..........food and freebies......

The big four.....England, Australia, Canada and New Zealand.

As a volunteer for the CWG you are supplied with a uniform...........which you get to keep..............in Manchester the kit was 3 polo shirts....2 pairs of trousers....a waterproof jacket......flat cap......umbrella....shoulder bag.....and drinks bottle.

I still have the shirts, the bag, and the bottle.....the trousers wore out long ago.......the other things I gave to some Lesotho athletes on the last day of the Games....they wanted some souvenirs to take home.

Some of the teams also gave gifts to the volunteers....a work colleague of mine was attached to India..........she got given a turban!! The team to be with though was .....Canada.......their volunteers all got a track suit....a t-shirt...a jacket...a body warmer...and a baseball cap!...plus other bits and pieces. Any Canadians not competing on a given day were sent into Manchester city centre with frisbees, baseball caps, balls etc to give to any kids they could find....those that were competing had frisbees to throw into the crowd.

SVG had nothing....but the Chef de Mission did something wonderful for us. Obviously as a volunteer working 10 hour (or longer) shifts you got fed....the Village had a huge marquee/dining area...........and usually it was two meals during the shift depending on start/finish times..........breakfast...3 course lunch....3 course evening meal.......beside the volunteers dining area...behind a fence.....was the athletes dining area...the Chef took us all in there for a meal.

The food was the same as the volunteers food...but everything was labelled with it content....protein, carbohydrate, minerals, calories etc.......but I'll let you into a secret. Sportspeople are very careful what they eat when they are in training...some of them like boxers have weight limits to meet....some need high carbs......but when they are competing.....it's just fuel....they eat anything and everything. I saw some of the world's best....eating steak, tuna, pasta, potatoes, bread, veg and fruit.....all on one plate........there were also huge heaps of fruit that they could help themselves to...and take back to their accommodation......but also piles of biscuits and fizzy drinks and sweets and chocolate and ice cream and iced lollies!

I escorted the SVG female sprinter to breakfast on the day of her first round heat....she ate cereal and scrambled egg and sausage.....then she took six packs of biscuits with her.....for the rest of the day she slept...or munched her way through the biscuits....sailed through the heats at 6.30 p.m.and then went for dinner. It must have worked because she made the final!

On the day of the men's marathon the Caribbean and African athletes all gathered in the TV lounge........and we volunteers spent the entire day bringing them chocolate, ice cream, ice lollies and fizzy pop from the (free) vending machines....and when they were empty we made phone calls and had them filled up again.

So the next time you wonder how it can cost so much to stage an event like the CWG/Olympics/World Cup...just remember the army of volunteers and their uniforms.....the food.....the petrol...the phone calls...the cost of the vehicles...the cost of the phones.etc etc.

The S & H had a birthday today......his 30th!!! Where did all that time go? He too was a volunteer in Manchester...at the age of 18!! We had Charlie and Hannah for the day....they went into Manchester for a meal and a movie...then back here for cake, cards and presents........there'll be a barbie at the weekend....he liked his present....tickets for the British Moto GP at Silverstone!!

Das vidanya moy padruga.