Delhi Commonwealth Games 2010

[nlagalle]

Hello fellow AFFers!

Some of you may remember my TR from 2008 of an insiders view on the Beijing Olympics. Well tomorrow I begin the journey to Delhi for the Commonwealth Games (if they happen) to repeat the exercise.

For those that are new here I work for a major news organisation based out of Melbourne, running technology at major events. For Delhi I am the Technology Manager and have designed and set up what we will use to cover the Games (again if they go ahead! :shock.

So my TR is a bit unconventional to the norm on here, but you will see the "behind the scenes" workings that go towards what you see in print and online. There will also be some photos here and there to give you an idea of it! For those on FaceBook, PM me to exchange details as I will have a heap up there too.

To give you a bit of background, I have been working on this project for the best part of 12 months and it has included 2 trips already to Delhi, the most recent 2 months ago. It was a bombsite back then and I expect nothing less when I arrive on Friday to start setting up!

Myself and my offsider will have 2 days to have our office set up and operational. It'll be easy once we know all our equipment has arrived (at the time of writing it was still held up in Customs thanks to the Organising Committee) and the Organisers have also delivered all the services ordered. I still have concerns it won't be.

So sit back and enjoy my ride!! I'll endevour to update it daily!

Anyway, to the flights! More on this tomorrow, but I am on QF009 and QF3955. I think this should be classed as an AFF meet because on this flight is MunitalP +1 and Oz Mark +1 and we are all sitting within a row of each other! what a pity we can't do club seating!

Thanks to EF I was notified when 40D became available Monday night so I am happy to be sitting up the front of Y. It's that little bit harder when you are a SG.. WP at the end of the year for me!

more to come....

 

[anat0l]

Looking forward to the TR, gory details and all if it comes down to it.

Stay safe, nlagelle.

 

[somebol]

Beijing was an awesome report... cant wait for the Delhi one... if it happens

have fun.

 

[samh004]

To give you a bit of background, I have been working on this project for the best part of 12 months and it has included 2 trips already to Delhi, the most recent 2 months ago. It was a bombsite back then and I expect nothing less when I arrive on Friday to start setting up!

Sounds awesome already

 

[pauly7]

Have a great time and be careful!

We had a corporate entertainment trip booked but our insurers and lawyers have deemed it too high risk! So they junked it 2 days ago.

 

[matty744]

Hello fellow AFFers!


To give you a bit of background, I have been working on this project for the best part of 12 months and it has included 2 trips already to Delhi, the most recent 2 months ago. It was a bombsite back then and I expect nothing less when I arrive on Friday to start setting up!

As of about 4 weeks ago it was still a shambles and from what I'm still hearing from the guys there it makes the lead up to athens ( if you had anything to do with those games) look very organised!

 

[thewinchester]

Really looking forward to the TR, and here's hoping the ceilings above your area and critical equipment doesn't cave in on you unexpectedly.

 

[straitman]

nlagalle,

Have a great time and keep safe.

I think we all look forward to your ongoing commentary.

 

[notmensa]

Looking forward to reading the TR! Interesting that insurance & legal risks are causing cancellations.

 

[nlagalle]

Well to say that my worst nightmares came true over here is an understatement.. Never had I imagined or planned on what has transpired since I arrived on Friday morning.

But first to the trip over.. Thanks to MunitalP I was afforded a guest entry in to the F lounge.. All i can say is, WOW!! I cannot wait til I hit WP and can take another trip overseas. And i will be setting aside several hours to relax and enjoy it.

However as Oz Mark and MunitalP were travelling to SIN for the GP we all congregated in the J lounge for some more drinks. Flight boarded on time and I had 40D the others in 40AC 41BC, so we were all pretty close together. I have to say it was one of the funnest flights i had been on for some time as we were standing and sitting around like it was a party..

We had an amazingly fast trip to SIN arriving some 45 minutes early! Gave me a bit more time at the SIN J lounge.

more to come..

 

[oz_mark]

I'm still waiting for my Heineken to arrive

 

[nlagalle]

I'm still waiting for my Heineken to arrive

I am sure they are still mixing up my bourbon and coke!

 

[nlagalle]

OK it's been a while since i've even had time to get onto here! but I will try and bring you up to speed on the last week!

My connecting flight to Delhi was with Jet, and having flown with them before I have quite enjoyed them, although I am not really a fan of leather seats (well they feel more like plastic!).

Anyway our flight was pretty non eventful except me accidently eating a chilli by mistake that was in my food! I managed to snag a couple of hours sleep on the way over.

We landed on time and after what seemed like a 30 minute taxi, arrived at the Terminal. For a minute I thought we'd have to get a bus in as it appeared we were miles from the terminal. But we weren't so off the plane we were, and into the arrivals. It's funny how the airport is brand new, yet it doesn't look it! looks tatty already and the carpet looked like it came out of the 70's!

We were greeted by a volunteer who took us to a special immigration desk then they collected our bags for us and straight through customs. Very painless. I was beginning to think that it was coming together (How wrong was I!!).

Our next stop was the transport area where a car was waiting for us to take us to the hotel. I was surprised when we were leaving that the roads our were very good. in about 30 minutes we were at our hotel and ready to hit the sack.

I was aiming to be at the MPC in the morning to receive our road cases that were due to be delivered.

 

[moa999]

Great start nlgalle.
Enjoy all fun and the HD equipment - missing watching GF2 in HD.
Go the Pies.

 

[ellen10]

I love reading trip reports and this promises to be a most interesting one.

I hope the dramas are not major ones

 

[nlagalle]

Well I managed to get up at a reasonable hour. The hotel breakfast is very good here omelettes to order and all the rest - not a big fan of curry for breakfast though!

We headed off around 9am for the Main Press Centre or MPC, which is located in a building at the ITPO in Pragati Maiden. Is a big complex, with multiple buildings. Our tuk tuk driver dropped us at gate 7,. as we soon found out Gate 7 was for cars only - foot traffic not allowed. So we had to trudge around to Gate 11, which was literally down a bush track! In the end I reckon we walked about 2.5km to get to the MPC.

I had been here a couple of months earlier to check it out and there was still a lot of work to be done. Inside was pretty good, but outside was still messy. water, mud, you name it!

We made it to our office and this was the beginning of the disappointments we were about to face.

Our office had none of the furniture we ordered, no data connections, no nothing. i couldn't believe it. But it got worse. I received a call from our freight forwarders to say the equipment was still held up in Customs as they were still trying to get the signatures from the officials at the Organising Committee (OC) for the duty exemptions.

Adding to this, there was none of our rate card order delivered so we still had no sim cards or datacards etc. More time wasted chasing them!

This was to be the start of a lot of phone calls and eventually yelling and screaming to get things done. By the end of the day we had achieved virtually zip!

add to this there was no attention on the MPC as the athlete's village was in crisis mode trying to have it cleaned up. I kid you not there was no exageration in the reporting. if anything it was toned down!

I managed to organise a meeting with the person who was the one who could sign the documents. So I met the freight guys at the OC HQ for a 6.30 meeting.

He finally rocked up at about 8.15pm and after virtually ignoring me during the meeting and talking to the other two, he bascially lied his way out and said he couldn't sign off on them without approval from the secretary General upstairs.

We headed upstairs and spent another 3.5 hours waiting for him to come out of a meeting. by the time we saw him it was close to midnight and he promised to call the opther guy within the hour to tell him it was ok to sign the documents.

I finally got back to the hotel at 12.30 and was absolutely starving!! to top my day off the 24 hour restuarant was closed for cleaning! I ended up going to Mcdonalds on a tuk tuk for a burger!

Day one finished at about 1.30 for me and had made zero progress on our office setup.

 

[Flashback]

Sounds incredibly frustrating and very character building! Will be interesting to see what the rest of the games is like.

 

[samh004]

Sounds like they don’t actually want the games to go well. What a shambles.

 

[anat0l]

Well it's up and running now, for whatever it is worth.

Let's see how it all pans out from here.

 

[nlagalle]

Well it's up and running now, for whatever it is worth.

Let's see how it all pans out from here.

Well i am actually at the Opening Ceremony writing this! I badly need to bring you all up to speed on what has transpired over the last week!! Give me another couple of days and you'll get the story!!