....in this shrt I can be....

a volunteer at a big sporting event.

Another emergency blip. It's been absolutely persosting down all day today. Woke again at 5.30, (God knows why) and it was blowing a gale and lashing rain.
Left the house at 10.00 after taking the Boss a coffee up to bed (she does like her Saturday morning lie in) and it was lashing down and calm.
And that's how it's stayed all day, a steady down pour, an unchanging grey sky, never a break, never a pause.

So....this is another part of my "I love me" collection. This is one of my shirts from the Commonwealth games held in Manchester 2002. I can't believe it's 8 years ago. I volunteerd and ended up being a driver for the team from St.Vincent and the Grenadines...1 female sprinter, 1 male sprinter,1 male marathon runner,2 male table tennis players,1 male squash player , a chaperone, a coach and the Chef de Mission. It was fantastic, very laid back team, visiting dignitaries, hanging out with all the other teams from the Caribbean, plenty of free tickets to watch events on my days off and a variety of vehicles to drive.

The frame holds my shirt, the flag off one of the cars, my name badge, access all areas pass and a proxy for the CdM. All the drivers had passes that let them get virtually anywhere and the SVG Chef was very good at blagging us into events as his "personal driver".Without doubt, although the sport was fantastic, and some of the parties where something else, the best place was the Athlete's Village. Walking around and bumping into people like Dame Tanni Grey-Thompson, Ian Thorpe, Jamie Baulch,Cathy Freeman, Kim Collins,Jonathan Edwards, Frankie Fredericks, Okkert Brits,Marlon Devonish,Darren Campbell, Sammy Kipketer, Mark Foster, Karen Pickering,Natalie du Toit, Paula Radcliffe and Kelly Holmes. Now that's serious name dropping!!!!!

I'll let you into a secret.........one day the CdM invited two of us drivers into the Competitors restaurant, there was one for volunteers and one for Competitors, the food was pretty good and exactly the same in both marquees. The only difference was, in the Competitors marquee every single item was labelled up with the calorie/kiloJoule count, fat content, vitamins, minerals etc so the athletes could maintain their carefully planned diets..........not a bit of it......... they ate anything and everything and loads of it............when they're in competition it's just fuel. The favourite items were ice cream, coca-cola and sugary biscuits before events. Steaks, chicken and fish with pasta, potatoes or even chips after events, usually all on the same plate!

It's my sporting event tomorrow, another winter league fishing match, probably in the rain!

Das vidanya.