So I'm here in one piece and now for the Games.
Firstly don't believe the stories of Delhi leaving everything until the last minute. In fact almost everything that doesn't appear on TV isn't finished ... some isn't even started. A mixture of bureaucracy, apathy and down right bloody mindedness (if that's a word) means that London 2012 is probably closer to being ready. The people are lovely; the stewards are great; the soldiers and police have guns but don't seem interested in using them, it's just that Delhi have chosen not to listen to anybody who has held the CWG before. In fact anybody who's held a sports event, music festival, conference, every a garden fete could have given valuable guidance. Rather than harping on I'll give you a couple of examples:-
- The swimming venue is in a city centre park, think Hyde Park. The spectator entrance is effectively on a roundabout not dissimilar to Marble Arch ... why. 200 metres of temporary road and a dropping of area would save everybody 20 minutes and a whole lot of "honking".
- On entering a venue you go through airport style security. All manned by the military. Handsome as they look and great as they may be at protecting India's borders they don't make good "door operatives". In brief, everything is banned; food; drinks; bags; coins; hand sanitizer; pens; flag poles ... today one even tried to bar somebody for having an SD card as it might take video. So on day one I had to surrender a packet of Polo's. I've since learned that if you argue enough you can get almost anything in, it's just a case of being stubborn.
- Once in the venue there is plentiful cheap food and drink. 2 x 500ml of coke and 4 x 500ml of water came to 80 rupees, that £1.10 of you're English money ... for the lot. Now the rub, you can buy it but you can't take it into the venue. Mad ... utterly mad.
As for the sport, well it's been a green and gold day in the velodrome and pool. I have to say I now know the Aussie anthem word for word. It seems that they're the only major nation taking this games seriously. Canada are having a go in the pool but other than that, Scotland seem to be the only other country punching above their weight. The highlights today were Kenya winning a swimming gold and a brilliant men's points race in the velodrome. The later was good for two reasons, a battling English silver and the company of Scottish rider Jimmy McCallum's lovely fiancee and best friend.
Jet-lag catching up now so just a short blog today. Tomorrow it's more cycling, more bureaucracy and a first look at the Athletics stadium.
Firstly don't believe the stories of Delhi leaving everything until the last minute. In fact almost everything that doesn't appear on TV isn't finished ... some isn't even started. A mixture of bureaucracy, apathy and down right bloody mindedness (if that's a word) means that London 2012 is probably closer to being ready. The people are lovely; the stewards are great; the soldiers and police have guns but don't seem interested in using them, it's just that Delhi have chosen not to listen to anybody who has held the CWG before. In fact anybody who's held a sports event, music festival, conference, every a garden fete could have given valuable guidance. Rather than harping on I'll give you a couple of examples:-
- The swimming venue is in a city centre park, think Hyde Park. The spectator entrance is effectively on a roundabout not dissimilar to Marble Arch ... why. 200 metres of temporary road and a dropping of area would save everybody 20 minutes and a whole lot of "honking".
- On entering a venue you go through airport style security. All manned by the military. Handsome as they look and great as they may be at protecting India's borders they don't make good "door operatives". In brief, everything is banned; food; drinks; bags; coins; hand sanitizer; pens; flag poles ... today one even tried to bar somebody for having an SD card as it might take video. So on day one I had to surrender a packet of Polo's. I've since learned that if you argue enough you can get almost anything in, it's just a case of being stubborn.
- Once in the venue there is plentiful cheap food and drink. 2 x 500ml of coke and 4 x 500ml of water came to 80 rupees, that £1.10 of you're English money ... for the lot. Now the rub, you can buy it but you can't take it into the venue. Mad ... utterly mad.
As for the sport, well it's been a green and gold day in the velodrome and pool. I have to say I now know the Aussie anthem word for word. It seems that they're the only major nation taking this games seriously. Canada are having a go in the pool but other than that, Scotland seem to be the only other country punching above their weight. The highlights today were Kenya winning a swimming gold and a brilliant men's points race in the velodrome. The later was good for two reasons, a battling English silver and the company of Scottish rider Jimmy McCallum's lovely fiancee and best friend.
Jet-lag catching up now so just a short blog today. Tomorrow it's more cycling, more bureaucracy and a first look at the Athletics stadium.
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