Applespider

Yup - please count me in for Saturday!

LOCOG have asked the cast affected to fill out a survey of where we want to end up - and suggested some initial ideas to get us back to Victoria/Trafalgar Square or a Park and Ride. They did stress at the end of our weekend rehearsal that if anyone was going to struggle to let them know and they'd be back in touch with more details.

There was an article in the guardian the other week about cycling buddies. It was on the bike blog, I think. It's a website where people (girl or boy) can sign up and find people in their local area who want to cycle. Also take a look at the Project London Health posts in What's On. Last summer there were quite a few Sunday rides of various lengths that were a lot of fun. Been slightly swamped this year so far so not sure if they are still happening.

Every so often, it's quite nice to embrace the rain. Wear lightweight shorts and T-shirts and actually let yourself get wet. Once you are wet, it's not that cold and then you can relive your childhood splashing through puddles etc. Then come home and have a lovely hot shower.

That might be a good idea. I wonder if we could get one of our local minicabs to meet us in Stratford near the bus station on dress rehearsal nights? That would save us having to wait for the buses to get into town? And on 21/23/25, it's not going to be too manic around there for them... it will only be a few thousand of us making our way home since the audience and most cast would already have gone.

I have got the link so I'll PM you it. Basically says that it's likely that we won't be finishing until after public transport stops running from Stratford so they are going to run some transport. It does ask for your final destination postcode and then asks if you were to be bussed somewhere, where would it be? I've gone for Trafalgar Square since at least then the 176 is an option.

He is, but they've put down litres and litres of woodchips and say it will all be fine. I have sold my tickets to a lovely EDF poster so hope he enjoys it as much as I would have. We're there on Sat/Sun from 5-10pm and then Weds-Sat next week. Have either of you had the mail about how to get home after dress rehearsals on 21/23/25? Think it only applies to those segments who are likely to be there beyond midnight.

Except that the stadium isn't used every day - 60,000 for the two Ceremonies and then 8 days of athletics at 80,000 although there are two sessions each day. There are probably another 100,000 seats in the Olympic Park and each of those also have two or three sessions which does all add up. I think the interchanges and stations will be worse than the actual trains; and that's likely because they'll cordon bits off to get people to follow a path. But, I do think they are publicising the worse case scenario which is probably right. Get some people paranoid enough to rearrange or retime their journey which can't hurt and then if people have been told they may need to wait for an hour to board a train and it only takes 30 minutes, they'll feel better. Cyclists can use the Games Lanes that are on the nearside. It's the ones that are on the offside that they're saying cyclists shouldn't use since they wouldn't be there in any case. Hmmm, quite a few of us prefer to filter on the offside so not a great argument but we'll see.

I saw that and it might be v useful when I'm going there from work. The only slight problem with using that at Games time is that I think they've said that you'd still have to wait in the presumably very long queues... such a shame they couldn't fast-track you! I got fast-tracked at UDAC last week since I had a flight to catch so they whisked me past the queues. Very nice. Are you at the Stadium over the weekend? I'd been expecting to be there during the day and had Hard Rock Calling tickets, booked last year, to see Springsteen on Saturday night but rehearsal is now 5-10pm so no Boss. Grrrrrr!

I think anything involving the Jubilee line is going to be horrible although they are advising people to avoid London Bridge as much as possible since it also has the traffic for Greenwich Park and Woolwich. Come Games time, changing at Canada Water isn't going to be that easy either since the trains will be packed already by the time they arrive there. It might also depend on where in the Olympic Park they are based. You don't have to enter the Park (at least as a visitor - not sure about Gamesmakers) through the Stratford Gate. There are gates at West Ham and to the North of the Park too - so it might be quicker to take the Overground up to Whitechapel and change for the District Line to West Ham and then walk from there.

Oh I would do both. Window to give the big picture and blog for the nice to know details!

Col.J.Steve - is there any chance of getting one of those perspex windows in the hoardings so that we can peek through and see progress?

Ah... forgot you guys started early on Sunday!

caz - there is a left luggage facility in Westfield. It's pricey at ?8 a bag but possibly cheaper than chucking stuff away and having to replace. They had given us the 100ml rule a couple of weeks ago mind you but weren't enforcing it at that point. Loz - I saw that - and Seb Coe tweeted something yesterday to the same effect #savethesecret

If it's just you, then seriously think about staying there the night before. It makes the next morning far less stressful since you only have to worry about the alarm not going off rather than also worrying that your cab etc won't show up. The Yotel down there charges by the hour so you can always book it from 11.30 til 4.30, get a late train down there, get some sleep and then walk to your flight. Since it's in the South Terminal, there's no stress then about being there for your flight. It usually ends up costing me about ?50 when I do it.

I think the 51s were in Dagenham today rather than the Stadium but are in the Stadium tomorrow. I don't get to the 1:1 until we start the Closing and Paralympic rehearsals... everything else is stadium.

Crikey - perhaps we should hire a coach to come back to East Dulwich since there seem to be so many of us! Or perhaps just all share a cab back from the Overground if we all arriving back at silly o'clock after rehearsals/shifts.

Last Overground from Canada Water back to Honor Oak Park and Forest Hill is 2346 pre-Games. On Opening Night, it runs til nearly 3am so think we should be OK which is just as well since my segment is there til the end.

Tee hee - I'm in the Opening and Closing too; might be quite a crowd of us heading back to ED from Stratford. After the actual Ceremony shouldn't be a problem since the Overground is running til 3am during the Games. Getting home after the dress rehearsals might be more challenging depending on how the timings go!

Thanks for the link; will bookmark and read regularly. It will be excellent to see the house come back to life.

Very sad to hear that the search ended in this way. As others have said, condolences to Patrick's family and friends.

Bear in mind that you don't have to go to the Olympic Park via Stratford. You can go in using one of the other entrances so you could walk from West Ham for example.

Nik Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > not stewards no - games makers are volunteers > doing tons of different roles all over london, I'm > working in the medical centre in the athletes > village :-) Sounds like it could be an interesting role. I know a few Event Services (which does sound vaguely like stewarding) and Transport drivers Gamesmakers. lpool - lots of cycle bays sound good. What would be really useful though to those of us thinking about cycling there is information on what bits of cycling infrastructure are open or not? Is the Greenway cycle path going to be usable during the Games? There were rumours that some of the other routes would mean carrying the bike over road bridges etc for stretches. How is the parking going to work? If it's manned, are there limited hours that you can access it? It would be very useful to know. Lots of the information seems quite fragmented currently.

There is some information here on encouraging people to cycle to the Games. It does talking about organising rides, bike parking at venues and no added restrictions on the Underground. But I'm pretty sure I saw a poster at Forest Hill saying that taking your cycle on the Overground (East London Line) won't be allowed during the Olympics. I remember it because I'd been planning on doing that on a couple of nights with late finishes. But I can't find any reference to it online. The biggest hassle will be getting the bike across the river since the most obvious routes over are all Games roads and will be more hectic than usual with normal traffic. I did debate cycling over to Greenwich (possibly OK on non-equestrian days) and taking the foot tunnel with the bike. The other problem with cycling to venues in the Olympic Park is that the cycle parking is quite a way outside the Park (Victoria Park, near Eton Manor and near West Ham/Greenway) and it's not clear how it's going to work. They are saying manned and secure but then I've tried putting in the times for one of the sessions that I'm going to and the planner tells me that there's no cycle parking available at that time. There's usually some good cycle parking both inside the Westfield Stratford car park and various Sheffield Stands outside. But the carpark (including the cycling racks) are being used as a Games Transport depot during August and the Sheffield stands will be out of use too. Oh yes, and the Green Way cycle route might not be open at all... since it's so close to the Park that it might be a security risk now. I think I'm resigned to using my Travelcard to get to events now and leave the bike just for normal 'work' commutes. Edit - I've found the information on the Overground limitations

Was a good turn out last night up on One Tree Hill - thanks to all involved. Even though we did end up with a little bit of drama in trying to get it completely ablaze! Well done to those who implemented 'plan B'!