At the crack of dawn...
5 August ... 5.30am: Stacey and I stand bleary-eyed outside the security entrance at the Faliro Sports Pavilion.
We're waiting for another Venue Manager to arrive, as well as a delivery truck bringing three pallets of Olympic merchandise for our two outlets.
Deliveries can only be made between midnight and 6pm. Hence the early start this morning.
Although it's dark, the weather is still balmy.
Mick arrives and we pass through the "mag and bag" section and walk up to the stadium where the Handball and Taekwon-do events will be held during the Olympics..... our "home" for the next three weeks.
6.10am. the delivery truck hasn't arrived. (deja vu? hasn't this happened before?)
The phone rings. The warehouse manager calls. The computers have crashed, he tells us. The truck can't leave the warehouse without the delivery docket. It should be there tomorrow.
Dawn breaks. A pale pink/orange glow slow spreads across the sky.
We go to our "office" and open up our container - filled with boxes of pins, shirts, caps, key rings - we'll have to call in our other two assistant managers and start sorting tomorrow.
Stacey and I agree 7am is a good time to come in tomorrow. That way we can sort, move and stack boxes in the cool of the early morning.
Unlike sorting and packing boxes at the warehouse in the mid-morning heat, as we have done the past two days. In the sun. With no shelter. Dripping in sweat as we sort polo shirts for staff uniforms.
From tomorrow, we base ourselves at our venue, the Sports Pavilion, and start getting organised for our retail sales operations starting on 14 August.
The Pavilion is along the new tram line - 5 stops - about 15 minutes - from home. That's if the tram runs on time. Which it hasn't (this is Greece, after all). According to the timetable leaflet we picked up from the tram station, trams should be running every 8 minutes. But it doesn't say from which date. So we sit and wait .... 10 minutes ...... 15 minutes ...... 20 minutes .... one should be on it's way shortly....
We're waiting for another Venue Manager to arrive, as well as a delivery truck bringing three pallets of Olympic merchandise for our two outlets.
Deliveries can only be made between midnight and 6pm. Hence the early start this morning.
Although it's dark, the weather is still balmy.
Mick arrives and we pass through the "mag and bag" section and walk up to the stadium where the Handball and Taekwon-do events will be held during the Olympics..... our "home" for the next three weeks.
6.10am. the delivery truck hasn't arrived. (deja vu? hasn't this happened before?)
The phone rings. The warehouse manager calls. The computers have crashed, he tells us. The truck can't leave the warehouse without the delivery docket. It should be there tomorrow.
Dawn breaks. A pale pink/orange glow slow spreads across the sky.
We go to our "office" and open up our container - filled with boxes of pins, shirts, caps, key rings - we'll have to call in our other two assistant managers and start sorting tomorrow.
Stacey and I agree 7am is a good time to come in tomorrow. That way we can sort, move and stack boxes in the cool of the early morning.
Unlike sorting and packing boxes at the warehouse in the mid-morning heat, as we have done the past two days. In the sun. With no shelter. Dripping in sweat as we sort polo shirts for staff uniforms.
From tomorrow, we base ourselves at our venue, the Sports Pavilion, and start getting organised for our retail sales operations starting on 14 August.
The Pavilion is along the new tram line - 5 stops - about 15 minutes - from home. That's if the tram runs on time. Which it hasn't (this is Greece, after all). According to the timetable leaflet we picked up from the tram station, trams should be running every 8 minutes. But it doesn't say from which date. So we sit and wait .... 10 minutes ...... 15 minutes ...... 20 minutes .... one should be on it's way shortly....
posted by Hari Kotrotsios @ 1:05 pm
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