Fitting (Pre-)Finale

It really is surreal watching the Paralympics coverage and then seeing the athletes compete. All I could think of is "They got on my bus!!"

Bright and early at 6am!

Today's been pretty star-studded at my station. There was a Chinese athlete who has won 2 gold medals, and I got Natalie du Toit (RSA), who entered both the Olympics and now Paralympics, and Ellie Simmonds (GBR), who has won 2 gold medals and a bronze, plus the most important VIPs ever, some of the Malaysian Paralympic athletes. They all got into buses at my station :)

Later on in the day, I was tasked to man the station on my own(!), so I had to do the headcounts, check the accreditation and decide when to use the duplicate buses all at the same time. At some point, some athlete came over with the wrong accreditation.

Me: (looking at all the accreditation cards) "Excuse me sir, you've only got Athletics on your card, so you can't get on this bus."
Random Lost Guy: "Ah okay why's that?"
Me: "That's because.." (looks up)

OH MY GOD IT'S THE BLADE RUNNER!!!

Me: "erm.. (stammering) uh.. it's coz your card needs a Swimming accreditation so that you can get on this bus, sir."
Oscar Pistorius (RSA): "Ah okay, so which bus goes to the stadium then?"
Me: "Ah the stadium bus is right at the front, sir." (points to the bay in front of mine)
Oscar Pistorius (RSA): "OK thank you." (walks away)

OH MY GOD, OH MY GOD, OH MY GOD!

ARGH WHY THE HELL WASN'T I DOING THE ATHLETICS STAND TODAY?!

So yeah, I got completely starstruck at that point. I was half wanting to go grab my camera and run to him and ask for a photo, but I started to think that I can't really say, "Hello again sir, I told you to get off my bus, can I have a photo please?" so I just stood there eyeing him from the corner of my eye until the next stadium bus arrived and he disappeared.

SIGH.

I think today's been a really fitting (near) end to my stint. I've still got a 2-hour shift coming up this weekend, but I've been told that NOBODY will turn up for buses during that shift, so I don't really consider it as a proper shift.

So today, I've been going round all over to take photos of all the lovely people and places I've been working with.

Feeling the hi-viz love :)

I went round saying that this was my (technically second) last shift, and I was really surprised at the response I got. At least three Team Leaders said that it was great working with me, and it's so amazing hearing them say that, it really means the world to me :)

Especially considering the amount of people I've sent onto the wrong buses!

One of my awesome Team Leaders, all the way from Australia!

I swear I think I'm spoiled now. This experience is hands down the best ever highlight of my entire life. How can anything ever top this now? All my future Unilink jobs are gonna seem so pedestrian after this!

It's almost the end :(

Tomorrow's technically my second last shift, but my last one is actually just for a couple of hours end of this week, so in my mind, tomorrow's essentially my last full shift.

:( :( :(

A few days ago, I abandoned my really boring station to go get some action at a busier bus stop. Once there, I was going through the motions until I started to get tired. I asked my Team Leader if I should swap with someone stationed at a less busy stop so that they won't get bored.

Me: "Shall I swap over to B6 and let someone takeover at B5?"
Team Leader: "No, I want you at B5."
Me: "Eh, why?"
Team Leader: "Coz you're quick."

:D :D :D

That meant so much to me, I forgot how tired I was and carried on :)

So yeah, I'm gonna really savour every second of my shift tomorrow. It's gonna be really bittersweet walking through the Village for one last time.

Malaysia Day

One of the activities that the lovely people at Workforce Check-in do is to run competitions to keep our spirits up. Last Sunday, I was declared a winner of one of them.

My prize: joining the Malaysian Paralympic athletes in their team welcoming ceremony inside the Athletes' Village.

:D :D :D *cartwheels* :D :D :D

At first I thought I was just gonna be standing on the sidelines watching them, but it soon became apparent that I was meant to stand there WITH them.

:-O

It was really awkward in the beginning to just barge in and join them, but they were in really good spirits, and they were really kind to me, considering I was there effectively to "tumpang glamer" (share their limelight).

Very sporting sportsmen!

I swear our Malaysian Paralympic athletes are coolest, funniest, most down-to-earth people I have ever seen. I loved how they "borrowed" the props for the welcoming ceremony:

Did I or did I not say they're the coolest people ever?

Five countries were being welcomed at the same time: Singapore, Niger, Korea, Laos and us, Malaysia. The team welcoming ceremony had lots of local London kids dancing and singing various songs like Queen's We Are The Champions (which I also sang out loud with the team, naturally), before each country's representative would then present their gift to the Athletes' Village management. This was then followed by playing the country's national anthem.

We Malaysians were the only team who sang our anthem out loud! Singing "Negaraku" out loud with the rest of the athletes is the BEST highlight of my Games Maker adventure by far :')

As an added bonus, after the ceremony, I was lucky to get invited for a Malaysian meal with the athletes :D

In Malaysia we call this "langkah kanan"

Afterwards, a subset of 5 of them (1 doctor, 2 coaches and 2 athletes with disabilities) asked me to bring them to a good place to buy London tat souvenirs, so I naturally took them to the tackiest cheapest place I could think of: Queensway!

I still can't believe that I dragged this motley crew of people in bright orange (and a wheelchair!) up and down the stairs of the London Underground.

You can sort of see the wheelchair on the bottom right-hand corner of this picture.

I also can't believe how disgusting Queensway was when we got there. There were mountains of trash everywhere after the Notting Hill carnage carnival. It was a bit embarrassing to show them this side of London, but I just joked around and said "Welcome to the *real* London!"

Anyway, it felt really amazing being part of this entourage. We were stopped by so many people - Malaysians and non-Malaysians - from the tube station in Stratford, to the tube carriages of the Central Line, to every 100 metres of Queensway. They were all asking for photos and wishing us well in the Paralympics. I really felt like we were celebrities for a while!

In one shop we went into, the shopkeeper kindly gave each of us a free keyring as thanks for our custom. It's now proudly hung on my Games Maker sling bag, as a proud reminder of this special day :)