The Olympic Bubble

Well it does feel strange to be back in Easingwold after spending the last three weeks in what they call the ‘Olympic bubble’. Life in the bubble is unlike anything I have experienced before, for instance instead of staring at the floor or the route map people in the tube actually spoke to each other, I watched Lithuanian supporters being taught how to sing happy birthday, Dutch supporters singing and dancing with British supporters on the Northern Line and spent a good while one morning at 5.30am on the tube trying to convince a lad that I wasn’t part of Team GB nor was his friend a sprinter for Hungary! There were families, previously strangers, talking to each other on the DLR and swapping anecdotes from the day’s events and people giving out free bottles of water in the street as bands played and people draped themselves in the flags of their countries.The London Ambassadors (those dressed in pink) were fantastic and wherever I was they were a source of information and directions with a cheerful smile. The various countries had set up houses around London and the sell out one was the Holland Heineken House at Alexandra Palace with beer and barbeque on tap, though I made do with Denmark House at St Catherine’s Dock with its Viking ship and Lego stadium. Meeting all the other Games Makers and also constantly being stopped by the public to ask where I was working and what I had seen was fantastic just not what usually happens in London.The excitement each day as the medal count went up and up, the roar of the crowd from the arena as we won another equestrian medal and the jumping up and down in the control room as we witnessed history taking place on the monitors.If only every day could be like life in the Olympic bubble, I know that Londoners are hoping it will be and are now looking forward to the Paralympics which may be the first sell out games since they started here in 1948. And for me I cannot resist another trip into the bubble so it’s a week of shifts at the Paralympics. Go Team GB at the Paras!


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