Day 15 & 16

Things are very steady at the Accreditation Center as more and more media start to arrive. We are now busy all the time and even have a line-up once in a while. I think with having the set up at the airport, it has taken away a lot of our business, but as they close down at 8:00, any flights that come in later, media usually shows up at our place the next day. I continue to enjoy the volunteering and I have met so many great people it is amazing. I have now gotten several shift gifts including a pin, a stuffed Quatchi, a silver key chain from Birks engraved with Team 2010 and an umbrella. Jen, one of the paid staff was lucky enough to carry the Olympic torch in New Westminster on Tuesday and brought it in to the tent for all to admire and hold. She was so excited to share it with us, and now I can hardly wait to see the torch when it hits Port Moody on Thursday. Shauna brought Nicole into the tent so she could hold the torch as they were on their way to the dress rehearsal of the opening ceremonies. As a volunteer I was allotted 1 free ticket and the option of purchasing another for $50.00. As we are already going to the opening; I gave them to Shauna and Nicole. They have been sworn to secrecy so they won’t spoil it for us on Friday, but they did give it 2 thumbs up.

Day 14

The rest of the Today show ladies arrived today and I was able to accredit Meredith Vieira while the lady next to me helped Ann Curry. They were all very nice and were looking forward to seeing Vancouver and to shooting the show from Grouse Mountain.

Day 13

Well after today I can go home happy, I said before I arrived in Vancouver that I would really like to see Matt Lauer form the Today show (NBC). Well guess who I accredited today. The great man himself. I have watched to Today show every Olympics for the past 5 or 6. They do such a great job of showing you the city, the people and the stories behind the Olympics. I was very cool and calm and even had a little chat with him. The other said afterwards that I did a great job and didn’t even shake as I handed him his card. We still have not seen the rest of the Today show crew, but I am sure they will be in soon.

In the afternoon I accredited Kristie Yamaguchi the figure skater from the US but who practiced at the Edmonton Glenora Club. It was also a very special day as I got to have lunch with a friend of mine (Stephanie) from Quebec. She is one of the girls that tented in our backyard when they were volunteering for the World Masters in Canada 4 years ago. All in all it was a perfect day!

Day 12

I was keeping my fingers crossed that we would start to see a few more people coming in today, but alas it was another quite day. But quite days are not without their excitement. At one point in the day, I had a very beautiful young lady come to my counter to be accredited, I recognized her right away. Here a few hints. She was a figure skater..... she won several medal (even a gold I think)....she was a guest judge on the hockey/figure skating show this fall....give up.... Katarina Witt. She was very nice and will be doing some play by play during the figure skating events. A short time later, a very familiar fellow come to the desk, it is Kevin Newman from the Global National. He will be doing the news from Robinson Square during the Olympics. There just happens to be a zip line running through the square and someone asked if he was going to try it out. He jokingly said they didn’t pay him enough to do that, and then he laughed and said they did pay him enough but he still wasn’t going to get on the zip line. I guess only time will tell. We also got a new volunteer who started today all the way from Boulder Colorado. She is staying with a family in West Vancouver and will be here until the 22. She had wanted to be on the medical team as she is a Physical Therapist and has her own practice in the states. By the time she found out she needed to have secured accommodations, all the medical positions were full so they placed her with us. On the way to the Sky Trian (West coast doesn’t run on weekends) I ran into an Edmonton Police officer and found out that there are 75 members from Edmonton at the games. It is so nice to run into folks from Edmonton, and everyone feels free to step and talk to everyone else as we are all there as volunteers or paid staff to help with the games. Tonight Ann, Dianna and I went to a new restaurant for me called the “Brown’s Social House” in Newport village across from Port Moody City Hall. We had a nice meal. Then home to watch the news to see if Cypress received any snow, what the foreign press is staying about Vancouver and where the Torch has been today. The buzz has started and you can feel it in the air. This is going to be a great event and one heck of a party!!!

Day 11

Today I was really met to be at work and we had another quiet day, everyone still thinks we will have a big rush one of these days but we are not entirely sure that the airport stations aren’t do a lot of the media when they arrive. Pat (use to work for the Globe and Mail in Toronto but has retired here) and Liz (lives in West Vancouver and has a lot to do with the new rec center in West Van) went for lunch today and had a great time learning about each other. This afternoon I was able to accredit Lisa Laflamme from CTV. No one else recognized her and Ryan jokingly said she could get into the venues but didn’t get a seat, with which she responded that she was sure to have a seat from 3 to 6 as she was anchoring the news.

When I boarded the West Coast Express yesterday I noticed a lot of construction around some very old railway cars in the CP lot, I found out today that they are building a small rail town to house some of the Canadian Pacific’s staff during the games. I guess they will be staying on the rail cars and hosting events in large tents there during the games. With accommodations being very tight in the downtown area, I guess everyone will just be happy to have a bed.

Dianna picked me up today and we hurried home as we are going out tonight with a couple from down the street (Paul and Judy). We had sinner in a very French restaurant where mussels were the speciality of the house. I opted for the vegetarian lasagne but everyone else raved about the mussels. We then went to a play at the old Stanley play house called “Mrs. Dexter and her Daily”. It was very good , there were only 2 ladies in the entire play and they were never on the stage at the same time. After the play we went to Paul and Judy’s son-in-laws Cheesecake cafe for dessert. On the way home we stopped at Granville Island to watch the lights that are lighting up the sky around Vancouver during the Olympics. There are 20 lights that rotate to patterns designed by anyone who wants to take part. I guess there is a web site where you can design a 30 second segment and they will let you know when it will be presented and then will send you pictures of what it looked like. Can someone do it and let me know if it really works. That is all for now talk to you tomorrow.

Day 10

I went into work today only to find that I was not on the list again, a mix up in the schedule and as they had a full raft of volunteers sent me home where I proceeded to have a very long and well deserved nap. I just want to let you know that I have not been idle in the evenings as Dianna and I always seem to find something to do. We did have dinner and watch the “Bachelor” on Monday night, Tuesday was leftovers, and Wednesday Dianna had a meeting and so Sherpa and I had the night to ourselves. Tonight Dianna is having some people in for a meeting about the museum so we will eat after they leave. I nice quite end to a nice quite day.

Day 9

On the way to work this morning on the West Coast express, I noticed when we went past Balentine pier there are now 3 cruise ships docked to host the security force that has come to Vancouver . from Holland America there is the Osterdam and the Statinndam and from Carnival the Elation, which Richard and I have been on. I guess the Elation will be going in for a retrofit right after the games. As for the security force we are beginning to see many more of them down by the media center. I have seen officers from London (Ontario), Dhurman, Calgary, and Montreal as well as from forces all over the Vancouver mainland. I was not scheduled to work on the 3 or the 4th, but I did exchange a work day on the 18th (Richard will be here then) for one on what I thought was the 3rd. When I got into work (before checking in) they told me I was not on the list for that day, they were a little short and Kary was not coming in till 10:00, so I just stayed on and helped out until Kary arrived. Seeing as I was downtown, I decided to explore a bit and went down to check out the downtown Bay store. As I got there I remembered that I could pick up tickets to the dress rehearsal of the opening ceremonies that I want to get for Shauna and Nicole. When I got to the place they were giving them out the line up was around the block and was about 4 hours long. They suggested I come back another day so off I went to the Bay. Half of the main floor has been taken over by Olympic merchandise, so I poked around for a bit and bought a few onises for Talia so she could get into the Olympic spirit. Then off to London Drugs (to mail the parcel) on the way to Robinson Square. The square is right behind the Art Gallery where they have set up an indoor/outdoor skating rink. It seems to still be under construction, but I ‘m sure when Richard gets here we will come down and take in the action. On my way back to the Sky Train, I noticed the line-up for tickets had gotten a lot smaller so joined the crew and chatted with volunteers as we waited for our tickets. One fellow was a driver for the Secretary General of the NOC (National Olympic Committee) who was from Slovakia. He will be driving just this one fellow for the whole games and will be going up to Whistler a few times as Slovakia has a few alpine skies. One lady was in charge of the costumes for the opening celebrations and she had been sewing since November and told us she had been sworn to secrecy about the opening, but she was sure we were all going to be blown away at the event. Another fellow was working at the curling venue where he was helping the media set up for those great shots we see on television. All in all it was a very pleasant way to spend an hour and a half. Once we go in the door we paid our $50.00 for the extra ticket, and received a bottle of wine (Janckson-Triggs Merlo bottled especially for the Olympics). Another day another adventure.

Day 8

Happy Ground Hog Day! I heard that Balzac Billy saw his shadow so there will be another 6 weeks of winter in Alberta. I feel so bad that I am basking in these great plus 10 temperatures with no snow to shovel. True it is raining and gray, but the sun did peak through and it only rained in the morning. We are still keeping out fingers crossed that there will be some snow up at Cypress, as they are now trucking it in from Manning Park which is about 3 hours to the east of here. It is one of the hottest topics every morning, and when we heard that last night they got 5 cm there was great joy in Mudville.

Today was my 6th shift so I received my 2nd volunteer gift today, I had a choice between as stuffed Quatchi or Miga. I chose Quatchi (the Sasquatch) as he seems to be the most popular with the accreditation crew and he is just so cute.

There was an article in the Province newspaper today about the thousands of pin traders that will be hitting town in the next few days. Pin trading is a big thing at the Olympics and everyone seems to be getting into the swing of things. I have several and even got one from a German Broadcasting cameraman just for helping him with validating his card. I even ran into the two guys that were on the front page of the paper and they wanted to trade for my Team 2010 pin that I got as a volunteer prize on day 3. I told them that I was keeping it but I that I was still a raw rookie when it comes to pin trading and I might be willing to trade some of my other pins down the road. Liz was given a Japanese Broadcasting pin that I gather is one that is very hard to get. We are still waiting to get one of the NBC pins so hopefully when we get more through the tent someone will have some.

Day 7

Today at the West Coast Express station I was approached by a young fellow who was starting his first shift at the MMC (Main Media Centre) on security, and so we stood and talked until the train came and then I showed him the best way to make your way through the crowds to get to MMC. I told you that when you wear your jacket everyone feels free to talk to you. I think it is great, I feel that I am part of a very large family and we are in Vancouver to have a great big party.
Today was a bit busier than yesterday (we only had 65 on Sunday) but we are still waiting for the rush. Some think it will hit on the 4th, a day I don’t work, but I guess time will tell. I did however get to validate the accreditation card of the wife of the Primer of BC while Liz helped her husband Gordon Campbell. I also have done the cards for the fellows who work on the NFL Sunday night football games, the driver for the Today Show crew, some members of the BC legislature and for several local television news personnel.

I guess I should tell you about lunch, we get coupons everyday for lunch in the Workforce cafeteria. There is always a choice of 2 soups (I can highly recommend the broccoli cheddar, seafood soup and the cauliflower cheddar) buns and butter and 2 or 3 sandwiches and a fruit or two. The sandwiches are very fresh and it is always hard to choose. Some of the choices have been salmon salad, egg and red pepper, Thai chicken wrap, chicken salad on pumpkin bread, turkey on cranberry bread, and roast beef on sourdough. I guess I won’t be losing much weight on this trip. Oh, and I forgot the English Bay fresh cookies every day. It is also very nice that Coke is a proud sponsor to the games so I can get my daily diet coke fix.

One of the ladies who I am volunteering with is also volunteering with Coke and will be at the David Lamb Park, where the coke pavilion will be. She will be helping with greeting, helping with games, and directing people through the facility. She says it will take about 30 minutes to go through or you can spend as much time as you like and should be great for kids and adults. She said you will be given an aluminum Coke can as a souvenir. I hope to get down to see her during the week that Richard is here for the games.