2 weeks out of the ordinary...

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So it's been a VERY quite few weeks in terms of the blogging and for this I must apologise. You see, I have been helping out at the hockey world cup in the evenings for the last two weeks as well as holding down my "real" job during the days so have had very little time to sit at my computer and entertain you lot! But now that the hockey is over and done, I felt I had to share my experiences with you since they made me laugh, cringe and at times panic... and thought you might appreciate them ;-)

My role in the HWC (hockey world cup - you keeping up?) all started with Tina. Tina is a mate of Rob's from his Doha days, who was sent to Delhi about 3 months ago as the hockey world cup competition manager. Since she was here for such a short period, we offered for her to stay with us as opposed to staying in a hotel. This proved to be a very fruitful offer. You see Tina is one of those incredible people who just knows everyone and people love pleasing her, so having been in India for all of 2 weeks, she managed to hook us up with Milo, Lindt chocolate, good wine, Rooibos tea and a job for me at the HWC! Now, this is a good mate especially since I have NEVER worked at a sports event in my life but she managed to convince the guy doing the hiring that I would be more than capable - ha, what a laugh!

So over a bowl of risotto and a glass of vino at the Oz Cafe in Kahn Market I had the “interview”, which was more a series of questions making sure I understood the rules of the game. You see, the job up for grabs was that of statistician. This means I would be responsible for capturing the data of the game as it happened (e.g. no of circle penetrations, no of penalty corners converted etc.) Bit boring for non-hockey players - sorry! Anyhoo, he seemed happy enough (thanks to Tina!) thus I was hired!

I was then sent a few DVDs of recent world level games so I could do some homework before the live events started. Thinking I kinda had a grip on things, I rocked up at the stadium on day 1 and then the fun and games began..... (If you have worked in events like this before, please excuse the ignorance that follows but it was a first for me!)

These types of events require accreditation, which is basically a pass to access the grounds. Accreditations also allow specific people entry into specific areas thus reducing the number of volunteers in the VIP sections etc - you see how I said reduce rather than eliminate, that’s just how it happens here! Anyway, Tina brought my accreditation home on the Saturday and made sure I understood that I needed it with me every day in order to get in, especially since there would be 17 000 police officers “working” the event. YES, 17 000!!! This is not a typo! And by “working” I mean sitting in the stands and watching the games.

So on Sunday afternoon I packed my backpack (book, IPod, laptop, alcohol sanitizer, tissues, hand cream, pens, notebook, fruit and water bottle) and jumped in the cab and headed to the stadium. My accreditation said I was to access via gate no 3, so naturally when I got the gate 3 the cops told me I had to go to gate 4. By now I am so used to this type of “organisation”, I just nodded and headed to the next gate about 200m away...

My bag was scanned and searched, as was I - three times: once per entrance/gate. The manner in which they search the woman is very tasteful - they take you into a private little booth to do “the deed”. With that, I was waved through (3 times) with a verbal assurance of “Thika” - which means “okay” in Hindi. Fortunately Tina had sent 2 dudes to meet me at the first gate so they could show me where to go - the stadium was huge! I then met with the “boss” and the graphics guy so he could show me how the tablet worked, which was the laptop-type thing I used to record the stats. And that was it - that was my orientation and away we went.
The first game I ‘worked’ was a South Africa match, so I felt VERY patriotic and loyal as the lads sang the national anthem and even when they got beaten by Spain - boo! I did the other 2 games that day and went home exhausted from concentrating for 70 minutes per game with a 15 minute break between matches!

The second day of the HWC coincided with Holi (spring festival of colours) in India. Now, so many people had warned us not to venture out of the house on this day. You see, this is the day where people wipe each other’s faces with- and even chuck paint powder. In Delhi however, the youth in particular, have also taken to throwing water balloons and eggs! Yes, eggs (which hurt like HELL when you get smacked with one by the way!) and they do not seem to confine this behaviour to the 1st March but started about 4 days earlier this year which meant that I had been hit with water balloons and eggs while travelling in a tuk-tuk and on the street! Needless-to-say I came to HATE this expression of joy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And was not at all impressed with having these items launched at me with such force that it felt violent and somewhat personal! Now remember, these adventures (‘adventure’, cause I can now laugh at it but then ... NOT SO MUCH!!!) had all happened before the actual day of Holi had even arrived, thus I was LESS than eager to head out onto the roads to get a tuk-tuk or cab on the day but what choice did I have? No cab companies were operating as it was a religious holiday after all....
So putting on an “old” T-shirt (actually, just one of Robby’s - tee hee!) and putting a clean one (my own) in my bag, I braved the streets. I lasted about 5-7 minutes before having an egg AND a water balloon launched at me! By now I was so incredibly frustrated and angry that I just turned to the water-balloon-throwers and let out some choice words at the top of my voice! Not my finest moment I must admit, but at least I felt a little empowered given the trauma of the past few days. Finally finding a tuk-tuk, I was totally ripped off in terms of price but I was not willing to stand on the streets any longer, so just agreed and prayed for “drought” the whole way to the stadium.

Feeling a little fragile but at least dry, I went through the first check point with no problem but then when my bag got scanned they asked me to please show them my laptop. All the cops wanted me to do is turn it on, so I guess if it was a real danger, it would have done its thing then and that would have been that?!?!? Anyhoo, I headed to my desk and was met by my “boss” who said we needed to discuss yesterday’s games. You see, it appears that I sucked the day before - surprising since I had no idea what I was doing - HA HA HA! After a few pointers I felt a lot more confident about the job and the rest of the competition went off with few problems. And by “few” problems, I refer specifically to my role in it. You see, accessing the stadium at the first security point was a bit like a lucky draw each day. Now as I listed earlier, my bag had the same contents everyday - every single day and in total honesty, the cops decided that the following items were problematic only on these specific days:

Day 2 - my bag itself: I was sent to another gate (yet again) where I would be allowed in with a bag. Contents were not a problem.

Day 3 - my water bottle: I was told this was a threat as I could easily throw it at a player and injure them. I agreed that I indeed did have this tendency, so agreed to leave it with them on condition that I could collect it on my way home (matter of principle, not necessity). You would be surprised to know that the bottle was empty when I collected it - guess cops get thirsty too, buggers!!

Day 4 - the coins in my wallet: again, they pegged me as the dangerous type but offered no alternative to my taking them with me... which I then did. Interestingly enough the day before I noticed that the matches were started with Ching Chong Cha rather than the traditional coin toss - I could only concluded that the cops at the umpire’s access gate had confiscated his coins!!! What’s even funnier is that the food stalls inside the stadium were allowed to give patrons change in the form of coins... thus this coin confiscation trend only lasted the 2 days - too funny!

Day 5 - my laptop: I was viciously scolded for bringing it (despite the fact that I had had it with me the previous days) but was let in none-the-less as I refused to leave it with them - especially after day 3’s demonstration of goods left in their care!

Day 6 - my IPod (decided to leave the laptop at home from today).

Day 7 - my hand cream: another deadly weapon?

Day 8 - the fruit.... just don’t know anymore.

Day 9 - no body searches, just scans and a head wobble with “Thika” - think they got sick of my arguing with them every day? I think so!

So while getting into the stadium and the job itself proved a bit of a challenge initially, it was awesome to be able to watch all the hockey matches. A few other things made me chuckle ... like the fact that there were 7 Singh’s in the Indian team and 5 Lee’s in the Korean team. There is also a Dutch hockey player called Taeke Takema (AWESOME player!) who, from a distance, looked similar to Roly!

So now that the fun and games are over (sorry no more pics - no camera allowed!) and Tina looks somewhat sane again; it’s back to real life (LOL) for a week followed by a trip to Thailand - YAY! Robby and I also wanna thank Mrs T for being SUCH a good sport during Whackhead’s prank on Highveld this week! You made us all laugh (with you, not at you!) and made Robby and I feel especially connected to home - so thank you! Ok, that’s it - we’ll be in touch after Koh Lanta - WHOO HOO!!!

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Photos

India vs Pakistan
Night one... stadium was PACKED!

Holland vs England
Stadium not so packed... unless the Indians played - place was dead (other than the cops of course)

Cheerleaders
???

The powder
Paint in it's dry form...

The result
At the end of a day of celebrating

Stains?
Just to show you all its not THAT bad but I would have preferred no eggs or water balloons

The final
Germany vs Australia... Oz won!

Comments

[anonymous]

Loved reading this Megs!! Sounds like a great experience to add to your life's journey. Have an amazing time in Thailand, it is our fav place. Nix