MY GLASGOW 2014 JOURNEY - Part 3: Life as a Clyde-sider

My volunteering as a Clyde-sider was spent on Tayside
at the Apex Hotel which is near the Tay Road Bridge in Dundee.
Around 400 athletes were based there during the Commonwealth
Games.

In my previous blog post, I explored how I managed to land the opportunity of becoming a Clyde-sider volunteer for the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games. In the third of my series of reflections, I look back at my time volunteering on Tayside.

As far as where I was based was concerned, I didn't care as long I was playing some role even if it was making a cup of tea or coffee then so what? It doesn't bother me. But I got a more prominent role than that which was very good.

After I accepted the role of Clyde-sider, I started attending a series of training sessions. I remember two of them as far as my memory is concerned - the problem is I have got a memory which is the size of a fish and no disrespect to sea animals or fish, because they're lovely but my memory is terrible at times. I remember two training sessions in particular that I took part in...in fact no make that three, because I remember the third one now.

The two I firstly remembered was the one at Hampden which was more of the specific training in transportation, which everyone involved from transportation got involved in for the whole of the Commonwealth Games and all of the venues and it was a limited number of us, I think around fifty of us, in this one big room at Hampden. So I'm not sure if they had other training sessions on - I think they did from what I remember when I booked the sessions on the volunteer portal.

The other one I remember was up at the Apex Hotel in Dundee, where I was based. We (myself and my colleagues who became friends of mine as our time volunteering went on) met our bosses who were fantastic people, absolutely fantastic people and really, really good people and I got a really good sense that we were going to be a great team and that we were going to be a very cohesive team and a strong, closely knitted team.

The third session that I've just remembered and I cannot believe it didn't come up in my memory first of all was the orientation training up at the Emirates Arena in Dalmarnock (I'm going back the way time wise as it was one of the first sessions I went to). I remember seeing Clyde (the Glasgow 2014 mascot) running around the place amusing everybody. And I remember Romeo as well, also known as David Farrell who now presents on STV Glasgow and who used to do a programme called In:Demand on Radio Clyde which used to be broadcast on all of the Bauer stations (across Scotland) so you're talking about Radio Forth, Radio Tay, Radio Northsound and all that. Romeo was his nickname and David Farrell was the MC/compére for the event and his chat was absolutely brilliant and the banter was absolutely enjoyable and everybody was having a good time.

There was about a few thousand of us and we weren't all in transportation Clyde-sider volunteers, there was quite a lot of us in different roles so we had people working in the media centre, people volunteering at the venues, some volunteering in Edinburgh, some volunteering in Dundee and up at Barry Buddon at well (as the shooting event was taking place there). We met all the main staff who gave us a good talk (we didn't meet them in person, we just saw them in the middle of the arena talking to us).

So moving on to the time that I actually volunteered properly as a Clyde-sider, I remember having a mixture of shifts which varied from me starting as early as 6:30am to as late as 9:00pm. I never did any nightshifts as such. I had shifts that were either morning (finishing at lunchtime normally) or afternoon/evening. I really had a good mixture of them and I was responsible for transport. I didn't drive, but I was more responsible for the logistics of the transportation at the Apex Hotel in Dundee where half the athletes were staying for the shooting (at Barry Buddon).

We had regular buses travelling between the Apex Hotel and Barry Buddon so that the athletes could commute between the two venues. And we also had what was called inter-city buses so they would stop between Dundee and Glasgow and go up to Carnoustie as well and during the later part of my volunteering, they would also go to Barry Buddon as well. There was a lot of flexibility in choice for the athletes to choose which transportation they wanted to take according to their needs.

And we also had special cars as well - we had a fleet of cars that were regularly utilised during the Commonwealth Games. We had special drivers, who were Clyde-siders as well, and they drove the athletes around and if say one of the scheduled buses was not appropriate or suitable for someone to move around between the different venues during Glasgow 2014 then we could potentially book them a car or reasonable transportation facilities in order to facilitate their needs.

I also did other tasks such as displaying timetables and making sure the right information was on display and was being fed to the athletes and everyone else involved in the Commonwealth Games and also to answer enquiries. We had our own transportation desk at the Apex Hotel which was great, because it was just the one stop that anybody could make within the Apex Hotel to actually ask us about any transportation needs or anything like that.

And that was really it. It was quite a relaxed role that I had, but it was a very important one as well. We had to get things right and we had to make sure the the buses left on time and keep transportation moving which was important.

The best thing about being a Clyde-sider was making new friends and just knowing that my role was valued and that my input was valued in terms of helping out with the delivery of Glasgow 2014.

MY GLASGOW 2014 JOURNEY - Part 2: Becoming a Clyde-sider

This is a street sign indicating one of the most famous parts of
Glasgow. Within just a 10 minute walk from George Square
was the Glasgow 2014 Volunteer Centre, located on Albion Street,
where I got interviewed for the Clyde-sider role.

I am writing a series of blog entries about my Glasgow 2014 experience. In the first of my blogs, I spoke about how I got interested in the Commonwealth Games and how I wanted to become a Clyde-sider volunteer. We continue on from the point where I put my application in to volunteer for the event.

So fast forward the clock to last summer and I remember that the process of the interview or the build up to the interview and the interview itself was very well organised, the place was very well staffed [that was the Glasgow 2014 Volunteer Centre] and there were many, many people from everywhere in Scotland and beyond who came to Glasgow to get interviewed for the chance to become a Clyde-sider and I wasn't too nervous. I was pretty relaxed. I was actually more nervous about another interview that I had scheduled for the afternoon of that day in Highland Perthshire in a place called Blairgowrie and I wasn't really wanting to get too nervous about this morning interview I had in Glasgow.

I got on well with the gentleman who I chatted with (initial person I was interviewed by before my main interview) and they checked my documentation and other things as well and I remember going downstairs to this basement like floor [in the aftermath]. It wasn't like a typical basement. It was quite glamorous and it was well organised and there were a lot of decorations around signifying that the event was coming. And I remember my interviewer (for my main interview) was a lady from Kirkcaldy, where I live, and it was quite incredible actually. I don't know if it was just a co-incidence, it probably was!

I remember she asked me questions along the lines of how would you be suited to becoming a volunteer, what can you bring, are you looking forward to the Commonwealth Games and all that kind of thing. I don't think these were the exact questions that she asked in that exact manner or wording, but it was just questions to try to get to know about me and actually build a picture up of me and whether I was suitable to become a Clyde-sider. So I was basically just doing the usual thing that somebody does at a typical interview saying, "oh I'm enthusiastic and I'm excited and I cannot wait for the Commonwealth Games".

And I was just being all positive and what not. And I thought it went relatively well. So I was quite happy when I left, which is a rarity, because I tend to come out of interviews and start carrying out a post-mortem on how badly I've done. So I was quite chuffed actually and I was very, very happy and I went on to my other interview in Blairgowrie.

It was a number of weeks before I found out that I was offered the chance to become a Clyde-sider. So I accepted the offer and I was absolutely thrilled and very, very chuffed and very lucky as well, because the fact was there were around about 50,000 applications for only around 15,000 places or roles for Clyde-siders.

I felt incredibly lucky and very honoured that I was picked to become a Clyde-sider for the Commonwealth Games.

MY GLASGOW 2014 JOURNEY - PART 1: How it all began

I will include random pictures of my favourite parts of Glasgow.
This is one of me and the world famous Armadillo.

This is a five part series of blog entries about my own personal journey with regard to the 20th Commonwealth Games which took place in Glasgow this summer. It is merely a reflection of my own experiences and how I felt from first knowing about the prospect of the event taking place to completing my duties as a Clyde-sider volunteer. Please note that the text transcript within my blog entries may not be exactly as the description I provide in the audio, but should be interpreted in the same way nonetheless. Enjoy!

I was intrigued by the whole bidding process and whether Scotland would have the Commonwealth Games taking place within our own country. I actually remember before hand watching the news and finding out that Glasgow beat Edinburgh to become the host city in terms of the bid for Scotland to have the Commonwealth Games. I remember being a bit disappointed because I'm an Edinburgh lad and I was a little bit biased and I wanted Edinburgh to have it. But Glasgow got it and I lived with that.

I remember one of my first memories of my interest in the Commonwealth Games was when I went to a lecture during my time at university in Aberdeen (at Robert Gordon University) and I went to one of the city centre campuses and walked along Blackfriars Street. I remember hearing from a source that Glasgow had just won the bid to host the Commonwealth Games and I remember punching my fist up in the air and giving it this big "YES!" in the middle of the street and half the folk walking along the pavement just looked at me thinking "what the hell is going on here?!" and they realised that I was happy about something and the thing I was happy about was the fact that the Commonwealth Games were coming to Scotland. I was delighted about that and I was quite excited, because  it's not a tiny event. It's quite a big deal and although it's not the Olympics, it's still a worldwide event and it's quite exciting when you hear about something as big as that happening potentially in your own country.

The next memory I had about my journey to the Commonwealth Games was early last year when I woke up on a Monday morning and watched BBC Breakfast on the television and I remember they did a live piece at Glasgow Central train station. There was all these people walking around the station looking for people to show interest or become interested in becoming a potential volunteer for the Commonwealth Games so they were interviewed live on the television and they were saying that they were looking for many thousands of people to become volunteers for the event, to help deliver the event and get involved and I instinctively decided there and then I was going to apply.

So within a couple of hours, I started the application process which was done online and I got my application form done. I wasn't too fussed with what I wanted to do precisely and I just wanted to be involved in the event and play my role at Glasgow 2014 so I submitted my application as quickly and properly as I could.

It took a while until I heard back that I was being invited to get interviewed [for the Clyde-sider role].