The Olympic Games London 2012

I've felt a need to do a big blog about the London 2012 Olympic Games but the slings and arrows of daily life have prevented me from completing it. Not least because my laptop died on me mid-way through the Olympics. So here is my tribute to the London 2012 Olympics - my Games.

A year and a half ago I first volunteered to be part of the wider Olympics, not as a Games Maker, but as a London Ambassador. I got through the selection process and the training days and it all started to become real when I received the pink and purple uniform - it sounds worse than it actually is, thankfully. I wanted to be a part, even just a small part, of the whole Olympic experience that won't happen again in my home city in my lifetime.

It's the job of London Ambassadors to welcome the world to London, help them find their way around town and enjoy the experience. My shifts were on the Southbank in the middle weekend of the Olympics when TeamGB went Gold medal crazy with Jessica Ennis, Mo Farrah and Greg Rutherford winning three Golds in less than an hour in the Olympic Stadium. The Southbank was packed with tourists and locals alike, all happy to take a map and a guide. I even had Londoners coming up to me asking where places in the guides were since we don't necessarily go out and see all the glorious sights in our home town.

My fellow Ambassadors were a lovely lot too and continue welcoming the world to London until the end of the Paralympics in September. All of us in our pink and purple shirts and jackets, black trousers or skirts, arms full of maps and trilbies on our heads. Everyone wanted to help out, support each other, answer questions that we didn't know the answers to and, generally, have a great time helping others to have a great time.

On my first day I had a question about the "shot put exhibition" on the Southbank, something neither I nor any of my fellow Ambassadors had heard of. So I found it in one of the guides and the next day, before my shift, I scoured the Southbank to find it, and I did. A giant shot put crashed to the ground as part of the Gift from the Gods exhibition, cracking the paving stones around it, and mighty impressive it is too. There's another one at Kennington Oval.

A special thanks to my colleague Roy for making the whole experience so pleasant. We met at one of the training days and teamed up on our first day on duty. Roy specialised in handing out maps and 'Time Out' and I specialised in the One Big Summer leaflet about the Southbank and the London Planner leaflet. If I didn't know the answer to something then Roy generally did, and vice versa. We patrolled the Southbank from the Big Wheel to the Oxo Tower, stopping to chat to colleague Ambassadors, chatting to the public and posing for photos for them, pointing the way to exhibitions and stations, agreeing that it was a shame that Olympic tickets weren't available and, generally, trying to be helpful. I thoroughly enjoyed it and am so pleased my shifts happened during the Olympics themselves. I even won my own 'gold medal' in the shape of a gold pin badge for 'excellence'.

I remember saying at one point, 'Who would ever have thought that the Olympics were happening 12 miles from my house...'

Being an Ambassador has had its perks, not least getting a ticket to see a rehearsal of the Opening Ceremony a few days before the actual Ceremony. It was a great thrill to get the tube to Stratford and walk into the Olympic Park proudly wearing my Ambassador trilby and with a big smile on my face, straight through the efficient security arrangements and gawping around at the stadium and all the other buildings we'd see so frequently on TV over the next few weeks. I was there and I saw most - but not all - of the Ceremony. There were still some surprises in store!

The first few days were nail-biting as we wondered 'where are the medals?'. We all got a bit hung up on medals and, nice as they are, some of our young athletes set personal bests without winning medals and that's a great achievement and something to be celebrated. It was awful to see Becky Adlington apologising for not winning Gold - you won an Olympic Bronze Medal, girl, be proud. We are proud of you!

And then the country erupted in joy when Helen Glover and Heather Stanning won our first Gold medal, which was also the first Gold ever won by the women's rowing team. I was on my feet cheering and clapping with the rest of the country. The joy poured out of the TV as we watched the laughing and crying, the hugs and the disbelief that they'd done it. There lots more to follow, of course, with big names and new stars winning gold, from Bradley Wiggins and Jessica Ennis to Alistair Brownlee and Nicola Adams. It wasn't all athletics - if anything, that was the junior sport. The rowing was an enormous success, horses did us proud, the Brownlee boys in the Triathlon were astonishing and our cyclists were, as ever, on the top of their game. That's part of the joy of the Olympics - so many sports in so few days, a feast of physical endeavour.

It wasn't just the Golds that delighted and raised our spirits. Gemma Gibbons winning a Silver in judo and saying 'I love you, Mum' to the sky was a lovely moment. As was the joy and dignity of the men's gymnastics team winning Bronze after briefly being named in the Silver medal position but still clearly delighted at winning an unexpected medal. It was lovely to see Steph Houghton celebrating scoring goals in the women's football and for a brief moment it looked like she'd get the team through to the next round but we didn't. And young Zoe Smith coming 12th in women's weightlifting, the best we've done in years and, of course, she has years ahead of her, so I'm looking forward to seeing her in Rio.

I was in the Olympic Stadium to see Usain Bolt win the 200m Gold and David Rushida break the 800m world record to win Gold. I saw the final two disciplines of the men's decathlon - the spears (aka the javelin) and the 800m - and cheered them on. I saw heats of the women's 800m and the 100m relay and the final of the women's spears. It was a grand night, seeing medal ceremonies, the lads playing in the sandpit (aka the hop, skip and jump) and I had a great seat with a great view of all the action. That's an evening I'll remember for a long time.

Our great team continued to win medals and set personal bests with the home crowd cheering them on, just as we cheered everyone on. Everyone got a cheer, whether first or last, it was the taking part that really mattered and all those athlete's mattered. One of my early promises to myself was that I'd name every TeamGB medal winner in my blog. There are too many to write about and includes photos but the roll of honour is below. Congratulations to all of you - you made us proud. You made me proud.

The atmosphere around town was incredibly positive and people actually paid heed to the pleas from Transport for London not to clog up public transport unless we had to. The Tube had a record number of users during the Olympics, more than ever before, and it coped admirably. I loved the new pink signage around tune stations, pointing to destinations rather than the tube lines - I still smile when I see the signs.

The medals continued to be won right up until the last few competitions and then we had the marathon and the closing ceremony. It was lovely to see Ray Davies stepping out of a black cab to sing 'Waterloo Sunset' and those Spice Girls whizzing round the stadium bringing a a sense of fun to the proceedings. It was disappointing to miss out the '70s (where was glam? punk? disco?) but good to see Fat Boy Slim and The Who. And in a flurry of fireworks it was all over, the flame dimming only to rise as a phoenix flying to Rio.

And the Olympic Games of London 2012, the XXX Olympiad, were over. These were my Olympics, a mere dozen miles from my house and I went there and watched it. I cheered and cried, I celebrated and then celebrated some more. I was even a part of it in my own small way. I hope a tourist on the other side of the world  will look at their photos one day and think how pretty London was in the sunshine with Olympic banners streaming in the breeze and maybe see a splash of pink and purple and think of the bloke who directed them to the tube station.  We welcomed the world to London and I hope they all look back on their holiday in London as one of the best they've ever had.

Farewell London 2012 Olympics, you'll stay with me forever.

Now it's time for Round II - bring on the Paralympics!

Gold medal winners

• Anthony Joshua, boxing, super-heavyweight

• Mo Farah, athletics, 5,000m

• Luke Campbell, boxing, bantamweight

• Ed McKeever, K1 200m canoe sprint

• Jade Jones, taekwondo, 57kg

• Nicola Adams, boxing, flyweight

• Charlotte Dujardin, equestrianism, individual dressage

• Sir Chris Hoy, cycling, keirin

• Laura Trott, cycling, omnium

• Charlotte Dujardin, Carl Hester and Laura Bechtolsheimer, equestrianism, team dressage

• Alistair Brownlee, triathlon

• Ben Maher, Nick Skelton, Peter Charles and Scott Brash, equestrianism, team showjumping

• Jason Kenny, cycling, sprint

• Andy Murray, tennis, singles

• Ben Ainslie, sailing, Finn

• Greg Rutherford, athletics, long jump

• Mo Farah, athletics, 10,000m

• Jessica Ennis, athletics, heptathlon

• Jo Rowsell, Laura Trott and Dani King, cycling, team pursuit

• Andy Triggs Hodge, Pete Reed, Tom James and Alex Gregory, rowing, men's four

• Katherine Copeland and Sophie Hosking, rowing, lightweight double sculls

• Philip Hindes, Chris Hoy and Jason Kenny, cycling, team sprint

• Ed Clancy, Steven Burke, Geraint Thomas and Peter Kennaugh, cycling, team pursuit

• Victoria Pendleton, cycling, keirin

• Katherine Grainger and Anna Watkins, rowing, double sculls

• Peter Wilson, shooting, double trap

• Tim Baillie and Etienne Stott, canoeing, double

• Bradley Wiggins, cycling, time trial

• Helen Glover and Heather Stanning, rowing, pair

Silver medal winners

• Samantha Murray, modern pentathlon

• Fred Evans, boxing, welterweight

• Hannah Mills and Saskia Clark, sailing, 470 class

• Luke Patience and Stuart Bithell, sailing, 470 class

• Victoria Pendleton, cycling, sprint final

• Nick Dempsey, windsurfing

• Christine Ohuruogu, athletics, 400m

• Andy Murray and Laura Robson, tennis, mixed doubles

• Louis Smith, gymnastics, pommel horse

• Iain Percy and Andrew Simpson, sailing, Star

• Zac Purchase and Mark Hunter, rowing, lightweight double sculls

• David Florence and Richard Hounslow, canoeing, double

• Richard Chambers, Peter Chambers, Chris Bartley and Rob Williams, rowing, lightweight four

• Gemma Gibbons, judo, 78kg

• Michael Jamieson, swimming, 200m breaststroke

• Tina Cook, William Fox-Pitt, Mary King, Zara Phillips and Nicola Wilson, equestrianism, team eventing

• Lizzie Armitstead, cycling, road race

Bronze medal winners

• Tom Daley, diving, 10m platform

• Lutalo Muhammad, taekwondo, -80kg

• Women's hockey

• Anthony Agogo, boxing, middleweight

• Laura Bechtolsheimer, equestrianism, individual dressage

• Robbie Grabarz, high jump

• Jonny Brownlee, triathlon

• Beth Tweddle, gymnastics, uneven bars

• Ed Clancy, cycling, omnium

• Max Whitlock, gymnastics, pommel horse

• Karina Bryant, judo, 78kg+

• Rebecca Adlington, swimming, 800m freestyle

• Alan Campbell, rowing, single sculls

• Will Satch and George Nash, rowing, men's pair

• Constantine Louloudis, Alex Partridge, James Foad, Tom Ransley, Ric Egington, Mo Sbihi, Greg Searle, Matt Langridge and Phelan Hill (cox), rowing, men's eight

• Chris Froome, cycling, time trial

• Louis Smith, Sam Oldham, Kristian Thomas, Max Whitlock and Dan Purvis, gymnastics, team

• Rebecca Adlington, swimming, 400m freestyle

• Liam Heath and Jon Schofield, K2 200m canoe sprint