Shift Five.

Thursday 26th July 2012

 Took Mum's suggestion about a new cheap mobile phone seriously. Went to the Harvey Centre shopping Mall (only a £1 to park) and bought a cheap phone in Phones4U. £10 for the phone and £10 credit on the credit card. Topped up with another £15 to be sure.

Arrived at 4.30pm for 5pm shift and assigned an estate car in the Magenta Team C033. Arrival meal was Cajun Chicken ciabatta. First assignment was Curzon St staging area. I turned off the A12 too soon and ended up on the AOR rather than the ORN. Turned out not a major error as the Games Lanes into town on the ORN were open to everyone. The traffic was horrendous everywhere because the torch had been in the city centre around Buck House and Westminster. No one from Magenta had radioed in to say they had arrived at Park Lane when we got an all Magenta cars message to abort the Olympic Family Hotel destination. The suggestion was that The Embankment would be busy so head back to Eton Manor using a Northerly route.

I was in the Aldgate area which would have meant heading in a Euston/Kings Cross direction which didn't sound great so I headed south of the river over London Bridge. The plan was to cross back over via Tower Bridge but that was jammed solid as it had just been opened so plan B was to drive through Bermondsey to the Rotherhite tunnel to re-cross the river. Made it back to Eton Manor at 7pm. Not surprised so many cycclist are killed in London. Some of them cycle stupidly. And there was a burke in a convertible Merc who cut up the right turn only lane at some lights and shot across my bows into the still operational bus lane.

Eton Manor Spent a couple of hours chatting to Kim Barrett and some other drivers. At 9pm got a call to go to Stansted Airport to pick up passenger Szewinska. C029 had also been assigned that passenger. A third car was asked to go but he was worried about his shift end so Kim and one other guy volunteered as they had early morning finishes. We were given the ops phone number, as Stansted is out of radio range. Put the postcode we were given as Stansted 15 minute pick up in the SatNav and set off. SatNav first tried to send me to the long stay parking and then tried to take me away from the short stay. When I got to 15 minute parking it looked like you had to pay £2 so headed off where the SatNav said which turned out to be the Freight terminal and staff parking. Went back to the 15 minute park and braved the £2 charge. Kim was already there in the terminal. A fellow driver told me how to get into the terminal and that we could stay as long as we liked and not pay.

Met Kim at the Team London desk. Tania from LOCOG was not around but Team Boris gave us a welcome board for the Szewinska family. C029 eventually arrived and went off to find the fourth assigned car. We worked out from the name and the arrival board that we were interested in the Katowice flight which had landed at 9.45 with the baggage having made it to the baggage hall. Tania eventually arrived but had to disappear to the private jet terminal. Driver of car 4 never showed. We waited until 11pm when everyone decided our clients had already left in the family car that wasnt supposed to be there. C029 had an earlier shift finish so he didn't join Kim and I in Costa for a real coffee break. As per Tania's prompting we asked for and got staff discount.

DORS tried to send us North on the M11 on the way back. Kim and I got back before C029 so God knows where he had got to. Car 4 was also back. He had never got out of the car in the car park in Stansted and C029 had never found him. The three remaining Stanstedites volunteered to do a job taking two WAV's to FDX before our shifts ended. FDX was changed to FDP which was a bit far but we went anyway. The WAV's had no SatNav so we formed a convoy with me leading in the BMW. DORS wasn't playing ball so used the postcode. Missed turning down to Limehouse Link so followed SatNav which took us a very long way round to Park Lane. At Park Lane drove in but only G4S security was around. Walked the length of the depot (and I mean length) but only found another secutity guard. He told us the FDP people were in a portacabin back at the entrance/exit. Eventually dropped off the keys and headed back to FDO. Couldn't go down Constitution Hill so headed towards Victoria but turned left instead of right. Got back to FDO in half the time. Kim and I were half an hour over our shift time. Driver back to Newbury Park was too busy talking to set the SatNav and turned right not left out of Eton Manor so didn't get back to Hotel until 4.30am. Went straight to bed.