Orientation Training

Made it to Orientation Training. I thought I'd arrive early to soak up the atmosphere however by the time I arrived at the Emirates Stadium next to Chris Hoy Velodrome, opposite the imposing Celtic Park, the hall was well packed. My seat as you can see from my pictures was high up almost in the gods but with a great view of the entire arena and stage.

My goodie bag was on the seat. All the usual stuff training handbook, pocket guide to training , branded pen, bottle of water plus a very pleasant surprise: an old favourite from London2012 - Nature Valley's Crunchy Bar, made me smile (MMS). 

The show was enthusiastically led by a pair of presenters: the  very organised Scottish BBC presenter Hazel Irvine, who forever in my mind is the voice of curling and a very quick witted comedian whose name , regrettably I missed [1]. The chemistry between the pair was good Hazel ever sensible, he looking for pun or wit opportunity ( some of which were quite good if only I could recall them!)

There were samples of the Games seventeen events on show. The highlight  for me were the girl floor gymnasts who seemed so light footed and elegant and the pole vaulter how he has the nerve to do that is beyond me. 

Factoid: the Rugby Sevens is in effect a world championship as all the top nations are there 

We were taken thru the history of the Games, Glasgow is the 20th or XXth  games,  Glasgow won the honour in a shoot out with Abuja, Nigeria. Interestingly  the Games have yet to be in Africa; been in all the other continents.

The great Allan Wells, I have many positive memories of him winning sprint races when I was growing up, gave the athlete's view of the Games. 

We were introduced to the various Functional Areas, my FA is Guest Relations & Protocol one of the smaller WorkForce teams but one of the most important (all the FAs say that) as we'll be  the interface between the countries and Games admin. Each FA give a factoid I wrote each of them down , then promptly lost the piece of paper , sadly.

Factoid: they'll be 6,500 athletes and administrators in the village

The highlight was the launch of the uniform which from the distance I was looked fine - no tartan and no shoes - but apart from that the red and grey seemed to look good AND there's an umbrella which I'm sure we won't be needing!

All in all a nice bit of fun and sound intro to the Games went on perhaps a little too long and I would have loved a selfie with Clyde (perhaps at next training session ?).

So we're off , next step's functional area training and then venue specific training . I do hope they include Accreditation and Uniform in one of those sessions so we don't have to come back for a fourth session.

Exit Thru The Gift Shop....

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[1] His names is Des Clarke (Thanks Emmy Williams on Facebook)