking driver, so we were down a Spanish speaker and a driver, and I’d have to work alone in the afternoon after people from the morning shift had gone home.

At first it didn’t seem like a terrible prospect.  There were a couple of events – some men came to remove some furniture to turn a bedroom into an office space.  One of the officials at one point came running to me and saying that her phone was speaking to her in French.  In fact it was the automated message from Vodafone advising her to top up, which left them all in hysterics.  We also had to chase up some office furniture that was ordered in May.

The drama began after Kathleen and Christina had gone home.  I was sitting with the Chef de Mission, Artemio.  He’d been asking me if I was married.  The was puzzling for me until I remembered – in Spain they wear wedding rings on their right hands, where I wear a ring my parents gave me.  I quickly explained this, to his amusement.  They then asked me to find a news channel in Spanish on the television in the office.  They’d just settled on watching the BBC News instead when Marelia came into the office to ask me to go to the residence desk to chase some missing keys.  This was all forgotten when I arrived to find a huge pile of Venezuelan luggage outside the Residence Office.  I hurried back to the Venezuelans, foreseeing that I’d have to carry it all.  Luckily the NOC Americas boss – my superior – was there and together we persuaded a couple of Venezuelans – the Doctor and some coaches – to come and help me.  It was there it was realised that one was missing.  There was a lot of stressful pandemonium as I helped with the cases and ask the poor office guy for help to find the missing suitcase.  Unfortunately for the man whose case was missing, the only solution was to wait for half an hour to an hour for the van to finish dropping all the cases off all over the Village and then return.  The situation with the missing keys, and luggage, is difficult because I already know the answers before I go down to the office, but with an official standing there next to me I have to ask anyway.  The positive thing is that I’ve become really comfortable around officials in the office, such as Marelia, so my Spanish is getting as fluent as during the year abroad.

It really is a dream come true to work every day in Spanish.  It’s a beautiful language and a wonderful feeling to get it right.  I can even hear myself speaking in a Venezuelan accent.  Kathleen says that it proves that I’m musical, which is really nice to hear.  I don’t know, though, if it’s great or a disaster for my Spanish!

Dinner was good again – lamb, potatoes, mangetout and broccoli.  I met up with Roy, who I met at a couple of training sessions.  It’s lovely that he remembers me, and this time came bearing the gift of a knitting pattern for a bloke in a Games Maker uniform!  He (Roy) is a really good bloke – a sort of gentle giant.  I think he’s a retired policeman.  He’s been working with Ethiopia, and before that was helping other countries to move in.  When I was given a pin this morning, I felt so privileged to be included as part of the Venezuela team.  However, Roy had several on each side of his lanyard.  Pins being the coveted thing in the Olympic Village, needless to say, I’m a little jealous!

Thankfully everything that I’d had to leave hanging was resolved after dinner quite quickly, except the keys which should arrive soon, hopefully tomorrow.  I was sitting in the office watching Indiana Jones with an athlete when I was told there was nothing left for me to do.  When I leave, I always double check that they really want me to go – partially because I don’t want them to feel obliged to let me go, and also because I don’t want to miss anything going on in the Village.

On the way back, I chatted to a woman working in the Aquatic Centre, who told me that some Australians had told her that our pool was better than Sydney 2000 – what an honour!  I have the day off tomorrow.  I’m really looking forward to it, but with a pang of guilt that I’m away from Olympic Village for a whole day!