the games

well as most of you know the commonwealth games are currently happening here in melb. there's tones of athletes and tourists from all over the world come to visit our home town. what does that mean for people like me? there's way more traffic than usual, lots of quick-fixes have been put in place to make melbourne seem alot nicer than it is. there is less rubbish around the place, new signage ..and even the homeless guy that does laps of flinders street station has new clothes -and SHOES!
what does it exactly mean for ME? well i worked one day on friday as a last minute fill in. part of the linen team helping to drive around the village and drop off/collect towels from 6am to 3pm. most of my collegues were 30 something blokes with big beer bellies and half sneered when they saw that a GIRL was going to be working with them. pfft yeah it's hard manual labour but sure as hell isnt out of my reach. i was pretty fucking buggered by the end of they day but that was probably more to do with sleep deprivation and in contrast to my usually rather relaxed lifestyle.
lunch was provided. it was amazing. they provide more food than i could possibly dream of getting through in an entire day; hot smorgas board, salad bar, fruit salad, yoghurt, bread, sandwiches, chips, chocolate bars, desserts, cakes, muffins, ice creams, water, coffee, tea, bikies, and cereal for breaky. i mean they did mention something about it being a good feed but i would never have imagined that. most people looked rather lethargic after lunch from over eating. i thought i was being disciplined by only have some rice, curry, salad, fruit and yoghurt but it was still too much.
i'm not sure if i will be working again as they want someone who can work the entire way through - i have commitments to my other job etc.
but it was really interested driving around the village and seeing all the different flags for different countries everywhere. then as people started to get up we saw loads of differnt athletes training and getting themselves organised all over the place. i just remembered thinking "oh my god! MUSCLES!!" muscles everywhere - it was beautiful.
i was surprised to discover that all the other workers around the place (besides the police and the cleaning contractors) were all volunteers - even the ones doing shitty jobs like sweeping the tan bark back into place around the gardens - what tha??
there were also a nice scattering of entertainers around. the first ones i saw (and were my favourties) were these guys on stilts in strongmen/lifesaver outfits including the old fashioned striped swimsuit; the lifesavers cap and massive porn-moustaches; and faux rubber muscles all which made their little capped heads look like pin heads in comparison. when i asked to have my photo taken with them they're like "of course you can gorgeous!! wow, that's a bright shirt! are you okay?? are you sure you dont need mouth to mouth resusitation?!" hehe it was pretty cool. as i walked away i realised that the oversized calf muscles were actually massively curved to disguise the springs attached to their stilts allowing them to bounce 5 metres into the air. i was extactically excited.
..there were also four sheep a bit later. covered in (non stuffed) sheep skin suits with puffy chops around their thighs and shoulders. they would follow each other around in a pack and make subtle movements with chewing expressions and sometimes breaking away from the group to get down on all fours to stare at a passer by. they were fantastic!!
i thought they were amazing and positively wasted on the under populated village - just athletes with nothing but sport on their minds. no appreciation.

today it is nice and sunny - a sunday. still considering what to do. Smoothy is contemplating a walk up to the local hippy commune to see if he can find me a pub bike. readers might be interested to know that my bike riding is slowly getting better. i'm still having massive problems getting on adn off when the seat is put up to the actual height it is meant to be. but last week i DID ride all the way back from dp's place and up that enourmous hill with dying. ..we will see.

that's all for now bloggers. xox