Almost there!

I'm suffering from Post Olympics Depression at the moment. There was a time when I had four live feeds running simultaneously on my two screens at work, and now it's so.. bare. There's nothing on it anymore. Except for work. Of course.

So I've been reliving the last two weeks by reading several blogs which were brilliant in capturing the spirit and atmosphere of the Olympics. I like the Diamond Geezer's blog for its quintessentially British wit and surprisingly in depth information, while I also enjoy reading other people's experiences of attending the Opening Ceremony and their participation in the Closing Ceremony.

I personally thought the Closing Ceremony was OK, not particularly great, but I guess Danny Boyle just hit the ball out of the park with that one - I guess it was really difficult to top that, no matter how many boy and girl and man bands you throw at it.

At the moment, I'm just counting the days before I take temporary residence in London. I'm really excited about getting out there and continuing the good work that the Olympics Games Makers have done before me. Prior to the Olympics, you wouldn't have thought that there would be this much love for us volunteers. Most journalists were seeking scathing comments from volunteers about how us gullible people were getting exploited by greedy corporates*, and now it's amazing to see how the tables have turned. We're getting standing ovations in the Closing Ceremony, Adidas is giving (even more) free kit, Las Iguanas is giving us free glasses of cava tomorrow (inapplicable to me!), someone's given BBC a call to nominate Games Makers as the Sports Personality of the Year for its Team category, and there are rumours circulating that all Games Makers will be invited to line The Mall on 10th Sept when Team GB's parade hits London!

And all this is happening even before my first shift!

It's a really weird situation to be in. I feel really honoured to be a part of this acclaimed group of wonderful people, yet I also feel like I haven't earned my stripes yet, which makes me even more excited to prove to people that us Paralympics GMs can do just as well, if not better!

Me in uniform! Plus my knitted Games Maker :)

I'm just raring to go!

* Did you know that McDonald's is footing the bill for all our GM training sessions? During our Role Specific Training, we were shown videos starring the comedian Chris Addison showing us what to do and what *not* to do in various situations that we might come across. The training was funny, engaging, and not boring at all. So I find it ironic that when people praise GMs for doing such a sterling job, nobody really gives credit to McDonald's for providing us all with such good training in the first place!