Lee Valley Athletics Centre

 

Athletics Centre

B3living

I woke up after 7.00 am. I had arrived at the Marriott Hotel, Cheshunt. At 8.45 am. and I showed the hotel reception my letter. I was given directions and Sally Stanley, the Senior Support Officer was there getting ready to do the Olympic update presentation.

Other people arrived at the same time as me, Ricky Dewey-leader, one of the people on the tour had also arrived and there was tea, coffee and biscuits. I nearly went somewhere else to make myself tea as I was told by hotel staff, that was for the suite next door.  

 I went into the suite where they did the presentation which was held up as some people arrived after 9.oo A.M. Peter Walkinshaw, resident involvement manager for Broxbourne Housing Associtaion walked in. BHA will be changing soon its name to B3 living. Two people had ordered another taxi and left without phoning BHA so they cancelled the taxi, the driver was waiting to pick them up and these people were told off. Adriana Nerves BHA staff turned up with one of the residents. Adriana jumped on board at the last minute.  

The Olympic Presentation started at 9.25 A.M. it was supposed to begin at 9.15 A.M. Sally rushed through it as we had some latecomers, 2 people said their cab never turned up. The  Coach was supposed to depart by 9.45 A. M. by some miracle it did. I took my camera with me to take photos of the sites on this trip. I was going to read a book on the drive down. Peter Walkinshaw sat next to me on the journey down. Peter was also the name of the coach driver and one of the passengers was helped onto the coach.  

We arrived at the Lea Valley White Water Centre and we were allowed in, the coach stopped off at the car park, the manager of the centre could not show us around the centre as our guide as he was in a meeting. We did walk along the towpath by the side of the centre and we did not see the whole of the layout of the centre on that day, as at the time, we did not currently have direct access to the site. The letter regarding my confirmation of my place on this tour had one important rule, please remember to wear sensible clothing and footwear as it may be a little muddy along the towpath.  

Sally was trying to bombard the group with too much info. I was  busy trying to take photos. Somewhere along the way, I was glad to take a picture of someone going down the canoe course, the local press were giving the canoe site a hard time.  

Sally lead the group from the back, I was given the impression that two of the party on the trip went further along the towpath than the rest of us. They were supposed to stop at a certain point and were going off the towpath and meet the coach at a rendezvous point. I was disappointed we did not get to go further along the towpath. I was thinking at the time. this is the only Olympic venue open to the general public before the Olympics. It will shut down before the Summer so the contenders can practice and it won’t open again until September 2011. The Canoe site is open opposite a housing estate and it’s believed they wanted local residents and local people to use it. At £50.00 & £45.00 for a group of ten which local residents will be using it?  

Ricky, went on top of the bridge and took a look down. at the canoe site from a birds-eye view. I never got to the next bridge as we left at this point. The next destination was Lee Valley Athletics Centre and we had to be there at 11.00 A.M.  The Athletics Centre was located at Picketts Lock. This is where some of the Olympic hopefuls are training for the 2012 games, not far from Picketts Lock Cinema. This is what known as a leisure complex. The manager of the Athletics centre showed us around and gave us a history of the place. The next thing to happen was something that cannot be scripted. Tessa Sanderson is in the building so the group attending had their mobile phones and digital cameras ready to take a photo shoot and Peter from B3 living did ask Tessa to have her picture taken with the rest of the tour group our wish was granted and the photo opportunity was too good to miss. Tessa chatted to us briefly she was with another Olympic hopeful Shaun Sewell who was hoping to take part in the 2012 Paralympics.  

I like to take the time to thank the manager of the centre Mick Bond, who showed us around he was informative and entertaining and I just like to say to Mick if you are reading this, if you wish to show us around again please let us know. At this point we left the centre and hopped on board the coach again and it was starting to pour down. Our Tour Party did supply umbrellas it must be sad that by the time we got back on the coach we were two passengers down. I won’t name them they decided to get off the coach and catch the bus. I can hardly say anyone noticed their absence getting back on the coach was like musical chairs. I left my coat on my seat so no one took mine.    

Also on the coach ride to Stratford we saw the Aquatics Centre which looked like a type of fish, the new Westfield shopping centre, which is reported to be larger than Lakeside and Bluewater and I have been to both of them. There is another Westfield shopping centre coming down on the way to Sheperd’s Bush. This was coming down on the coach we saw the new site that New Spitalfields Market relocated to? We took a peek at Walthamstow Marshes. Peter Walkinshaw did say there used to be a nightclub in the area now decreased We finally got to have lunch at the Railway Tavern we had lunch in the Bar Area as the rest of the pub was reserved for other parties. We had arrived in Startford in the Newham area. The lunch consisted of plenty of sandwiches, apple juice, pizza slices, loads of fruit, fish, etc. I had three helpings on one plate.  

The coach had gone away for a little while and was coming back two hours later, so we did have to take our belongings off the coach as a result. About 2.00 p.m. we arrived at Holden Point which is a block of flats which is sheltered housing for the elderly. The top floor of 22 block of flats was the Olympic Park Viewing Gallery at Holden Point, Stratford. We had to wait for some children on a school trip to come off the top floor before Sally gave us the all-clear to go up the stairs. The lady in reception did suggest to stand on the right side of the ground floor entrance to not block the walkway for residents coming and going.  

Jean Jeffery was the lady giving us a talk this was just over two years ago the last time I gone on a trip to the viewing gallery. There was a lot less to see and some of the buildings are slowly being completed. the Olympic Village was nearing completion and the shocking news at the time is Euro star Trains are not going from Ashford, Kent into Stratford International. At the time of writing this original draft, West Ham football club has now got the Olympic Stadium not Tottenham Hotspur as they were going to tear it up and build a new one. Since I done revisions Tottenham over turned the decision as West Ham had inside knowledge in 2011, when we had the summer riots, Tottenham was thinking of building a new stadium on one of the sites which was burned down they went through all that drama to go to court for nothing and they fired Harry Redknapp. Whose fault is that if Spurs do badly, the owner of the club? There have been cuts to the Olympic Project through the credit crunch and the wraparound part of the stadium was going to be abandoned. However, some business people and companies have step forward to make sure it’s happens! Basketball arena will be dismantled after the games and taken to Edinburgh for the Commonwealth Games or for Rio to the next Olympic host city.  

The two Olympic Mascots have a passing reference to the soldiers recovering in Wenlock Hospital after the 2nd World War and the 1948 Olympics which were the catalyst for the Paralympics. We had to go into two groups into the lift and come down again eight people in the lift each way.

What amazed me about Jean Jeffery is that she spoke without the aid of any script. Ricky asked her if she had to keep updating her presentation with the ongoing developments, the answer was yes.

We were treated to a slide show the most annoying thing was that one of the party went back to the ground floor and waited outside the coach then tells me am I getting dropped off at Holdbrook without asking the coach driver all because they didn’t want to go to the top floor. Either way, we were on our way home some were dropped off. I went with the remaining party to the hotel. I had found some tea and filled in two feedback forms and with the B.H.A. feedback form, I gave constructive feedback about 3.30 p.m. it was home time.