On being a London Ambassador
It’s not often that London speaks up for itself, and I think that might be hard to understand from the rest of the world given this past summer. London Pride is a beer and several old oil tankers, and in order to not infringe those trademarks, London’s pride festival is technically called Pride London. London Pride is rarely a visible emotion. Of course, I get to be a bit of an oddball, coming from a land of outward displays of patriotism and being a genuinely gushy person. I will tell pretty anyone how much I love this city on any day of any year. You know that already. But just believe me: it is not really the done thing.
(I’m reminded of the great marketing ploy of Portland, Oregon: tell everyone Seattle is better. Thereby Portland stays small and keeps itself weird and a zillion people don’t flock there and ruin it all. Except I don’t think that quite works for a city as ridiculously big and old as London.)
But in theory, those chosen as London Ambassadors all shared some sense of London love that made them apply and want to give up their time for this project. When we applied, we answered on-screen questions about London landmarks and getting from one place to another and had to write a very short essay on our specialist subject – one topic in one neighbourhood. I wrote about coffee shops in the West End. Then a day of interviews to those successful in the first application. We had to match slightly cryptic symbols to the item they might represent on a map. The first thing I drew out of the hat was an army tank and it threw me for a minute until my head came round to the idea of the Imperial War Museum, of course. More from the hat, we drew a topic and had to speak for a timed minute, telling all we could about how that topic related to the city. I drew ‘fruit’ and managed to cover London’s legacy of fruit markets (from the Covent Garden Apple Market to the current network of farmers’ markets), the marketing origins of Innocent Smoothies when they took over London’s train stations with free samples (which we now see all the time with products but was shocking at the time), and what at the time was still the world’s largest Apple Store. In one minute. Then we were paired with other applicants to role play our part on the street – play a tourist who doesn’t speak much English who is looking for an affordable restaurant near Piccadilly Circus, play the Ambassador helping a panicking parent with a child who has lost her backpack. And so on… then a proper one-on-one interview about what you would bring to the team… and wait to find out if you were one of the 8,000 volunteers chosen to stand on the streets of London. It was one year ago today that I was offered my post as an ambassador!
Then, into training we went. After the first day of training, London pride wasn’t really obvious from person to person. Then in the second day of training, they showed this short film. Watch it full screen: it’s so very pretty. (Hello, crazily shallow depth of field!)
And lest Portland think it’s the only awesomely weird city on the planet, of course it closes with something a bit random from our eccentric mayor, who is a whole other discussion. But it was at this point in the training that the love of London started to become a bit more obvious, as people around the tables picked up different things from this film. We were all from different neighbourhoods and got a bit excited when we saw things from our own turf – either where we lived, worked or spent our downtime. We recognised different people in the narrative, and we had long discussions about how they were a mix of people pretty much everyone could love (Julie Walters is a national treasure of the highest order, right?) and those who not everyone adores (to discuss London investment in a time of financial imperfection was interesting, and people have pretty polar reactions to Tracey Emin). We giggled about the rain in Rome comment, as this was something the mayor’s office really pushed and we came across it in several forms before we were out there on the street in all our pink and purple glory. No matter what caught our eye in that film, there was something that every single person at the table identified with and wanted to expand on. It made us storytellers.
Once we were assigned to locations, we had further training in that area so we could know really specific things. If you ever need to find a loo on the south side of Tower Bridge, I can get you to about a dozen in moments. I can tell you about those giant black orbs by city hall that are actually an art installation by Andrea Schlieker called Full Stops. I can tell you all the places you can go on the Thames Clipper from London Bridge City Pier if you’re fed up of trains, tubes and buses. Where to get cash, which Thai restaurant does take-away, and your three best bets for a hotel room for tonight. In true preparation on our local training outing, it rained. Of course it did.
My time was a bit more flexible than some of the other ambassadors, so I managed to sneak in a few visits to some lesser-known museums in the area and may have overused the excuse to eat way too much at the glory that is Borough Market. I have a particular love of being able to point out London backdrops from memorable film scenes, so brushed up on things less obvious than the complete implausibility that Bridget Jones could ever have afforded to really live over The Globe pub in SE1. Then I prepared myself for that early morning train where everyone else would be sat there in their business clothes, barely awake, and I would be there in pink neon and a baseball cap.
Yeah, that train wasn’t pretty. The games hadn’t started yet. There was a fair amount of eye-rolling. And when the train became really crammed, I discovered the stain-guarding qualities of the hot pink top when half my coffee went right down my shirt… and continue to roll right on off of it like water from a duck. (Yes, I really, really am the kind of girl who shows up on the first day with half a cup of coffee down herself. Apparently they knew ahead of time and made precautions, for which I am grateful.)
I’ll admit that very first early morning was a bit of a false start. We were new at what we were doing, and as the very first shift to work that location, we weren’t sure what questions we could answer. Most people were really just on their way to work and had no interest in talking to us. We were paired up and plotted out across the space in view of the kiosk and the first person to ask us a question was clearly just testing us (unless the Australian Olympic reporters really didn’t know that the Olympic Park was not in the centre of town?) and we got a bit shaken but quickly found our feet and we were off! We could spot tourists to help and we found out what sort of stuff the locals wanted to know – including a lot about the torch relay as it zigged and zagged across the London boroughs each day. As the big day grew closer, we had more and more questions about getting tickets, watching the opening ceremony and where the big screens would be set up around town… but there was still a certain amount of hesitation. We could still feel the cynicism and the negativity that had come along with planning the games.
I think it’s hard for people to remember sometimes that the bid and all the preplanning for London 2012 came before the recession hit, and then after the city knew it had the responsibility of putting on this big event as promised, markets fell apart. If you took that sort of situation down to a family level, you would make changes. If you bought a huge house and a fancy car then lost your job and couldn’t make the payments, the first plan of action would be to make changes that would make things more affordable – smaller house, more economical car, fewer luxuries – and I know that is a huge oversimplification of the economy, but hey: this is a craft blog. The point was that when the economy changed drastically, London couldn’t really say Sorry, World, we just can’t have the Olympics right now. And to anyone who lives here, it has been obvious for all that time that it costs a great deal of money to host the games. There were so many times when local areas had to stand up and say something about how the games were affecting their neighbourhood. There were debates about how much money really should be spent on making all this happen and whether it was possible to ever make it back. Meanwhile, these photos of the Athens Olympic Park from just eight years earlier appeared and made many a little nervous about what would happen in East London post September 2012. Let’s just say there was a fair amount of stress in this city leading up to this giant event.
And then, just like that, on the morning of the opening ceremony, everything started to change. I headed into London early for All the Bells, and stood on Westminster Bridge ringing and listening. Then off to my Ambassador spot at More London, with more people smiling at the high-vis pink outfit than on the previous days, and a free coffee from a kind person serving the morning crowd at Borough Market. “I think you’ll need it even more today,” she said. The torch would be making its way to Tower Bridge, rowing down the Thames from Hampton Court, and along with it a mighty crowd of people hoping to catch a glimpse and quite a bit of speculation about what might happen when it reached the bridge. (That turned out to be a slight disappointment, as it mostly just hung out for a little while then went into City Hall with a security team, where apparently David Beckham was already camped out for the day if the rumours were true.) That night, eighty thousand people would be heading into the stadium to watch the ceremony, while plenty more watched on big screens around town or on the BBC in their own homes. That day, we didn’t get the negativity as we stood there with our maps and copies of Time Out. We got pure excitement.
We also got quite a few film crews showing up to ask us questions. This one had the easiest request: could I shout ‘Welcome to London’ to the camera? Why yes, yes I can. Somewhere there are also interviews with our London welcomes and facts translated into several different languages, as we smiled and answered questions for television coverage in Macau, Taiwan and Belarus. CNN interviewed a man from Utah while I helped a tourist in the background. Before all the sporting excitement started, there was definitely an interest in the vox pop footage with the bridge in the background. Oh, how iconic… even if the games themselves weren’t near the bridge at all! (No problem: cross over to Tower Hill and take the District Line to West Ham and walk the greenway from there to the Olympic Park or head back to Tooley Street to London Bridge, and the Jubilee line will take you straight to Stratford!)
At some point during the games, I saw a tweet that said something along the lines of Why can’t we have London Ambassadors all the time? and I have to say our team felt the same way. We were all volunteers, we all applied with one thing in common: that we wanted to help people see the same fabulousness we see in this city. But it’s big. It’s busy. It can be really, really confusing. Sure, there are guide books and websites and reams of information written about the topic, but it’s a whole other thing when you’re standing there on the street feeling overwhelmed and lost and confused. It was a pleasure to do just a tiny bit to help make that feeling go away whenever possible. And one of the best things is that it is quite possible that you’ll see London Ambassadors return to the streets again for other big occasions, admittedly in smaller numbers than what we saw this summer. The few ambassadors I’ve been able to chat with since our shifts finished have all been quite excited about that… and we’ve all had moments of our off-duty experiences too. It’s so much easier now to see someone in a worried panic and have the guts to ask if they need help and be able to point them in the right direction.
One final part of the process was an invitation to line the Mall for the Team GB victory parade. Everyone along that stretch was a volunteer: London Ambassadors, GamesMakers, Ceremonies performers and technicians. All in uniform (or costume!) and in ridiculously high spirits. And before the parade started, just chilling with Eddie Izzard, as you do. He was amazingly energetic, generous and friendly…
And rather full of London love himself.
Truck after truck of Team GB athletes cruised down the road, and the cheering never stopped.
I know I wasn’t the only volunteer a little bittersweet and emotional that day to know it was all coming to a real close. Happy to know there are more opportunities to come, but certainly not an experience to be replicated. So with today marking one full year of that adventure, I wanted to make sure I recorded a few words somewhere. A gold medal to you for reading them!
So now: to get on with something crafty, eh?
xlovesx
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4 October 2012, 08:24
Such an interesting post… Thanks for sharing your first hand experiences. I love London too. We tried to move there in the early 1990’s as I
kept applying for teaching jobs. I had one scary moment when I was in Southwark (?) and
had to get back to Woolwich
where we were starying. We
had twin babies and a toddler
in those days and were trying to
move to London but it just
never really happened especially when we had
number 4. Life got too busy
and I stayed put in my job in
the Midlands. We have had
several minibreaks to London and saved up to take all four
dc to the Millenium Dome in
the year 2000 which was
exhausting with one who still
rode in a buggy and three
others who got tired legs. So, so, glad we went and would have loved seeing the Olympics up close but watched it on telly. London and Britain is cool (i’m Scottish). Love the blog as always and hope you survived the move. Got more space tho now? P.S. I’m the Mandy who was in your scrap factor team Hybrid :)
4 October 2012, 08:26
I love this post, Shimelle :) Your joy and pride and enthusiasm just bubble right on through! Thank you so much for representing us so very well in your role – and thank you so much for sharing your experience with us! xx
4 October 2012, 08:43
Thanks for sharing your love of your new home and congratulations for making proud in the US that you were such a driving force to promote your adopted home!
4 October 2012, 08:56
Fabulous post. We lived near London when they won the Olympic bid; it was more than a little bittersweet to watch the Games from back in the US. Thanks for the wonderful reminders about our old hometown!
4 October 2012, 09:30
loved reading about your experience, and seemed like i could almost feel the excitement of it all! one thing’s for sure – my ‘maybe’ trip to London later this year would be enhanced with some of that useful knowledge you’ve continued to accumulate :)
4 October 2012, 09:52
Thanks for sharing your experience!
4 October 2012, 09:54
Thank you for sharing this. It was such a great read. And really showed the spirit of the olympic games.
4 October 2012, 10:24
This made me tear up! What an amazing experience- thanks for sharing with us
4 October 2012, 10:28
I was genuinely proud to be British this summer, and I don’t alwasy feel that way as I work with foreign students all year round. I think the volunteers were a master stroke. It was so obvious when I went to the paralympics that they were really enjoying the event, and that’s what made it such a great Games. (that na dall those medals, of course) Well done you for being up for it
4 October 2012, 10:51
thank you so much for sharing ur time as an ambassador shimelle. it sounded really interesting before u did this post, but now i am amazed. it almost sounds like a mini london taxi driver’s knowledge quiz went on and i am sure u would be the perfect longtime ambassador if i had the choice. i definately want to know all the film sights please. cant wait for the layouts now,
jo xxx
4 October 2012, 12:09
Love reading this Shimelle!! :) You make me want to come visit even more! Must. win. lottery. ;)
4 October 2012, 12:29
What a wonderful experience that had to be. Know some of it had to show up in your LSNED pages. Thank you so much for sharing. Someday I will get there.
4 October 2012, 12:55
Fantastic post Shimelle. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – I think what you contributed to the Games and yourself this summer was awesome! You should be so proud of yourself and I can see that in ALL your posts about the games (as well as your overwhelming love of London!) I think the next time I visit the city I will be seeing it with fresh eyes thanks to you!
Kudos!!
4 October 2012, 13:21
Loved this post,Shimelle ….your enthusiasm just pours out of it.Personally I loved everything about the London Olympics [even Boris!].
4 October 2012, 14:05
What a great post Shimelle, you did a great job all of you :)
4 October 2012, 14:07
Shimelle,
I sooo glad you posted this experience for all of us to see. I was thinking of you often during the games wondering about your adventure and hoping you’d share. Thank you for posting your thoughts and the videos. I had no idea how much preparation was needed and oh! the interview process! WOW!.
Julie
4 October 2012, 15:20
Love it, thanks for sharing your thoughts, photos and videos with us all!
4 October 2012, 15:41
My sweet girl you always do everything with all your energy and heart. You make us so very proud of you.
4 October 2012, 19:04
Hi Shimelle!
Thanks so much for your post and your insight into your experiences. I had no idea what a strenuous process you had to go through to volunteer your time. I also enjoyed seeing the videos you included in your post. The experience sounds like it was a once-in-a-lifetime one.
Anne-Liesse
4 October 2012, 19:16
it looks like you had a really good time. :)
4 October 2012, 20:24
What a great post and to see an ex-pat get on so well…..you are amazing!
4 October 2012, 22:11
Love it! I had fun spotting you three times in the video. Your perspective is always so positive – and mirrors the way I try to live my life x
4 October 2012, 23:38
My FIL volunteered for the Sydney Olympics and Para-Olympics in 2000 – he was a driver and got to ferry around all the dilpomats to various venues. He said the experience was just amazing and a major highlight of his life.
5 October 2012, 03:44
Thanks for that post Shimelle. Great to hear some more ‘behind the scenes’ stuff that we didn’t get to really appreciate when watching the event on the television. Funny I had never heard that theory about Portland – I lived there for a few months and loved it. Never visted Seattle! I know you wrote a ’10 things’ about london before, but I’d really love the ‘Shimelle Guide Book’ for the next time I venture over across the Irish Sea. Or maybe a button with a link to all your ‘london’ posts?
5 October 2012, 03:53
Enjoyed reading this post, Shimelle – thanks for sharing some of the excitement and moments of being an Ambassador. I’m pretty sure your Olympic experience scrapbook pages will warrant an upgrade to their own album!
5 October 2012, 09:06
What a wonderful story and what a magnificent year of memories for you!.
Thanks you for sharing.
5 October 2012, 10:46
Great post, Shimelle, really enjoyed reading it!
5 October 2012, 12:07
Thank you for sharing your wonderful experience with us. It really was a special summer, I was very cynical before the Olympics started, but soon got carried away with patriotic feelings and was very proud of how the everything went – which was down to the amazing ambassadors and games makers like you.
6 October 2012, 00:32
great post. Your love of London is contagious. I hope to one day visit and maybe run into Dr Who or the Tradis. Now that would make a GREAT scrapbook page.
6 October 2012, 02:59
Really enjoyed reading this Shimelle. What an experience!
6 October 2012, 05:00
That was such an amazing read and bought a tear to my eye! Thanks for sharing x
6 October 2012, 09:07
Thank you so much for sharing this Shimelle. I really enjoyed reading it and seeing about London.
6 October 2012, 09:15
Great story and such an awesome experience you shared with so many others. You always have such wonderful stories to share and it seems like you truly enjoy a rich life. Please continue.
6 October 2012, 14:06
Chatting to the various games volunteers at Euston whilst going to and from Friends House was fun.
The South Bank is one of my favourite places in London too :)
6 October 2012, 18:18
Love, love this post – thanks for giving us a bit of extra insight into it all – the games made me very proud, way more than I expected :)
6 October 2012, 21:02
I have loved all of your Olympics posts or any London posts for that matter. Thanks SO much for sharing the details and your perspective.
7 October 2012, 09:15
What wonderful memories for you to treasure! Thank you for sharing them with us. Having full-time ambassadors sounds like a wonderful idea – the pride and enthusiasm really shone. Great stuff Shimelle. Maria
8 October 2012, 06:04
never thought about it.
8 October 2012, 11:52
Thank you for sharing your story, it was really interesting. My husband was a Gamesmaker travelling up from Dorset to Greenwich arena for his duties. What a wonderful thing to be part of – such great memories. x
10 October 2012, 05:46
such a great post – thanks for sharing. Your enthusiasm is wonderful!
10 October 2012, 21:05
Loved reading your post. You’re my London fix :) Everytime I read your enthusastic stories, you make me feel like I’m in London again :D Thanks bunches!
10 October 2012, 23:06
I loved reading about your experience as a London ambassador. It’s obvious how much you love your city. I felt like I was right there with you! =)
17 November 2020, 14:13
The national anthem of Switzerland is called ‘Schweizerpsalm’, which in English means ‘Swiss Psalm’. It was adopted in 1961. The lyrics have been written by Leonhard Widmer (German), Charles Chatelanat (French), Camillo Valsangiacomo (Italian), Flurin Camathias (Romansch) and the music has been composed by Alberich Zwyssig.
17 November 2020, 14:13
The national anthem of Switzerland is called ‘Schweizerpsalm’, which in English means ‘Swiss Psalm’. It was adopted in 1961. The lyrics have been written by Leonhard Widmer (German), Charles Chatelanat (French), Camillo Valsangiacomo (Italian), Flurin Camathias (Romansch) and the music has been composed by Alberich Zwyssig.
17 November 2020, 14:14
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30 August 2022, 04:01
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