Thurs 16th, Fri 17th, Sat 18th & Sun 19th – A Canadian, A Frenchwoman, 2 Brits, A Contingent Of Germans & 2 Aussies Climb Into A Steel Structure..!

(Jules & I self portrait style on the Stoop - oh yeah, I'm now clean shaven! Too hot up in the LED Screen, Adam mixing it up with the Tigers & the 15th Asia Games logo - motto, "The Games Of Your Life".)

I’ve decided to group the above 4 days together as 1) they all pretty much involve the same stuff & 2) I have no idea what actually happened on what day as they have been long and tiring!

As the heading says, 0900 on Thurs a small army ascended onto ‘Lucy’ to start running power cable for all the lights that were currently rigged. I paired up with Bridg-eat (the way it sounds with a French accent!) and Kev went off with Canadian Bill! They from the North end, us from the South. All the safety lines had been installed overnight and it was great fun to be in climbing thru the structure. Another chapter in the great adventure this gig is turning out to be! There were a couple of moments where I had to get the head back into the place where you can easily hop around from beam to beam and not have to worry about the 70m fall – hey, if you fall from 10m, you’ll do the same damage as if you fell from 70m, just the 70m fall won’t hurt as much…!

It was a lot of fun and it’s a really quick way to pass the hours as it does require a decent amount of concentration. It’s also quite physical as you’re twisting and contorting your body to fit thru gaps and the ladder climb alone was great on the arms – feel the burn! Bridgette & I had a lot of fun. She’d only been in country for 2 days and was asking me the questions I had been asking only a week or so before! Nobody really fills you in on how silly the whole situation is and you need to be told these things in order to put it all into perspective. A nice quiet moment was sitting at the highest point, having a cigarette in the brilliant sunshine!

The whole day was spent up there and for lunch I had my biggest meal to date so far – I was starving as it’s also some of the most physical work I’ve done in ages. We got about half of the big searchlights plugged up – basically meaning we had work for the following day if we wanted it, to which we both said yes. 2 days are now out to 3…!

Polished off the other half of the searchlights the next day and then dropped down into the middle of the structure to run data for LX trusses that were yet to be rigged. Another whole day spent clambering around. When we got down, the job we’d been hired in to do was complete but Andy chased around and asked if we’d be happy to come back again to assist in the next stage as he thought we’d been a great help and the others had apparently said nice things about us. “They are saying to me but not to you that they are liking the 2 Aus-tees and say the only thing wrong is that you are not speaking the German!” Nice! Told you they were similar personalities. We had no probs coming back, cleared it with Philby & Jamie and headed off to our spots. This process carried on until Sun eve when there was only small tasks to polish off and Andy was almost sad to say that our services were no longer needed! Sang our praises to Philby who made special mention of it back to Jamie! Philby and the Germans go from gig like this to gig like this!
Kev & I are now interested in catching up with them all for a beer at some point. I think it would be a large, messy but fabulous night!

Night rehearsals continued to be bitterly cold – even when rugged up cause when you’re sitting up there exposed for 5-6hrs at a time with no shelter, the wind does bite into you. I surprised myself and found that I packed my beanie! It was such a weird sensation, working in the sun and sweating during the day and then rugging up & freezing by night! And it seems to be getting colder each day. Winter isn’t coming on gradually, it’s arriving each day. Even the days now are cool – the sun is still warm and has enough strength to tan but it’s nowhere near as hot as it was when we first arrived. After we put our harnesses on, Kev & I look like twin Michelin Men!

Sat arvo & Sun morn was spent running wheland cable along the LED Screen catwalks. This was quality time with Ollie & Johannes! Way to many laughs and smart remarks. Just 4 guys being silly. Ollie got onto a winner with the game “What can I pretend this wheland head is?”, my fav’s being a microphone ‘test one two’ and the electric razor! And we’re getting paid to do this!?! Was very hard and exhausting work but it’s an absolute hoot and I’d rather be out working – the extra cash is an added bonus and should easily cover the cost of accomm for the holiday!

Sun arvo we all swarmed over the structure as all crane work had been cancelled due to strong winds. The only problem was that the one crane that was strong enough to lift all remaining looms onto the structure was way down on the South side! It did one final big lift and then we all had to scamper round dropping looms and then running them to their required positions! Kev & I were assigned the task of running power for the two spots at the top centre of the Structure. Hauling a 50m loom through, up & over steel was NOT fun! Very heavy and adds an extra element to the thought process. Myself & Kev sang our way to the centre! That way, one part of the brain was doing the whole ‘this foot goes here, clip off onto that, twist leg around that beam’ part and the bit that would have been going ‘this is really heavy, oooh look, it’s a long way down’ was too busy trying to remember words to songs! And by singing, it’s far easier to be able to manoeuvre because you don’t have that little voice in the back of your head!

I think my favourite moment over the 6 days we worked was when we had a mini United Nations atop on of the towers. All stretched out atop the structure on beams and panels, getting a tan, swapping stories and just relaxing whilst we waited for the crane to drop off a load of looms!

My other funniest (and also frustrating at the time moment) was when climbing, the clip on my access pass broke and it went fluttering away to the ground - I was only 20m up at the time and as I had climbers above & below I had no real option but to keep climbing. One of the guys further down saw one of the Smurfs pick it up and wave it around at the bottom of the tower, yelled down for him to keep it and we kept on with the job. Upon reaching the ground some 3.5hrs later, hunted down the guy who had picked it up – he was actually pointed out to me by one of the guys on deck. Went up to him and asked if he had my pass, “Only my pass Boss” was the answer as he waved his at me! Fair enough! Asked him if he had picked up another. “Yes Boss”. Nothing more. “Do you still have it?” I inquired. “No, gave it to my friend!” He pointed out his friend and I went up to him and the above routine basically happened again! This time he had given the pass to his boss, not friend! Went to the boss who said that he’d handed it to my friend (!) who had been standing at the bottom of the tower. I asked him what he looked like and the answer was “White man. Taller than me. Bout you height and wearing hard hat!” Which describes just about all of us onsite! Very amusing and had the roles been reversed, it’s a fair call! I have now officially been classed by my race and found out that we all look alike! Got my pass back eventually though!