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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 - Sonal Patel |
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Been at MSN UK for 4 years now and am currently Portal Campaign Manager, based in Piccadilly. Very excited at being able to attend the Olympics as the MSN face of Microsoft ! Hopefully we’ll see a few athletes on the way :)
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| Sunday 29th August |
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Can’t believe it’s the final day. Very quiet today. We’re all preparing plans to clear up :( There is going to be a mass exodus over the next three days as all athletes and families go home...
The Internet café server was the last thing to be shut down. Wireless connectivity was a great concept for everyone. We were burning their photos on the CDs up until the last minute...
Amir Khan got the silver today. Amazing performance against the Cuban champion. Sure it’ll be gold next time!
It’s all over now...closing ceremony was magnificent. Look forward to Beijing in four years time and as for the evolution of technology by then? We’ll have to wait and see...
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| Saturday 28th August |
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We soaked up the atmosphere by the Acropolis last night and hence are slightly tired! Although the morning was quiet, the afternoon wasn’t. More famous faces, their coaches and their families were around than usual ;) Lots of them searching for holidays, breaks away & train times funnily enough. Was a great opportunity to introduce them to MSN Toolbar and MSN Search features. Spent a lot of the day burning CDs, burning more CDs & burning even more CDs. Seen lots of great photos of athletes in actions through the day and at night ;) Gave advice to some of the local volunteers re hardware today...something slightly different to the norm. Funny how every one thinks that if you work for Microsoft that means you have in-depth knowledge of hardware, but funnily enough, between Puja and I we did manage to help! Knew more than we thought.
Popped to the Olympic Stadium in the evening. It truly is stunning. Wonder what happens to it after the games? Hmm...
Kelly Holmes was amazing tonight. The energy was high and what a performance! A lot of celebrating happened all round…messages still coming in via Hotmail congratulating her.
Looking forward to seeing the boxing tomorrow…..fingers crossed for another gold!
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| Friday 27th August |
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What a day ! We were up at 7.30am to open up the MSN & Xbox booths (or rather I pushed Puja out of bed to attend to things and I followed after a bit more of a snooze! Sure she’ll get her revenge tomorrow :( ). We were busy preparing for a group of 40 kids who were due to visit through the afternoon from a school in Manchester. Turned out to be quite a pleasant bunch and no where near as rowdy as we were expecting. Again, MSN Messenger seemed to be software of the day! Tablet PC went down very well especially the handwriting functionality. And of course, Xbox naturally went down a treat. Let them know that Halo II was out later this year. Thought I was telling them something they didn’t know, but alas, being kids of today, they already did.
A group of syncronized swimmers were in here today. Funny how they all come together. In fact, don’t think they’ve separated once since we got here.
Puja put her heels back on today. Obviously a day away from London and she’s having withdrawal symptoms! Anyhow, must commend her for being an absolute star with a famous coach that was in here today wanting to print off some photos and documents. Thank god for memory sticks and the ability for easy file transfer is all I can say. Puja saved the day!
Highlight of today was being at the boxing….seeing Amir Khan being very quick off the mark and so focussed was amazing & we were privileged enough to sit with his family and friends. There will be plenty of celebrating to do tonight! Back at the ranch, a bit of tension as Paula ran her laps. So much support for her. Thank god for the free bar – that’s all I can say!
Anyway, hoping to get to the athletics tomorrow. Closing ceremony tickets are ridiculously expensive. Think wondering the streets of Athens going from one big screen to another sounds like a solution!
Until tomorrow...
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| Thursday 26 August |
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Finally, we are here – the last week of the Olympics! The Olympic Lodge is indeed a great place to chill out for everyone but us:) It has been manic all afternoon……two PCs went down, servers needed rebooting and just as panic was about to set in, Puja & I were to the rescue! We put our high heels & handbags aside and set about sorting out the techie issues, and we did successfully ! Phew...thank god for Dee & Vicky who left spot-on instructions :)
Some great messages have come through from wellwishers to the athletes via Hotmail...we’re pining these up on the noticeboards for the athletes to see the UK’s overwhelming support. MSN Messenger seems to be software of the day. Great to see how many of the athletes are using it to keep in touch with others back home.
Hi mum...ooops...hope that’s ok to say ! Too late. Anyhow, we’re manning the booths until about 12am tonight. Just in time to then hang out with families & friends of the althletes as apparently that is when Athens comes alive :)
Enough for now, more tomorrow...
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