A Day in the Life

Well maybe it's hard to describe a typical day because our experiences vary depending on our location but I'll describe a typical day so far at the Whistler Olympic Park (WOP). We usually get up about 5:30am (I'm thinking of keeping my clocks on EST so it doesn't seem so bad- 8:30am I can handle) and then meet in the lobby at 6:30am for a drive up to WOP arriving some time after 7am. We go through Workforce checkin, get a shift stamp  with small prizes every 3rd day which I'll give to my grand kids (something to look forward to forCasey,Sam,Jessie and Luke) , get lunch and dinner vouchers (our food is OK but not as nice as that for the athletes), then a shuttle to our venue. Maybe time for a coffee then over to our trailer for a pre-game meeting. Assignments are handed out then.

For the past 2 days I've been going out to the venue finding selected athletes and notifying them of their selection for doping control. This can be a challenge finding them and conversing with someone who speaks little or no English. Mostly it's a lot of standing around waiting until we find the ones we want. Once we do notify  them then it's off to doping control for the testing. The athletes are good natured about it all and most have been tested many times before. We haven't been too busy at our venue but that will change shortly as more and more athletes arrive.

Lately we've been finishing after 6pm then back to our hotel- we're all pretty tired . Today we finished a bit earlier (no athletes around) so we got back in time to see the second half of the Super Bowl game.I was sitting in the bar with an American working with us from Louisiana and of course he was thrilled with the result - I could only imagine how he felt (dreaming of the Senators winning the Stanley Cup). Within each doping station there is a Station Manager ( an experienced doping control officer ) and they have a wide range of responsibilties - this picture shows our guy Neil from Windsor,ON hard at work.

No new pictures today from WOP so I thought I'd put in some national pictures taken this morning in our hotel lobby. I tell all my friends here that my grandson Sam loves flags so Sam these are for you!

 

 

One last comment for my son-in-law Matt - no times for naps here ! And it's been tough let me tell you!
Stay tuned tomorrow I hope to talk about Whistler itself.

Another day at Whistler Olympic Park

Well we finally got running water in our station today which makes it all somewhat easier for testing athletes. It was a beautiful day here and a number of teams were here for practice. Many teams have yet to arrive as they are at a World Cup event in Canmore Alberta but they'll be here shortly and the pace will pick up considerably. So far we're all enjoy the experience but when we get back to our rooms we're usually too wiped to go any where or do anything. The nightlife of Whistler or even this area called Creekside is a distant dream. Besides I have my adoring readers anxiously awaiting my blog updates and that must be done!

I haven't seen one of my roommates in a couple of days as he has been working at another venue ( The Whistler Olympic Village) from 2:30pm to after 11pm. My other roommate has the early shift at the Village and he is out the door by 5am and I leave by 6:30am. Those that know me well realize that I don't really like early mornings, unless it's to get a flight to Barbados. I'll be working Sunday through Super Bowl but I'm not a regular NFL watcher so not a big deal. We have a pool going so maybe some winnings???

Not much else to say today so I'll put in pictures from around the ski jump and cross country venues. Pretty spectacular some of them.

This one is the ski jump area about 7am.

The Torch Relay at Whistler Olympic Park

The Torch Relay arrived in the Whistler area today and of course there were lots of people about. At the Olympic Park it arrived before 1pm and we were able to get up close in front of the ski jump area. It was all pretty cool.
If you go to vancouver2010.com and look at the pictures for today (Feb5) you'll see a lot of the same images.

 

 As we had no water service at the station today it was more training and a walk-about of the venue for me. There are a number of international doping control officers here including my roommate from Norway, some from the UK(Wales,Northern Ireland,England and Scotland), the USA,  Australia and Taiwan. While all are very nice and very good the guy from Northern Ireland is a laugh riot. On our forms we have to mark the Sport and the Event for the athlete. In  our practice sessions today the Irish guy listed his sport as "Leprechanthumping" and his even as "Clubbing" - it's a combined sport in Ireland the other part being "Throwing". Oh those crazy Irish!   

This is the finish area for the ski jump - got a few pictures and videos of the ski jumpers practicing . I had never seen that before and it was very cool. But I don't think I'll be taking up ski jumping any time soon.

                                                                        Another picture of an inukshuk - this time at night at the Olympic Park.

Tomorrow we go live and I'll be spending my day outside at either cross country or the ski jump area trying to find and identify athletes that have been selected for testing. We'll see what my dedective skills are like.                                      

An unexpected Day

Well I thought I was going to be spending my day at the cross country venue at Whistler Olympic Park (WOP).So I set out well before my shift start of 1pm by taking the bus to Whistler Village. Discovered there that the shuttle to WOP hadn't sarted yet and I could get a ride from the hotel at 1:30pm. So I had a couple of hours to hang out in Whistler Village. Lots of skiers and snowboarders. I checked out where to go for the mountain to montain gondola ride and the zipline trek. These will be activities on days off some time in mid- Feb.



Eventually I made it out to WOP and had just a few minutes to wander around. Our station is between the cross contry finish and the ski jump. Great picture of the ski jump.

 

 I was there for about an hour then a call came in for a bunch of us to go to the Athlete's Village  as many teams were starting to arrive and they wanted to start some testing. As nothing was happening at WOP away we went.. Some testing did take place at the Village .  Friday I'm back to WOP and we'll see how many athletes show up there for training- as more athletes arrive the busier we'll get. Much nicer weather here than at home .                                                                                                                                                   

We're Ready!

Tuesday was spent mostly in information sessions here at the Lodge. Not a lot to share from that other than briefings on using the public transit system to get around. With our accreditation serving as our bus pass we can ride for free on the local BC Transit network. Makes life a lot easier in terms of getting around.

Wednesday was the first day all of us were at our primary venues. While I'll be moving around to other venues my primary one is the Whistler Olympic Village ie the place were the athletes will be staying. It's about 10kms south of Whistler itself and is it's own oasis. The housing to be used by the athletes will be sold after the Games as condos. Today no athletes around but on Feb 4 the Village opens to athletes and many will start arriving then so they an access the practice facilities. This is a picture of one of the housing blocks and there are many spread around. The Village is meant to house over 2500 athletes.





Security is very tight and we have to go through airport like security checks (but no body image scans) to get in to the place.
Our day was spent with venue specific training this morning then job specific training in our locations this afternoon. We're as ready as we will ever be. In this picture I'm outside one of the lounges for the athletes. As it should be this whole place is very athlete focused.

Also pictured  is the athlete dining hall. We had lunch there Wed. as a special treat and the there was lots of choice. Later we had dinner in the workforce dining area- a lot smaller and certainly a lot less choice.

Thursday I'm off to Winter Olympic Park which is the home for Cross Country Skiing, Biathalon, Nordic Combined and Ski Jumping. I'll be spending 8 days at the Cross Country venue which should be interesting. Hopefully I'll have some pictures of that area in my next posting.

The Eagle Has Landed

Hi All
Well a very tired group of us met around 9pm PST at Vancouver Airport after long flights in from Eastern Canada. We waited a while then got bused up to Whistler, about 2.5 hours. I suppose it's a spectacular drive but we couldn't see much. We were dropped off at the Whistler Games Centre and signed in. We waited again then a shuttle brought a number of us to the Nita Lake Lodge. We probably got checked in about 1am.

I'm in a 2 bedroom suite with a friend Chris from Hamilton,ON and a young man from Oslo,Norway also named Chris. Both are very pleasant people. Olso Chris gets the pullout. The hotel is less than 2 years old and very upscale. Much nicer than I could ever afford! This is a pic of my king size bed.







Not much chance yet to get out and about. The locals call this Whistralia- unbelievable the number of aussie accents you hear , even among the volunteers. I did go for a 5km run before lunch - really nice trails along the lakes and a few more hilly spots than I'm used to at home (our hills at home would be speed bumps here). We're actually in Whistler Creekside about 5kms south of the main Whistler Village but it does have it's own bits of shopping here - I even bought some groceries.

This picture was done this morning outside the hotel.Neat with the mountain top above the clouds.

This afternoon we went for our accreditations and uniforms.A very smooth process that probably took less than an hour. All my uniform things are Womens Large but they look pretty spiffy and should be warm enough.I even have my first ever pair of winter pants! See my profile picture above.

Tomorrow  is a long day of refresher training then Wednesday we do venue walk-abouts. That should be more interesting. Maybe we take some picture??? 

Getting Ready To Go

I'll be leaving this coming Sunday for a flight to Vancouver then a bus trip up to Whistler . While I'll be on the Sea-to-Sky Highway I won't really see much then. It will make for a long evening then an early morning start on the Monday with a meeting, then uniforms, and accreditation. More training will follow on Tuesday and Wednesday then we start for real on Thursday. I'll be initially assigned to the Athlete's Village then some days at the cross country venue.


You can see from the photo that Vancouver itself is ready ..  

I'll be staying at a place called Nita Lake Lodge - looks pretty nice..... It's near Whistler Creekside and I believe close to the downhill events. In spite of the weather there is snow . It's also a few minutes away from the main Whistler Village.


This is also the last of the photos taken by some one else - I'll be using my own camera after this for adding shots. The regularity of future updates will depend on my internet connection , my energy levels, and having new and interesting things to say. I won't be able to mention the athletes I meet through my duties but you never know who I'll see otherwise. I also won't be talking about how much fun we expect to have because as someone pointed out "what happens in Whistler,stays in Whistler".