London Olympics 2012 iv

Today was one of the big days of my London Olympics. The Olympics were right outside my office, a matter of metres away were crowds and elite cyclists, it was the real deal and all I had to do was saunter out of my office.

If only it was that simple.

To back-track a little, I have been undertaking a wide reaching review of part of the way my university operates, an outcome is going to be a restructure and today just happened to be the day we needed to meet with some people that would be affected by the changes - not the kind of meeting that was going to be easy to rearrange.

It was ok though, I would still get a chance to see some of the event, and lets face it, it was work time so I couldn't complain too much if I had to do a bit of work.

That said it was still a great day and a great experience. It's been building up over the past few days as preparations for the cycling time trial became evident.

Signs were going up warning of road closures, barriers were appearing, on Monday afternoon a few Olympic cyclists could be spotted trying out the course, Tuesday morning was the 'technical trial' where roads were closed, police cars, security personnel and volunteers all had the chance to test out their roles and a bunch of Olympic cyclists went around the course.

Then this morning it was all on. Roads closed, barricades up along the roads, road sweepers doing the rounds, my Riverside Cafe was open early, some spectators were getting in position by 8.30 (4 hours before cyclists would go past). Volunteers and security guards were all over the place. There was a real buzz around the office, today was special and everyone could tell, not least because we couldn't have the front doors to our building open for security reasons.

All morning cyclists would go by, some Olympic, some not. You could tell when an Olympic cyclist was coming because their disk wheels made a very distinctive noise. I saw the kiwi lady go past a few times.

The crowds were building throughout the morning.

We have a tv in one of our offices so once the cyclists started heading off we knew it would be just half an hour before they went flying past our office. By the time the cyclists came by there was a big crowd lining the streets, I managed to get a couple of photos but found it tough to take photos and clap and cheer at the same time.

I saw most of the women go by before I had to literally run to my meeting. Unfortunately the meeting went longer than I'd hoped (not my fault). At the end of the meeting I ran out the door (not too professional but tough) but as I got outside I could see people streaming away from where the cycling was, I'd missed the last men going past by just a few minutes. I was pretty angry at the time for missing some of the cycling but I still feel pretty lucky have seen what I did.

What was amazing after the cycling had finished was how quickly the roads were returned to normal. The barriers and temporary road signs were gone by the time I left work. I was reflecting with a colleague that it was similar to the day after Christmas, so much excitement leading up to it and great while it's there but gone too soon.

It was an incredible day and has been an incredible few days, London is really buzzing in a way I've never seen before, we're really enjoying the Olympics and are looking forward to continuing to soak up the atmosphere over the next 10 days.

Below are a few photos I took of the day on my camera, I've got more on my phone which I'll try and upload tomorrow.