Shift - Day 6

It was a busy yesterday night, although we did manage to finish around 20.45hrs (shift was listed until 0000hrs).  Managed to walk 15,433 steps in total yesterday.  We had our fair share of infrastructure issues, with a toilet which wouldn’t flush, and a sink which leaked.  Has to be seen in the context that everything is temporary in the back of house area of these standard exhibition halls, and come Tuesday morning  it will all start to be dismantled.

On site workforce catering has been generally considered by us to be the worst of any major event - there is essentially no menu variation from day to day or between the set meals.  We get meal coupons for either lunch or dinner.  Last night I had Caesar Salad (again), picked up a yoghurt and a tub of fresh strawberries to be told that I couldn’t’t have the yoghurt, and had to have the separate clotted cream with the berries!  There are two serving stations, and rumour has it that if you go to the one furthest away from the entrance, they are not so draconian about what you can or can’t have.

When finished we went to the onsite Wetherspoons for a well deserved cold drink with some of the other NEC team members.  The Welsh Netball team were enjoying what appeared to be just the start of an evening drinking session.  They had completed their competition - coming a respectable 8th.  Not bad for a completely amateur team, who all have full time jobs and rely on limited funding from Welsh Sport.  When the bar was closing they all left for the railway station to catch the train into the City Centre for what was no doubt going to be a long night.

It was a chillier night walking back to the hotel, but still no rain.  Weather is forecast to be warmer today and even hotter next week.

Medal update: England is closing in on Australia… 

Australia - 50 Golds (140 in total); England - 47 Golds (131 in total)

Other Home Nations:

Scotland - 8 Golds (35 in total), Wales - 4 Golds (19 in total); Northern Ireland - 1 Gold (8 in total)


Table tennis has two Show Courts, side by side, surrounded by a seating area for around 2500 spectators. Separately there are 6 further Match Courts, side by side, with a smaller area of seating on one side.  For some of the Quarter Finals, both Show Courts and some of the Match Courts are used simultaneously.

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