Would you buy a used continent...?

It's Buffy Sainte-Marie's birthday in a few weeks time and, in the run up to the big day, I'm listening to all my Buffy songs. It's a good opportunity to remember old favourites and hear songs anew and afresh. Some songs make me smile and some make me cry. I generally hear something new every time I listen properly to Buffy's songs. A unique lyric or phrasing, something that whizzes me back in memory to another decade or something that just makes me think 'yeah'.

This evening I looked up this cover of the New Musical Express from 1976 with Buffy looking well righteous and the caption, 'Would you buy a used continent from this woman?'. 1976 was an eon ago and I can't quite remember, but I bought the NME back then so maybe it was this cover and the related interview that made me watch the BBC2 programme about Buffy that converted me to the true faith. Maybe.

I can't help but like the fact that the Sex Pistols graced the cover of the NME a matter of months after Buffy.

Buffy was probably promoting the 'Sweet America' album when this photo was taken. The record includes some of her early powwow rock songs like 'Starwalker' and 'I Been Down', creating a unique Native American sound on the one hand and, on the other, adding another sonic dimension to a rock sound. 'Sweet America' was my first non-compilation Buffy album and I still love it. It's one of my favourite Buffy albums and it was great when it was finally released on CD a few years ago as 'Buffy/Changing Woman/Sweet America - the Mid-1970s Recordings', three albums across two CDs.

Buffy has released new music in four of the last five decades, the '80s being the exception. But then again, she wrote 'Up Where We Belong' in the '80s and won an Oscar for it without even needing to record it. The only record missing from her collection is 'Many A Mile', Buffy's second album, and I don't understand why that is. It includes her mega-hit 'Until It's Time For You To Go' (which was recorded by everyone in the '60s) and 'Piney Wood Hills' that she still plays live at the start of her live set. It also includes 'Lazarus' that was sampled by Kanye West for a song by Cam'ron. Why isn't 'Many A Mile' available? Maybe there's a licensing problem? I bought it through eBay so have all the songs but it should be available on principle.

Buffy's latest album is 'Running For The Drum' and includes a great melange of songs in a variety of styles. She even includes her tribute to the late '50s skiffle bands (like Lonnie Donegan, as Buffy mentions) and Elvis with songs like 'Blue Sunday'. She still writes great love songs but she also writes great social commentary songs about environmental greed and 'the man'. She turns a complex social problem into a three minute pop song with ease and gets the message across with aplomb.

The last time I saw Buffy play live was during the London Olympics 2012 as part of Anthony Hegarty's Meltdown festival. She played with her band without any support act so we got two hours of Buffy, a longer set that meant she played some of the songs from her '70s albums. I was terribly excited when I heard the introduction to 'Generations', one of my favourite Buffy songs. That was delightful.

I was also privileged with meeting Buffy and her band after the show - I had to queue up, of course, since everyone wanted to meet her. Her band were excited to hear that I'd downloaded their Bruthers Of Different Muthers album (which is their band name when they're not with Buffy) and enjoyed it. You might too. Buffy was lovely and I thanked her for putting me on the guest list for the show (I'd already bought a  ticket in any case - I'm not missing an opportunity to see Buffy!).

I think we're about due for another visit to London, Buffy. Hint. Hint.

Jessica Ennis CBE and Nicola Adams MBE

Jessica Ennis CBE and Nicola Adams MBE went to the Palace today to meet the Queen and pick up their much-deserved medals. They both already have Gold Medals from the London 2012 Olympics, obviously, and are therefore heroes.

Jessica is now a Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire and Nicola is a Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire. There isn't a British Empire anymore but that's a detail.

Here they are with Greg Rutherford MBE, also an Olympian and Gold Medal winner.

There's also a nice article about Nicola, the first woman to ever win an Olympic boxing Gold Medal, on the Sporting Life site.

Oops, sorry, I meant Nicola Adams MBE, obviously.

Remember Olympic TfL?

The joys of the Olympics and Paralympics may be fading as we move into autumn, but you can still enjoy the memories.

Do you recall those cartoon posters Transport for London plastered everywhere, particularly on the Tube, reminding us not to travel, to travel by different routes, to walk, to cycle, all rather than use public transport as normal? Well, you can now download them if you want and keep as a reminder of a great summer.

They're on the Get Ahead Of The Games website so pop on over there and have a chortle at your favourite (or least favourite) poster. You won't be seeing them again any time soon!

London 2012 Olympic Games - Inside the Stadium

I was lucky enough to get a ticket to see an evening of athletics in the Olympic Stadium on 9 August during the Olympic Games and I was rewarded with Usain Bolt and David Rushida making headlines. There were no TeamGB medals that evening but I didn't mind, I was at the Olympics!

I made sure I got to the Olympic Park early so I could take a look round in the sunshine and that place is big. Half a dozen different venues within the Park and the place full of happy, excited people from all over the world and I was one of them. I'd promised myself a healthy meal of chips and beer but you could only buy chips with fish which is no use to me so I had Mexican and diet Coke instead. There were good natured queues everywhere, including to get into the souvenir shops, and some venues were starting new sessions and others were finishing, so there were people everywhere. And the sun shone brightly.

As it got closer to 6:00pm I thought I'd better take my seat and get settled for the 6:30pm start. I crossed Bridge D, climbed the stairs to Block 254, found Row 41 and sat down in Seat 726. And what a view I had! The 100m started right below where I was sitting and I had an excellent view of the finishing line. The other side of the Stadium to my left was set up for the hop, skip and jump competition, ahead was laid out for spears and to my right was the podium and the flagpoles. I was thrilled.

The evening started off with the final two evens of the men's decathlon and began with the spears (aka javelin) and the Cuban lad had an amazingly long throw that went way beyond the last line painted on the grass. I don't know why but I get strangely excited by spears and I suspect it's something primal at work in the back of my mind.


The triple jump lads came on in their tracksuits to warm up and started walking up to the sand and jumping in. I assume they were testing the consistency of the sand or something, but they reminded me of kids in the playground jumping from a standing start into the sand. We had heats of the women's 800m and the women's 4x100m. The decathlon lads did two heats of the 800m to close their event and then did a lap of honour to great cheers. We also had a few medal ceremonies from competitions earlier in the day and, much to my joy, the evening finished with women's spears!

The first of the big races was the men's 800m, with Andrew Osagie representing TeamGB and David Rushida for Kenya. We all know the result and David set a new World Record that was a great thrill to witness first hand. Andrew came 8th - I refuse to say last since he set a personal best in that race and his time would have won him Gold in the three previous Olympic Games. That's not bad at all.

Of course, a certain Mr Usain Bolt was also running in a later race, the 200m men's final, and he succeeded in getting most of the publicity for his amazing win. The race started just over from where I was sitting so I could see him go through his preparations, his ungainly start and then his easy win - from where I was sitting he was quite obviously ahead of the rest of the field. He then did his lap of honour that went on for ages because everyone wanted to meet him, take his photo and, let's face it, he's a showman and he milked it. And he was great to see!

I stayed for the women's spears and cheered even louder as other people left after seeing Mr Bolt. It was a wonderful evening and a great atmosphere in the Stadium, everyone excited, oohing and aaahing as we watched personal triumphs, clapping and cheering the winners and the non-winners alike. The decathlon bloke from, I think, Belarusse who came final in the 800m by about half a lap got an enormous roar of encouragement as he pounded the track determined to finish and he did.

A day of wonderful memories ended with leaving the Olympic Park in the warm darkness of an August night, heading to Stratford to get the train home with a big smile on my face and ideas juggling round behind my eyes. I'll be going back during the Paralympics. Try keeping me away!

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 

London 2012 Olympic Games - Day 3

Day 3 of the London 2012 Olympics and the big news is that Team GB has won its first mens' team gymnastics medal in 100 years. At first it seemed like they'd won silver but they ended up with a bronze and they were still over the moon! Congratulations to Daniel Purvis, Max Whitlock, Louis Smith, Kristian Thomas and Sam Oldham.

It was lovely to see their reaction to their historic success, both while waiting during the tense ten minutes of the Japanese appeal and on the podium. They were delighted and so was the crowd. After initial boos when the result was changed the crowd cheered the Japanese team, celebrating their excellent performance. But the stars are the five lads with bronze who couldn't believe they'd won an Olympic medal. Well done lads and good luck in the individual competition!

Other highlights of the day included Zoe Smith coming in 12th in the womens' weightlifting competition, setting a new GB record. Zoe featured in the documentary 'Girl Power' a couple of weeks ago, that followed three Olympic hopefuls over the past year and their training in weightlifting. Zoe was the one who went through to the Olympic trials to represent GB. She's only 18 so has a lot of years of competition ahead of her. Well done Zoe!

Katherine Grainger and Anna Watkins broke the Olympic record in the double scull in rowing and are through to the final on Friday. Of course, that means the pressure's on them so lets keep fingers crossed...

I also caught the latter stages of the archery competition taking place in the Lord's Cricket Ground to see a tense competition being won by Larry Godfrey to take him through to the last 16. It was fascinating watching them take aim and fire to hit that target so far away and keep scoring 10 points in the centre of the target. How on earth do you do that? Taking into account the breeze buffering around Lord's, the distance, controlling the little tremors as they hold the bows and then whoosh! An arrow sticks into the yellow core of the target. I'll need to make sure I watch the next stage of the competition.

London 2012 Olympic Games - Day 2

It is Day 2 of the London 2012 Olympic Games and I've spent most of the weekend watching the games unfold, watching astonishing performances and awful weather, watching young people being faster and stronger than ever before and reading a load of rubbish about the politics behind the Opening Ceremony. I say 'tosh!', that's what I say.

Athletes from China are currently ruling the roost with some really great performances but the ones that got me on the edge of my seat were Lizzie Armitstead in the road race this afternoon and Becky Adlington in the pool this evening. It was also nice to see Zara Philips in the dressage this morning (with mum and granda in the audience) and Beth Tweddle's performance on the uneven bars in the gymnastics this afternoon.

TeamGB won it's first medal when Lizzie Armitstead cycled through the rain to win a Silver Medal in the road race where the men's team was unsuccessful yesterday. Up and down Box Hill, through Richmond Park with the rain pelting down and into the outskirts of London, the three cyclists worked together, GB, Netherlands and Russia, to get closer to the winning line on The Mall. At the last minute Marianne Vos made a break for it and succeeded, with Lizzie being in Silver Medal place. Well done Lizzie!

This evening saw Becky Adlington trying to defend her 400m freestyle Gold and Olympic Record from Beijing 2008. 400m is not Becky's chosen distance but we all, naturally, expect her to win, which adds to the pressure. She tweeted this morning that she'd do her best but didn't expect to win. None of the pundits thought she'd win either. And she didn't. She finished in Bronze Medal position and that was such a great achievement - the first British swimmer to gain medals in consecutive Games. And she was on the medals podium - that's a great thing to do, and she crossed the podium to hug the other women as a great sports-person would do.  Well done Becky, very proud of you!

So, that's two medals we've won. It's nice to be on the medals table but I think we ought to remember that we're the host of the Olympic Games. It would be bad form if the host won all the medals - that would, quite frankly, be rude. It's the host's job to make sure everyone enjoys themselves and the goodies are shared out properly. Be proportionate... but some Gold would be nice ...

London 2012 Olympics - Opening Ceremony Rehearsal Photos

I was lucky enough to get a ticket to one of the rehearsals of the Opening Ceremony of the London 2012 Olympic Games - part of me can't believe I've just written that. We were asked to #savethesurprise and I did. By now you'll have seen the Ceremony so I thought I'd share some photos.

The Opening Ceremony was spectacular and touching by turns. Beijing 2008 was amazing, with thousands of people all doing the same thing at the same time - London 2012 had thousands of people doing different things, telling multiple stories and I loved it. Wherever you looked around the stadium there was a different story and we only saw some of the them on the broadcast of the Ceremony.

That was particularly true of the pastoral scene at the start, and the move to the industrial revolution. The cricket, the football, the young ladies being blown along with their parasols, the Suffragettes throwing themselves in front of horses, the Jarrow Crusade... so much going on. The telly editors kept focusing down on the micro rather than giving us the macro picture, but it was a grand spectacle and full of surprises.

I loved seeing the lyrics to 'Pretty Vacant' spelled out by the lights in the crowd, the colour-washes across the stadium, the blasts of flame during 'Firestarter', light and spectacle everywhere along with very clear sound. There were still lots of surprises since we didn't get the full picture at the rehearsal so it was great to see the full show on Friday.

Here are some of my photos from the rehearsal. It's something that I will remember for a long time to come.

The Olympics Arriving in London

The Olympics are getting closer to London. There's less than a month to go before the opening ceremony and London has started to pretty herself up.  We have banners appearing on streets around London and Olympic rings hanging from Tower Bridge. It looks quite spectacular. I'm waiting for pink and purple hanging flower baskets to start springing up everywhere.

I've noticed new signage on the Tube network, at least in central London stations. Bright pink signs pointing the way to Olympic and other venues rather than to tube lines (a great improvement).

No doubt there'll be more to follow.

The Olympic Torch in Newcastle

The Olympic torch has reached Newcastle and has been travelling around Northumberland and Durham.

The Tyne Bridge has been decorated with the Olympic rings to celebrate the torch and the fact that Newcastle is a host city to the Olympic football competition. Jack Charlton carried the torch in Newcastle and Bear Grylls slid down a wire with it from the top of the Tyne Bridge. It's getting closer ...

Here are a couple of photos I've stolen from the internet:

Fashion Statement

Dear readers, I had a surprise today when my uniform for my role as a London Ambassador arrived. And it is pink and purple.

Now, I've known it was going to be pink and purple since I first saw the design back in February on a training day, but it's another thing to hold it in your hand. It's bright but it's not as bad as it could've been. I won't be embarrassed to wear it (I probably should be but I won't be, I'm determined).

I received two polo shirts, a fleece jacket and a rain jacket, all in the same design and colours, plus a cap, a backpack and a water bottle, all themed to match the clothing. I also received the plain black cargo trousers that finish off the uniform. Unfortunately, I was rather aspirational when I gave them my measurements and my aspirations haven't been met. I'll have to get some, ahem, bigger trews.

I'm still waiting for the trilby hat but I'll pick that up nearer the time.

What do you think?

It's All Purple 'n' Pink!

You know I'm a London Ambassador for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games - it's not going to happen again in my lifetime so I wanted to be part of it, do something that says quite categorically, I was there. There are 8,000 of us working across London and at the various London airports meeting and greeting guests to London and helpling them to enjoy the city to the fullest extent. I intent to take this role very seriously and have maximum fun myself at the same time. I didn't manage to get any tickets to the Olympics so it's a good job I'm an Ambassador.

I've already had the first day of training for my volunteer role and the second training day is in late April, out in Stratford at or near the Olympic park. I'm looking forward to it.

Today our uniform was unveiled at Wimbledon of all places. I saw the design on my first training day but to see people actually wearing it makes it even more real - and even more garish! Purple and pink with black trousers and everything co-ordinated - polo shirt, fleece, rain jacket, trilby, backpack, water bottle, Oyster card holder... the works! You certainly won't be able to miss us!

Here's a photo of Mayor Boris and some of my fellow Ambassadors showing off the uniform this morning a few miles from my house - it was a bit chilly this morning so they were brave to just wear the polo shirt! I'm looking forward to getting my trilby - I will wear it forever!