How Very British

Well after the previous free day, I needed to catch up on some washing and blogging so that was the morning sorted, then my shift started at 2pm. Around 3pm Claudia said they needed help at the swimming pool, so I was to head there. Alexis took me across and having been in the press entrance the previous night,  I knew where to head.
Alexis showed me to where he had been previously, with a remit not to let anyone other than journalists and press through, I sat tight, for 6 hours. Now I am not really a swim enthusiast, and there were not many Brits swimming, so while it was great to be there and not rushing around, I felt I needed more challenging things to do. (OK so I was bored) . A reminder that not all parts of volunteering are glamourous, but it was a necessary role to play. There was one medal ceremony that had a British bronze outcome, which was nice to see and the atmosphere was loud every time a Brazil swimmer was in the pool. But I was definitely glad to head off shift.

On Friday I was heading to Archery.
2 years ago at the London Invictus Games, I met a young lady called Jodie Grinham, who was volunteering to help. Her wish was to compete in the Paralympics and today was the day she had a solo chance to do that. She had already won a silver medal in the team match earlier in the week.
Lisa, my apartment mate, was due to come with me but being a conscientious volunteer, she knew that the area she was working would be short of support, so she said she would head in to work for half a day, which left me heading off alone or finding a willing companion. I offered it out to some other volunteers and Josh, who had been along to the last leg with me, said he'd keep me company. The only thing being that when he met me at the metro station he was suffering badly with the after-effects of eating dodgy streetfood late at night. He was very quiet, but said there was no way he was going to let a bit of food poisoning put him off doing stuff.
We eventually arrived at Sambodromo, the home of the Samba school, where the archery was being held, it wasn't terribly well signposted, but a Brazilian lady, who spoke little English realised we were all heading the same way, and we worked together to find it.
Jodie's match was at 10.45 and we were in plenty of time, though she waited until her last arrow to win herself through to the quarter finals. Nail biting stuff.
She was then close to getting into the semi finals, but the wind was blowing erratically and sadly she missed out by 2 points, so Tokyo here we come.
I went to say hello and get my pic with a real silver medalist, even if she didn't have the medal with her.

We watched the end of the matches and the medal ceremony before heading back, at which point Josh was starting to feel better, but I think several bottles of cola helped.

Time to head back and get ready for a reception at British House.

As legacy volunteers from London 2012, we had been invited to an IPC reception. So dressed in our bright green legacy volunteer t-shirts Lisa and I set off. We were welcomed in, offered drinks and canapes, treated to some samba dancing, bumped into Josh Widdicombe and Alex Brooker, and also met up with Olivia, another volunteer who had been involved with JoinIn. We received gifts from one of the Japanese delegation and a Tokyo 2020 pin, always nice to get pins.
Lisa then headed off to meet her hubby who was flying in this evening for a weeks holiday, while Olivia and I wandered around. They did later rejoin us, I think it was the prospect of free beer that did it.
Just as we decided to leave, we were approached by someone asking about the t-shirt and the legacy volunteer thing, so we spent a while explaining, how we had set about linking volunteers who wanted to help with sports clubs who needed their help. He, like many others was surprised to learn that all the volunteers paid for their own flights and accommodation, I think a common misconception of volunteering at big events is that things are paid for.
The event came to an end around 10pm so we headed back to the apartment, mulling over a very British evening.