London Mela

From London Mela

Carnival time comes to Hounslow and Ealing!  The London Mela is held annually in Gunnersbury Park, which is only a short walk from Brentford, so no excuses for not joining in on this festive occasion celebrating South Asian culture.  Particularly since the event director was Tim's brother Julian, who has been running this show since its inception ten years ago. Even better, he had arranged for us to be granted entry to the VIP tent, where we were treated to Nepalese food and beer courtesy of the Nepalese ambassador to the UK.
Entertainment include a Bollywood dancing lesson, a spirited performance by the Chinese Red Poppies drum troupe, followed by the Mela carnival procession.


The finale of the evening was a performance by the Philharmonia Orchestra of an Indian composition by Holst, and another piece written by Ravi Shankar.
To wrap things up, we had an electrifying (literally) performance by the Lords of Lightning. Difficult to describe, but hopefully the video gives some idea.

Olympic Closing Ceremony Concert - Hyde Park

From Olympic Closing Ceremony

I thought it would be fun to see the Olympic finale in the company of thousands of happy Team GB supporters, and the Hyde Park Closing Ceremony concert, complete with big screen TV feeds, seemed like the perfect way to achieve this.  In the end, the event did not quite pan out as originally billed, in that the final act, Blur, clashed with the main part of the closing ceremony entertainment.  Nevertheless, it was a great show, and a fitting end to an amazing two weeks.
The music kicked off with Bombay Bicycle Club, who we had first seen last year at Latitude.  They were followed by New Order, who gave us a sample of their electro dance hits, and put on a spirited performance in spite of the novelty of playing during the hours of daylight. Next up was the Specials, with the crowd joining in with various ska favourites from the late '70's.  I was trying to pay particular attention to the Jerry Dammers sound-alike's organ playing technique, as his Rat Race is on our band's set list.
After the Specials, we had an hour or so of Olympic TV highlights and the first ten minutes of the opening ceremony itself before the stage curtains opened to reveal Blur, assembled underneath a set that replicated the concrete arches of the Westway.  I did not realise the significance of this until they played their (relatively) newly written song of the same name.   They took us on journey though their extensive back catalogue, with plenty of  sing-along moments, including the inevitable laddish Park Life (does Phil Daniels have any other acting roles?), the manic Song 2, and and the more wistful Tender and The Universal.
I believe that this show was a one-off.  If so, what an impressive way to depart for one of the cornerstones of Brit Pop, and indeed to bring to an end the cultural and sporting feast that  we have been lucky enough to experience over the past few weeks.

Olympic Men's Marathon

From Olympic Marathon

Jonathan was over in the UK for a short vacation and wanted to experience the Olympics at first hand, so we decided to head into town to watch the men's marathon, one of the  few non-ticketed events in the games.  Our plan was ot watch the start on the big TV screen at City Hall ten walk over Tower Bridge to watch the runners loop around the course at the Tower of London. In the event, the TV screen was not showing the live feed so we gave that a miss and headed over to join the crowds at the Tower, where we were able to watch the runners going past for the first of their three laps.  As usual for a British crowd, the loudest cheers were for the more challenged runners at the back of the pack.
We gradually worked our way along the course, ending up at St Paul's Cathedral for the third lap.  By this stage the pack was much more strung out, and it was difficult to tell what was actually happening in the race. Generally, one tends to get a much better view of any sport from the TV feed rather than watching live, but we did at least get to experience the atmosphere by being there.

Games Making at Eton Dorney

From Olympic Rowing

So, the London Olympics are now over, and the withdrawal symptoms are starting to set in.  I won't miss the early starts, but I will miss my daily fix of working with the PRD team at Eton Dorney every morning, followed by a solid 8 hour slump on the sofa watching all the other sporting action on TV.

Looking back over the past two weeks it has been an amazing and unmissable experience. I am really pleased that my Games Maker application eventually got to the top of the pile, and that I was able to participate in this historic event.  Even better, I struck lucky in being allocated to the rowing/canoeing event (apparently the allocation process was somewhat random), which meant working at the fantastic Eton Dorney venue.  Apparently we gave the Velodrome a good run for its money in terms of having the best crowd of supporters, but with the added bonus of begin able to wander around outside and actually get to see some rowing action.   And of course, begin a major part of the Team GB medal factory.

Although everyone on the team would have been happy doing what we were doing, just for the chance to be part of the Olympics, it was particularly gratifying that so many of the rowers dropped by to say hello to us humble backroom workers and to say thank you (and of course show of their medal haul). Nice also that the Games Makers got so much public recognition in the media and in the closing ceremony.

Now its time to look forward to the Paralympics!

Olympic Sprint Canoeing

From Olympic Rowing

The past week has seen Eton Dorney switch over from hosting the rowing regatta to become the venue for the canoe sprint events.  Our PRD team has stayed the same, but many of our customers changed as the rowing officials made way for the canoeing teams.  The atmosphere at the venue was also slightly more subdued, at least initially, possibly because team GB is not as well represented in canoeing and kayaking as it is in rowing.  All that changed towards the end of the week with the 200m sprint events, in which Team GB was represented in all the finals, with several medal possibilities.  The final day was the chance for Team GB to deliver, which they did in style with a gold and bronze in the men's K1 and K2 200m sprints respectively.

Team GB rowers triumph again at Eton Dorney

From Olympic Rowing

Back to work again today, for the final day of the rowing event. Team GB were contesting three of the four finals, with good medal chances in all three races. I expect you know the result by now, two golds and one silver, propelling GB into first position in the rowing medals, and third position in the overall medal table.  Oh, and by the way, the crowds at Eton Dorney were treated to some thrilling racing.
Our Gamesmaker PRD team had slightly more interest than usual in the outcome of the women's lightweight double skulls event as one of the athletes, Sophie Hosking, is the niece of one of our team leaders.  Obviously she was well pleased with the outcome.  Based in this week's results, it seems that a good rule of thumb is that if you stick two British girls in a boat and give them some oars, they will win a gold medal.  I'm sure that rowing clubs up and down the country are going to be overflowing with new members as a legacy of this event.
Looking back on the week, I consider myself very lucky to have ended up participating in one of the most exciting and entertaining events at the 2012 Olympics, at what is arguably the best of the Olympic venues in terms of its setting, and the atmosphere generated buy the spectator interaction with the rowers.
Tomorrow a day off before we start again with the canoe sprint event on Monday.

More medals for Team GB at Eton Dorney

From Olympic Rowing

Another exciting day watching the rowing at Eton Dorney, only this time I was here as a spectator rather than a worker. An unofficial perk of being a Gamesmaker is that we can use our venue pass to get into events on our days off.  It was great being able to watch from the crowd, and take a few pictures of the rowers going past, then watching the finish on the big screen.  A fantastic atmosphere cheering on the GB team, and we were rewarded by another superb medal haul.
It seems to be customary for the medal winners to do a lap of honour after the medal ceremony to acknowledge the support they received from the spectators. Normally this just takes in the spectators in the grand stands, but on this occasion, the women's pair gold medallists, Katherine Granger and Anna Watkins made the effort to row back all the way to the 1000m mark, against quite a stong headwind, to show off their medals to those of us sitting on the bank.
After the end of the ceremonies it was fun just sitting in the lakeside park with thousands of other happy spectators to watch the thrilling tennis on the big screen TV.
I did not get away with a totally work free day, as we were asked to help out with some last minute race information distubution for the forthcoming canoe events next week.

Team GB strike gold at Eton Dorney

From Olympic Rowing

Today was the first day of the rowing finals, and what a day it was!  Team GB's first gold of the 2012 Olympics in the women's pair, and a bronze in the men's eight.  The crowd here are amazing and the volume of noise as Helen Glover and Heather Stanning approached the finishing line was absolutely deafening.  Its a privilege to be a small part of the team that contributes to making Eton Dorney probably the best venue of the London Olympics.