Yesterday was induction day for Team Cycling at the Indira Gandhi Stadium and the first real sample of our surroundings over the next two weeks. Getting there wasn’t as bad as initially thought, a 10 minute trip on the metro, obviously buried into someones armpit during the 9am rush hour, followed by a 5 minute tuk-tuk ride to the front gate. First of all I must say, contrary to what has been said in the papers here about the under-furnished state of the stadiums, by and large, the Velodrome is a magnificent building, inside and out. Walking down the boulevard to the main entrance and seeing the huge glass face of the Velodrome shining in the sunlight was a truly amazing sight, just across from it stands the Gymnasium and behind, the Wrestling arena. My press pass, unlike my other colleagues, allows me access to all stadias in the Indira Gandhi complex, hopefully I will be able to mooch about and watch some of the other events when I’m off duty. Happy Days!
Our supervisor, as I mentioned before, is a lovely Canadian (not Australian as I first thought) bloke called Chris. He introduced us all to the team, outlined the basics of what we would be doing during our shifts and making sure we were comfortable and clear about what is expected of us. As well as this we were informed of the race types, both speed and endurance, team and individual and given a tour around our work stations, the conference rooms and the mixed zone, all of which were very impressive. It turns out India have entered their first cycling team since 1978, so all eyes will be on the host nation to see if they pull anything spectacular out of the bag upon their return to the Velodrome. A big part of me wants them to do well, providing they don’t beat Team England of course.
Later that evening we attended a Garden reception held by the British High Commissioner and Lady Stagg at the British Embassy. I can safely say I have never been somewhere so fancy in my entire life. We were all speculating throughout the day as to what It would actually be like, the general feeling being perhaps just a few important bigwigs with a table of nibbles and make shift bar in a village hall. It wasn't anything of the sort. Upon arrival we were ushered to the main entrance to brandish our individual invitations, then directed to the garden where we were greeted by a queue of waiters offering endless free drinks and canapes. It was safe to say by this point we realised a village hall function was a very pessimistic guess. The garden was vast and pristine with fresh food being cooked at one side, an unlimited selection of alcoholic or non-alcoholic beverages being served at the other and a live band providing a relaxing ambiance throughout the evening. After getting familiar with our surroundings (and picking our jaws up off the floor) we were told to "mingle and network" so during the night, that's what we all did. I'm not going to blow my own trumpet but meeting new people is something I'm not too bad at and, with the aid of some Dutch courage, I was in my element and talking to all kinds of interesting characters ranging from journalists and military officers, to coaches and athletes (the latter of whom were only home nation and channel island competitors). During the course of the night, my main conversations were with Guernsey Tennis No. 1 Seed, Patrick Ogier; Margaret Rees and Katrin Budd of the Womens' Welsh Hockey Team; British Virgin Islands Physio, Mark Latimer and a Scottish Journalist called Julian Hampshire. All in all, not a bad night for meeting and greeting. We've been invited to attend a meal at the High Commission again on the 9th October, the other guests are still a mystery but it's an experience I'm elated were doing again.
Work-wise there was no training today for Team Cycling, October 2nd marks the birthday of Mahatma Gandhi and It's a national holiday, which has left me the day to swot up on the preliminary team sheets before donning on the suit tomorrow for my first shift as a workforce volunteer.
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