A Long Commonwealth Day

The day started very early so that I could get on shift for 7:00 am at the N.E.C. As I walked over the air bridge, there were many people waiting for trains, trying to make themselves comfortable.  These two young ladies won the praise.

At the moment the only activity is training by athletes at the different halls and arena.  One of our roles is to arrange the transport for the athletes between the athletes village and the halls. The different teams are still arriving, but we still saw many players during our time on shift.  Our other role is to receive and despatch dignitaries from the 72 commonwealth countries using the car fleet. There’s little activity around this role as yet.  We did go and familiarise ourselves with the pick up drop off area and we got to see the car pool of Teslas being used (see extras).  We discussed what a collective noun for Teslas might be, maybe a spark of Teslas.

Highlight of the day was in the evening, heading to Alexander Stadium to watch a dress rehearsal of the opening ceremony. Only one image in extras of the scene before the start, we were asked to ‘save the surprise’ and not share any of the content of the show.  It was a glorious celebration of the region and all of the performers did brilliantly, particularly as we had persistent rain for more than half of the performance. It’s well worth watching if you can.