London 2012 Olympic Games: Day 3

Some of the Venue Entry Security Team

Sock Monkey’s not going to say a lot about yesterday. Sock Monkey didn’t have a lovely time. It absolutely poured down. It was like a biblical plague. Play was suspended until God-knows-when. I was again with the Royal Marine Commandos, The Paras and The Navy. We has Venue and Serena Williams' mum in our area. Someone else had Bill Gates in theirs. Lots of volunteers were kicked out of the staff meal area because Michelle Obama turned up.

8.30 this morning. A nice cup of tea before the gates opened

My goodness the military personnel on my lane were grumpy. They were in charge yesterday and didn’t they let you know it. “Faster!” “Slower” “Tell them to take their belts off!!!!” Me: “I did.” I got home to Sock Monkey Mansions last night pissed off, annoyed and upset. If today had been like yesterday there wouldn’t have been a tomorrow as Sock Monkey a Games Maker. Sock Monkey didn’t volunteer my summer holidays UNPAID to be moaned at for 3 solid hours by the army. If I had I would have joined up years ago.

A lot of the military have ad their leave cancelled to cover G4 Security’s fuck up but it isn’t my fault. I talked to a nice female squaddie at lunch who was just about to be deployed to Afghanistan so they really could do with being at home.

Some of the ticket holders weren’t having a nice time either. It was BUCKETING and freezing cold. I had one stroppy Kevin the Teenager type who became all arsey when I asked, “Do you have any liquids in your bag?” Its airport security to get into all of the venues and he had about 6 x 500ml bottles of water in his bag. He had a massive strop then still tried to get through the metal detector with a bottle of lucozade in his sweaty, teenage paw.

This is how busy we are. At Gate 10 Wimbledon, my home for yesterday, we cleared 3,000 people through security in 12 minutes. I doubted that was possible in the laws of physics but that’s what my supervisor said.

Venus Williams

Anyway. Today was fantastic! We were amalgamated with another security tea, and were sent to Gate 1. They had had a bit of a nightmare the day before but apparently we are the Dream Team and we got them all in. Today I was doing ‘pacing’ with G4S. That means I get people through the metal detectors asap. Four and a half hours later, at 1pm, I was on my lunch break with another girl after we were “Stood Down” for the rest of the day. Hideous lunch (food is so vile I have lost 2 lbs in 3 days *thimbs up*) followed by free tennis! Hooray!

Elena Baltacha

We went to see Venus Williams on Court 2. It was so sweet, she said she has never seen live tennis until today. Then we bumped into another of our team and we went to see Heather Watson on Court 17 (she beat a Spanish player called Soler). Then we wandered to Court 18 (we weren't actually IN Court 18, we were on the balcony because it was P.A.C.K.E.D after Laura Robson’s match). American readers, these are our Team GB Ladies. We left after Elena Baltacha (Team GB but actually a Scot/Russian mix) had lost the first set.

The weather was glorious today, the spectators were smiley happy and today was good.

Shame I lost my jacket on the way home (it folds up like a kagoule and clips onto your bag and mine kept dropping off. I think it is somewhere around Clapham Junction so now I have to schlep back to Canning Town to get another on my day off on Wednesday. Hope it doesn’t rain or is cold tomorrow because I’ll have an uncomfortable day that’s for sure).

One lady said to me, "Its so organised. Everyone is so friendly. I'm going to tell the BBC!" Another lady told me, "I was at the Sydney Olympics and this is better!"

More tennis, Sock Monkey? Oh yes please!

London 2012 – GET IN!