London 2012 blog

As someone who gets accused of being a country bumpkin, being seconded to Beijing for a month was always going to be a culture shock. The scale of the city is an assault on the senses – busy 8 lane highways cut between vast buildings, and the town dances to an incessant soundtrack of car horns and construction. Not to mention the fact that the largest sporting event on earth is in town.

However I’ve found the secret to making the city more manageable – I’ve got on my bike! Like London, Beijing streets are busy with buses, taxis and cars, but scores of bikes also pass by every minute – in wide dedicated cycle lanes separate from the traffic.

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BA 1039 is full to the gunnels and packed with adrenaline as it eases away from the gate at Terminal 5. Rarely can any flight from London to Beijing be so adorned with Team GB and Olympic kit bags. At last we’re on our way. After so many months of meetings, workshops and planning, the Handover Team is starting to assemble in China.

Beijing 2008's Opening Ceremony is only days away and the Handover to London 2012 takes place mid-way through the Closing Ceremony on 24 August. Three weeks later we’ll be marking the Paralympic Handover. Our technical team are already setting up London's production base. Our set, after a long road and sea journey which started in Yorkshire many weeks ago, is being reassembled ready for the cast and the creative team to arrive and start rehearsals in a week's time.

The Handover Segment – an eight minute 'calling card' inviting the world to reconvene in London in four years time – is an unique creative opportunity; a three dimensional performance in one of the world's largest and most spectacular theatres in the round. It represents a tiny sequence flown half way around the world to take its place in the middle of someone else's show – and some show that will be. The Chinese are world leaders in creating spectacle on an epic scale, and don’t expect understatement in Beijing's ceremonies.

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As part of national archaeology week, the Museum of London recently held a themed weekend for visitors. The theme was games and sports. Visitors were able to watch medieval ice skates being made, make their own Roman oil lamps, have a tour of the Guildhall amphitheatre and study possible sports injuries found on skeletons from the Museum’s collections. Twenty six further skeletons have been selected for an exhibition at the Wellcome Trust on Euston Road which is open until September and is definitely worth a visit.

For many, the highlight was watching a demonstration of archery using longbows and crossbows, firing at life-size foam soldiers as targets, to demonstrate the effectiveness and accuracy of the weapons.
 
Archery demonstration:

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Almost every day I drive around east London and when I see that blue fence everywhere I go, I imagine the Olympic Park is going to be huge. But this week, I finally got to see what was going on, on the inside... and what an amazing experience it was!

I was fortunate to be asked to join in on an Olympic Park Engagement Network (OPEN) event and, after an eye-opening coach tour, we were invited into the ODA’s on-site project offices to talk to the team responsible for what is quite frankly the biggest construction project on the smallest site. We heard presentations from David Higgins (ODA Chief Exec and our tour guide!) and Howard Shiplee (Head of Construction and man in charge!) followed by a Q&A forum on how construction work on the Park is affecting the local community. 

A presentation at the OPEN event on travel:

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