Monday, November 13, 2006
Tuesday 14th November.
One day to go until the Venue (Main Press Centre) opens officially. The Games start on December 1st. Many things to finalise today or at least to try to finish. We won't be overwhelmed with people this week, only a trickle of journalists will come through so it's not really all that enerving but anything we can finish today will make it easier when we have to deal with training the volunteers and dealing with the first few Press issues as they come in.
Out running at 5am again this morning, I see a number of familiar faces. Still in darkness with only faint daylight starting to come through I see one of the two ladies in Black all covered and veiled who greeted me yesterday. I recognise her stride as I did before but for a moment I cannot see her friend and then I see her about 50 meters behind. And as I approach the first woman, she suddenly lifts her veil and flips it over her head so I can see her beautiful smiling radiant face when she says "Good Morning" to me. I'm delighted and totally shocked beyond words as I say: "Sabah el hair" (excuse the spelling) which means litterally: 'the sun it is up' which of course it's not yet but in actual fact this means "Good Morning" in arabic. I'm so touched by this woman's gesture that I'm litterally floating for the rest of my run.
Assil finds me on my return trip and run along side me for a couple of kilometers. "I'm sure you can run faster than me Assil" I tell him as he looks pretty fit. "Yes, I can but I get tired faster than you so thank you for helping to run further." he replies. And then he says goodbye and turns back to return to his car.
We are at venue this morning by 8am. From tomorrow my first volunteer shifts starts at 7am so we'll be here much earlier. Everything is improving but we are still behind with the look and finish. The stores in the main entrance hall (hair dresser, Tissot (sponsor) shop, General store, Technology store, samsung internet lounge, etc) need a lot of finishing touches. But no matter what, tomorrow is the big opening.
Packing tonight to move accommodation somehow tomorrow too amidst all that.
Bye for now
One day to go until the Venue (Main Press Centre) opens officially. The Games start on December 1st. Many things to finalise today or at least to try to finish. We won't be overwhelmed with people this week, only a trickle of journalists will come through so it's not really all that enerving but anything we can finish today will make it easier when we have to deal with training the volunteers and dealing with the first few Press issues as they come in.
Out running at 5am again this morning, I see a number of familiar faces. Still in darkness with only faint daylight starting to come through I see one of the two ladies in Black all covered and veiled who greeted me yesterday. I recognise her stride as I did before but for a moment I cannot see her friend and then I see her about 50 meters behind. And as I approach the first woman, she suddenly lifts her veil and flips it over her head so I can see her beautiful smiling radiant face when she says "Good Morning" to me. I'm delighted and totally shocked beyond words as I say: "Sabah el hair" (excuse the spelling) which means litterally: 'the sun it is up' which of course it's not yet but in actual fact this means "Good Morning" in arabic. I'm so touched by this woman's gesture that I'm litterally floating for the rest of my run.
Assil finds me on my return trip and run along side me for a couple of kilometers. "I'm sure you can run faster than me Assil" I tell him as he looks pretty fit. "Yes, I can but I get tired faster than you so thank you for helping to run further." he replies. And then he says goodbye and turns back to return to his car.
We are at venue this morning by 8am. From tomorrow my first volunteer shifts starts at 7am so we'll be here much earlier. Everything is improving but we are still behind with the look and finish. The stores in the main entrance hall (hair dresser, Tissot (sponsor) shop, General store, Technology store, samsung internet lounge, etc) need a lot of finishing touches. But no matter what, tomorrow is the big opening.
Packing tonight to move accommodation somehow tomorrow too amidst all that.
Bye for now
# posted by AdeC @ 9:42 PM 
