Another day, another waste of time setting the alarm clock; a forlorn hope that I would make it to 5:30 a.m.  There are still many loose ends to sort so the “get your lazy arse (aka butt) out of bed” side of my brain is winning the nightly joust with the “go on..be a lazy walrus” side of the aforementioned, alcohol preserved grey matter:  I will not pretend that I am not extremely nervous about the arrival of the horse flights and also how we are going to make the transport work when there are so many variables; arrivals, departures, accredited, non-accredited persons, flexible people and perhaps not so flexible people and of course the options (prohibited vs. permitted) change daily.  I say horse flights, but I want to be clear I have no concerns regarding the welfare of the horses linked to their arrival, deplaning and shipping to the venue. The last load of horses trucks, which were shipped from Europe, cleared customs this morning (ok, it took nearly 24 hours for customs to be so gracious as to release them).  My concern is around the arrival (or to be more accurate the release through customs) of the horses’ feed, supplements, medications and horse equipment – the paperwork required, the complexity and detail demanded and the timelines that have had to be followed have been incredibly taxing to all and have driven Christy and the Team Leaders in to a state of apoplexy.  I am sure the grooms, especially, think we have completely lost our marbles but regrettably these were directives from above and by above I certainly do not mean Peden Bloodstock (who are the equine shippers for Rio 2016).  

Back to the venue this morning, the aim being to get most things finished and then find some time to catch up on other areas of planning during this afternoon.  It is very easy to become fully immersed in setting up the stables and grooms’ accommodation and forget all the other detail that needs tying up.  If I am honest, the “setup” is perhaps one of the things I enjoy most – nothing more satisfying than finding solutions to challenges around setting up the Team area.

Ana and her husband Henry came up trumps with a voltage converter and the Coca-Cola cooler is now firing on all cylinders and is fully stocked awaiting its first customers.  I have mentioned Ana a couple of times, so who is Ana?! Ana is qualified as a vet in Brazil and is married to a Cavalry Officer who used to be based in Deodoro and they are both keen Polo players.  So Ana is helping to set up the stables but her main role will be to make sure the grooms are looked after and to be our “local leg on the ground” in Deodoro – with a constant stream of arrivals, overlapping with the start of the departures and combined with having all three disciplines “on venue” having someone who can run to the supermarket, act as a back up to the transport system and ensure our grooms are looked after at night will be a real boost for the Team and will help us optimize the support we can provide.

Today we launch the CIDs competition – Crazy Inexplicable Decisions (and not to be pronounce KIDS).  Current CIDs Competition Contenders are, in no particular order…
• Searching bags as we are leaving the venue as well as when we come on to the venue.  Do they think we might be kidnapping a member of Rio 2016, or maybe MAPA?
• Building a dual carriageway / 4 lane highway and then closing off one lane on each side.  You join the Transolympica in order and you will leave in that same order – overtaking is verboten.
• Buy hospitality tickets on behalf of owners & family for hospitality on the equestrian venue for week 2 of the Games but expected to drive to another part of Rio to pick up tickets for the hospitality that is situated on the venue where one is currently located.  Yes, we get it, getting around Rio is just sooo easy.
Feel free to nominate or vote for your CIDs Gold Medalists.

Christy and I are edging closer to all out nail biting;  the prepacked bags of USOC clothing for Dressage and Jumping are likely to clear Customs tomorrow and will arrive at the Hotel on three Pallets where, due to perfect planning, they will be stored in the Container we rented for the hotel prior to distribution (there is no other storage space)..only issue is that the container is yet to arrive.  No spare rooms at the hotel so..well…not sure really.. but I am sure it will all work out somehow.  Perhaps Christy and I will be homeless for a few nights and they can put the boxes in our rooms.  Now, there is a thought, I wonder if there are any suites at the rather swanky new hotel on Barra beach…that would be the IOC hotel.

This evening we set off on an adventure to locate the P6 Parking at the Olympic Village – this is the parking that our Vehicle Accreditation gives us access to.  A voyage of discovery it was but I am not sure that even the Connell led temporary geographical embarrassment encountered between the parking area (once we had found it) and the Village Dining Hall quite justified the amount of scran we put away.  However, it was great to see all the different athletes in the Dining Hall looking at us and wondering just which sport we were competing in and marvelling at the amount of training we must be through in order to justify the carb intake.

Olympic Village Dining Hall:


So the “build has begun” in the hotel.  The hotel has no “common areas”, nowhere to relax once the sun goes down (5:30 / 6:00 p.m. ish) so we are having a play with the one and only conference room.  And this is how it looked at the start of play….


After photos coming soon!

Progress is being made.  Thank you Elcotour and thank you Fabiano for overseeing the build.

Tomorrow’s task is to set up the Grooms’ Accommodation and then back to the office for more planning.  Arrivals start soon…damn…that will disturb our peace and mess up our stable area!