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Please note: The views expressed on this page do not necessarily reflect those of Microsoft and/or the British Olympic Association.
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| Diary - Puja Chander |
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My name is Puja Chander. I am an Operational account manager in MSN UK, providing operational excellence and support to our online advertising clients and agencies. In my spare time, I enjoy keeping fit ( well I try!), eating out ( far too much :) ), and visiting new and exciting places. I am so, so looking forward to my trip to Athens and working alongside the BOA. I am hoping to meet some fantastic athletes, and, finding inspiration to work harder at the gym!
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| Friday 27 August |
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Our second day here and things are less hectic than yesterday.
I woke up this morning, having spent the previous evening with a few glasses of wine and a great conversation about diving with a very proud father of a silver diving medalit. In fact, we got on so well, that I introduced this Dad to the internet and “MSN”. He was “super excited” about this, especially with MSN tool bar. Apparently, I had opened his eyes on how easy the internet was to use…fab stuff!
We were expecting 40 children from various parts of Manchester. Neither Sonal and myself knew what to expect! Were they going to be terrors? In fact, they were angels who were chosen for their contribution and achievements in their chosen subjects and school. The teenagers spent most of the time on messenger; messaging and waving at one another from either ends of the cyber room…puppy love xx
The evening was spent watching our boxing champ going through to the finals on Sunday. Amir was fantastic. He received the loudest applause, had the biggest entourage, and had the most charisma; blowing lots of little “kisses” to the cameramen. Lucky for us, we sat next to some of his family so we really soaked in the passion and love they had for young Amir and boxing. He was a true Champ!
Our journey back to the internet room was an odd one. An Irish journalist from Belfast asked us if he could share this cab…no probs we thought. He was hoping to catch up with Paula after the race and was a school friend of Paula’s hubby (these journos will try anything to get a good story I thought). We dropped him off at the Metro, and as we were heading back home, our cabbie stops for a pretty young lady. Thinking this was his friend, we didn’t mind. A mile down the road, she gets out and thanks him for the lift! I guess it must be a Greek thing. There isn’t much difference between a bus and a cab out here.
We’ve just watched Paula’s race….that’s what I call determination. She tried again and good on her. Everyone out here is so in awe of her determination and self belief. She has such a big fan club. Each day we receive emails from fans at our hotmail account (teambgathens@hotmail.com- send us an email, and we’ll pass it on to your favourite athlete/coach/trainer/psychologist). There are mails of love, sheer admiration and a good ol’ British “pat on the back”.
We are now closing down and heading out to the Acropolis. The cabbie we used earlier was a bargain!!
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| Thursday 26 August |
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We arrived in sunny Athens this afternoon with a temperature of a sweltering 32 degrees.
Having entered the lodge, we were introduced to all the staff and were shown around the building. The building is fantastic, boasting an amazing outdoor pool ( filled with a few six packs, maybe ten packs if that’s possible!!). The bedrooms are cosy and the décor is superb. Sonal and I are really quite nervous as everyone looks so fit and really motivated ( hope it rubs off). I don’t think the straightners and hair tongs will work in this heat either. I am going to frizz…urgh!!!
The atmosphere here is relaxed, especially as it’s near the end of the games. Saying that, we did have a technical nightmare just as Dee and Vicky left. The games room is so exciting and very neon green! The kids absolutely love it and it seems to be really busy. Having only just been introduced to the whole cyber café, two computers went down, the server needed to be rebooted and the printer packed in. Great start we thought!! As far as my technical knowledge extends, I took the plugs out, slotted them straight in, and, hey presto...worked a treat...who needs engineers hey! Having resolved this, a girlfriend of one of our rowers needed her pics transferred onto CD for her article which will be published in a Sunday newspaper this weekend. Simple task I thought, however, this took an hour to sort. She was extremely grateful, especially when I gave her a Microsoft memory stick.
The afternoon was busy. I have been in technical mayhem and have met lots of athletes and their families. We signed an athlete’s younger brother on to hotmail who is looking forward to using Messenger back home with his friends. Apparently, he says it will save his dad’s phone bill. So true!
Its 8.30pm now and really dark outside. Its still hot and we are planning to “finally” eat something “Greek”.
We will be searching for some tickets to see the boxing tomorrow.
Bye for now…
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