Day One Thousand One Hundred

Saturday 16th June

Got up early and headed into Event Control to see what was happening. At 8am Brett and I drove into Checkpoint 4, I had put a lot more infrastructure into this bush checkpoint so we wanted to check out how well it had worked. Below is a video of the site. You can hear the Bellbirds in the background. 

This pic is the site before

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqLrgksRGAqFgzSgDi5yGZ1mgpS2Yv5XbMsRlGTN6ZE3V2tDnmH3disUg4C_9fMpuN0qI4lWiUiSL4QeODwzeYggA9FLp2RO7kHrDzgiHrK72lhEsQRI1j1y931ntvSDrru08G5_gfqyl2/s1600/IMG_0393.JPG

Drove back out of there and early afternoon I had to drop back my swanky four wheel drive and go back to the Holden.

Spent most of the rest of the afternoon and evening at the Finish seeing teams through. Came home at about 9pm.

Day One Thousand and Ninety Nine

Friday 15th June

2.05am and the alarm went off. I had already showered the night before so I got up and drove myself to Registration at Bellbird Grove.  I let the security guard go at about 2.40am and proceeded to start the generator and lighting towers. 

The rest of the staff arrived and then the first wave of buses showed up. We had a crap traffic management company who turned up with no radios and little idea so I spent a lot of time briefing them up and giving them our radios.

We had a few dramas getting the first set of buses away but I'm happy to say all buses left in plenty of time for getting walkers to the start.

Once the second wave of buses was on route I drove up the mountain to see the 8.30 and 10am starts. This was a good chance to see the starts at my event as in all the trailwalkers I've worked on I've never actually seen a start.

Here is a video of the action

Once the last start was away we tore down the start and waited for Gantry guys to take that down and take it to the start. In the meantime I drove down the line visiting Checkpoint 2 on the way.

the rest of the day was at the Finish building that in time for first walkers to come through in 11hrs 53 minutes. Kate also volunteered at the Finish and I headed home before she finished her shift. It was about 9.45 by this time and I was knackered.

Day One Thousand and Ninety Eight

Thursday 14th June

Spent the day coordinating the set up of various event sites including CP's 1, 2, 3, 4, The Start and Registration. All seemed to go well. Spent a lot of time at the Start as this was one of the critical sites. Also visited our event control centre more than once to help get that set up. Finally got home around 8pm so I could get to bed for early start tomorrow.

Video 1 

 

 Video 2

 

Day One Thousand and Ninety Seven

Wednesday 13th June

My last day in the office before going out on the road tomorrow. Day was mainly spent dealing with staff arriving from both Sydney and Melbourne. Also I was out picking up vehicles including my shiny new 4WD for the weekend.

Everyone arrived on time and went out and picked up all the stuff I had scheduled them to do. At about 5.30 we all convened at Kennards to load our 2 trucks, 4 vans and 3 4WD vehicles. Here is a pic of it all being loaded

A fraction of our gear....

Day One Thousand and Ninety Six

Tuesday 12th June

Got up early and was in work by 7am, by 9am all the schedules for 30 staff were ready to go and dispatched for printing in Melbourne and Sydney. Rest of the day was intense final prep for event. 

Came home, crashed in front of TV with dinner.

I've pretty much taken over the office now....

 

Day One Thousand and Ninety Five

Monday 11th June

Queens Diamond Jubilee National Holiday here, although I headed into work with the rest of the team. It was much like any other day getting final prep done for the event later in the week.  Tried to finalise scheduling so I could dispatch the schedules to staff tomorrow morning. Pretty much got everything done thankfully. Came home and spent some time with Kate.

Day One Thousand and Ninety Four

Sunday 10th June

Took a bit of time out from the event and took Kate shopping to Chermside, before that I subjected her to a trip to Bunnings to spend 300 dollars on event equipment. We picked up some bargains in the sales at Westfield. Had lunch in the foodcourt before heading home. 

I spent all afternoon doing event scheduling before crashing out later in the evening.

Day One Thousand and Ninety Three

Saturday

In work very early (early for a usual day and early bearing in mind it's the weekend). After getting home watched some of the Swans game and then we had homemade meatballs for dinner. We also Skyped the folks back in the UK.

Day One Thousand and Ninety Two

Friday

Another full day at work, the cakes I made last night went down well though. Came home in the evening and Kate and I went to the London Club for some dinner.

Day One Thousand and Ninety One

Thursday

A very tired day after the effort of last night. Spent a normal working day at work, long time since I've done that and came home on time. Picked Kate up from work too as I had the car with me.

Also made cakes with one week to go....

Day One Thousand and Ninety

Wednesday

Briefing night 2012. We all left the office at about 2pm and drove to Brisbane Convention Centre. Got set up and soon enough it was 4pm and time for the first session. Much the same as 2011 and first session had maybe 80 people in it. The second session was crazy with 450 people in the room, biggest crowd I've ever spoken to. Last session at 8pm was well attended again, maybe 150 people, although I was knackered by that point.

 Drove home after clearing up and was home by about 10pm.

Our presentation and briefing notes can be found in the middle of this page

http://trailwalker.oxfam.org.au/brisbane/teams/resourcesbte/

Pics also

I talked lots to lots of people

 

Day One Thousand and Eighty Nine

Tuesday

Spent much of the day preparing for tomorrows briefing night at the Convention Centre. Got home a bit later than normal due to getting lots of other stuff done too.

Crashed out fairly early.

Day One Thousand and Eighty Eight

Monday

Back to work and pretty much a normal day. Still lots to do but all coming together.

Day One Thousand and Eighty Seven

Sunday

Spent the morning at work, at lunchtime I came home and picked up Kate and we grabbed some lunch at the New Farm Deli followed by shopping in Coles.

Spent the evening watching some of the Queens Diamond Jubilee River stuff and a Skype call with folks.

Day One Thousand and Eighty Six

Saturday

Got up at 6.45 and left here at 7.15. Spent all day in the office and Kate picked me up at 5pm. We had a quiet night at home.

Day One Thousand and Eighty Five

Friday

Up early and met Brett in Toowong and then we headed to Walkabout Creek. Had a 2 and a half hour safety briefing which we led, all emergency services and other people involved in the event were represented. It all went very well.

I headed up the mountain afterwards to our CP2 site to test phone signal, was average strength.

Back to the office and then headed home early, well 5.30 and we went out for dinner at the London Club. Was nice to relax and have a drink or two and some tapas. 

2012 Stakeholder Briefing

Day One Thousand and Eighty Four

Thursday

Another busy day preparing for our Stakeholder Safety briefing tomorrow. Lots of other activities during the day and walked home at about 6.30.

Day One Thousand and Eighty Three

Wednesday

Another day at home gettng things done and more scheduling of staff ticked off. Once again was happy to drive Kate to and from work.

Had a Skype call with folks in the evening.

Day One Thousand and Eighty Two

Tuesday

Back to work, spent all day in and out of meetings and on the phone.  Not much to report as writing this 5 days later!

Day One Thousand and Eighty One

Monday

I worked at home all day doing scheduling. I drove Kate to and from work also.