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The horror of it all
It’s going to be horrendous, it really is.
The Olympics.
I have tried twisting my curmudgeonly instincts through a full 180 degrees on this issue, but I have to confess that I have only just managed it partway. Maybe 90 degrees, certainly no more. I have come to accept that there is a reasonable chance, given the skills of TV and radio professionals, that what most spectators will see will be, or at least seem to be a well executed event over three weeks or so, full of glitter and drama for those who care about these things. I may even watch a couple of the less tedious events.
I am looking forward to the Paralympics (we got tickets for those) and seeing the basketball, which is a scary sport when played by blokes in wheelchairs, and whatever the other thing we got tickets for is. I’ve forgotten. These two are interesting as much for the opportunity to see some of the facilities close up as they are for the actual sports, but here again, seeing something live is a far better experience than seeing it on telly, even if it takes the telly for you to understand what’s actually going on unless you are an aficionado.
For all that, it is going to be horrendous; horrendous and disruptive. The Underground was buggered again, this morning and that’s with what, 73 days to go as I type.
For months now, the Olympic organisers have been issuing pleas for people to stagger their commutes during the games, or take holiday, or work from home. Anything but follow the normal routine, because with all the additional bums on train seats, there will be no room for we mere mortals.
The Government has gone along with this, encouraging businesses to be flexible in anyway they can to reduce the strain on the aged infrastructure.
And now, the complaints have started.
Today’s headline in The Times is: Whitehall tells staff: stay home for summer. The story goes on to say that civil servants have been told that they can work from home for seven weeks during the Olympics “provoking incredulity from ministers, MPs and business leaders”.
Well no-one has told me not to come in for seven weeks. I am hoping to work from home for a few days here and there over the three week period of the Olympics, but the assumption is that things will be comparatively quiet during the Paralympics. Just to be clear, I am not a great fan of working from home, generally speaking. I like to have a clear divide between work and home life, but faced with a twice a day trip directly past the Olympic village (actually, through the middle of the bastard thing) I will, as far as possible, work from home. I am hoping that the IT lot here can hook me up so I can access the office servers over my broadband connection. With that comes access to all my files and office email and suddenly the possibility of sitting at my own desk for more than a limited time on a particular, specific and bone-numbingly tedious project become viable.
But all that barely matters, because big business doesn’t like it. They want all the perks the games will bring, including, no doubt, free tickets and champagne hospitality, but they don’t want to offer anything up to the poor saps that actually have to trail through this human river. I have been confidently told to expect my commute time to double for the duration. So that would be six hours a day then, on overcrowded and obsolescent facilities. And once that’s done, we must all work harder for less, just to get the country moving again.
I tell you, had I realised back in 2007-2008 how I was badly undermining the economy and bringing the country close top economic collapse, I should have stopped what I was doing immediately and tried to put it right.
Oh, hang on. That wasn’t me, was it? It wasn’t you, either, I think. Probably it was the chaps enjoying the free hospitality and executive box views of the most sought after events. I doubt even they could manage seven weeks of it. That is a bit too much to ask.
The Olympics.
I have tried twisting my curmudgeonly instincts through a full 180 degrees on this issue, but I have to confess that I have only just managed it partway. Maybe 90 degrees, certainly no more. I have come to accept that there is a reasonable chance, given the skills of TV and radio professionals, that what most spectators will see will be, or at least seem to be a well executed event over three weeks or so, full of glitter and drama for those who care about these things. I may even watch a couple of the less tedious events.
I am looking forward to the Paralympics (we got tickets for those) and seeing the basketball, which is a scary sport when played by blokes in wheelchairs, and whatever the other thing we got tickets for is. I’ve forgotten. These two are interesting as much for the opportunity to see some of the facilities close up as they are for the actual sports, but here again, seeing something live is a far better experience than seeing it on telly, even if it takes the telly for you to understand what’s actually going on unless you are an aficionado.
For all that, it is going to be horrendous; horrendous and disruptive. The Underground was buggered again, this morning and that’s with what, 73 days to go as I type.
For months now, the Olympic organisers have been issuing pleas for people to stagger their commutes during the games, or take holiday, or work from home. Anything but follow the normal routine, because with all the additional bums on train seats, there will be no room for we mere mortals.
The Government has gone along with this, encouraging businesses to be flexible in anyway they can to reduce the strain on the aged infrastructure.
And now, the complaints have started.
Today’s headline in The Times is: Whitehall tells staff: stay home for summer. The story goes on to say that civil servants have been told that they can work from home for seven weeks during the Olympics “provoking incredulity from ministers, MPs and business leaders”.
Well no-one has told me not to come in for seven weeks. I am hoping to work from home for a few days here and there over the three week period of the Olympics, but the assumption is that things will be comparatively quiet during the Paralympics. Just to be clear, I am not a great fan of working from home, generally speaking. I like to have a clear divide between work and home life, but faced with a twice a day trip directly past the Olympic village (actually, through the middle of the bastard thing) I will, as far as possible, work from home. I am hoping that the IT lot here can hook me up so I can access the office servers over my broadband connection. With that comes access to all my files and office email and suddenly the possibility of sitting at my own desk for more than a limited time on a particular, specific and bone-numbingly tedious project become viable.
But all that barely matters, because big business doesn’t like it. They want all the perks the games will bring, including, no doubt, free tickets and champagne hospitality, but they don’t want to offer anything up to the poor saps that actually have to trail through this human river. I have been confidently told to expect my commute time to double for the duration. So that would be six hours a day then, on overcrowded and obsolescent facilities. And once that’s done, we must all work harder for less, just to get the country moving again.
I tell you, had I realised back in 2007-2008 how I was badly undermining the economy and bringing the country close top economic collapse, I should have stopped what I was doing immediately and tried to put it right.
Oh, hang on. That wasn’t me, was it? It wasn’t you, either, I think. Probably it was the chaps enjoying the free hospitality and executive box views of the most sought after events. I doubt even they could manage seven weeks of it. That is a bit too much to ask.
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I'm ignoring it and hoping I'll not notice it at the time. What are my chances?
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I'm not sure we'll be able to ignore it and we're a bit further out than you will be,,,
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Either way, fingers crossed for the move - when is it now, exactly? - and you must come and chill at the Gin Palace with a glass of something well, Ginny, I guess!
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As we're the main spectator route to the park we've been told we might be going through security checks just to get to the front door of the office. I dread to think what my commute times to Greenwich are going to end up as. At the moment my 'plan' is to go to the campus in Chatham unless I'm specifically told not to. Largely our planning seems to have been talking about the fact that we need to do some planning.
I think it's July 30th that's going to be the worst one here, they are expecting 50,000 spectators to come through site for the cross country...
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So, um, does it last for three weeks or for seven?
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The 2012 Summer Olympic Games, officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad, will take place in London, England, United Kingdom, from 27 July to 12 August 2012.
So, then, why seven weeks? Pre- and post-games kerfuffle?
Pardon my cluelessness about all this, but you know I'm a chap who avoids such goings-on.
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