Deloitte's UK firm is the official professional services provider to the Olympic and Paralympic Games. Upon joining the firm back in November, I learned about all the support that the firm was providing through volunteer hours as well as the perks that employees like me could benefit from. Among other things, Deloitte had lots of tickets to give away to employees for various Olympic and Paralympic events, mostly through various competitions. I'll cut to the chase, I was not fortunate enough to win any.
One perk I did benefit from was holding the Olympic torch (or one of them) when it travelled to my office. It came on Tuesday, July 24th, just a couple of days before the opening ceremony. I actually got nervous while waiting in line for my turn. The torch was at my office all day and the line remained about 45 minutes long throughout most of the day. I had the pleasure if standing in that 45 minute line...but it was worth it. After holding the torch, the excitement and anticipation of the games really hit me.
Erica with one of the Olympic torches
As a general observation, we have definitely noticed alot more visitors in central London than usual, many of them wearing their country's colors. Despite the influx of visitors, normal everyday life has not been interrupted--a real testament to the efforts on the parts of the organizers and all of the volunteers.
Friday, July 27th, Mo and I decided to stay in (we typically go out on Friday) and watch the opening ceremony live. The ceremonies did not begin until 9PM, but there was pre-opening ceremony coverage. At one point during the pre-show festivities, The Royal Air Force Aerobatic Team, The Red Arrows, did a fly-past the Olympic Stadium spraying red, white and blue smoke trails. It was so cool and exciting when seconds later they flew past our living room windows, leaving the same red, white and blue smoke trails.
The opening ceremonies continued on just past 1AM and I could barely keep my eyes open waiting until The Parade of Nations got to the U's. Even though I thought the NHS (National Health Service) tribute was a little out of place with the rest of the theme, overall I really enjoyed them and they continued to build the excitement of the following two weeks.
For us, the next big event was the one event we managed to get tickets for during the lottery--a football match at Wembley Stadium between South Korea and Gabon on Wednesday, August 1st. I took the afternoon off from work (what could be better than a half day on hump day the day you go to an Olympic event?) and Mo worked from home in the morning. The organizers advised that you allow plenty of time due to increased traffic on public transportation and security checks at the venue. Since the match stared at 5PM we left home around 3PM. The tube journey was relatively uneventful and didn't take longer than normal, but one stop before Wembley Park lots and lots of people got on tube. I've never before been so cramped on the tube. Security at Wembley Stadium was pretty much a breeze especially for me since I got to go in the ladies line which was much shorter than the men's lines! We met up with our friends Julee and Jeff who had also gotten tickets to the very same match through the lottery. In fact they got 10 so they brought along several friends too.
The view upon exiting the Wembley Park tube station
Mo pre-match in front of Wembley Stadium
Wembley Stadium during the match
Mo and Erica in Wembley Stadium
The match was more fun than I thought it would be. The atmosphere was amazing despite a nil-nil draw. The stadium holds approximately 90,000 and there were over 76,000 in attendance.
After the match was over we returned to Richmond where Julee and Jeff live, along with the rest of the group. Saying they traveled to and from the match in style is an understatement. Julee arranged a private coach (that's a bus in American) and to her surprise it was England's national football team's coach! It was awesome--so spacious with leather captains chairs. I could travel by bus all the time if it was like that. It was so fun to watch random people taking pictures of the bus and we got more than a few waves on our ride back to Richmond. We spent a couple of hours with the gang at The Red Cow, their local pub, watching some Olympic events that evening before heading home.
Our transport from the match
Mo and Jeff inside the coach
While we will continue to try to get tickets for the remaining events, even if we are not successful, our firsthand Olympic experience exceeded all expectations!
