Ryder Cup - Ireland September 2006

The end of September saw me take my first trip to Ireland. It will not be the last trip to Ireland i hope - as I still need to see the country.

We got there on the Saturday - had a short briefing in Dublin City Centre, before heading out to the City West Hotel - we stayed at the apartments at the end of the hotel driveway, which was great on the first few nights while the other staff from Manchester were also there - couple of good nights gettting to know everyone.

I knew that i was there to assist with the transportation, but had no idea exactly what that would involve, until the Sunday morning, when I was asked to Manage the South Coach Park at the K-Club (the course where the Ryder cup was taking place) - there were 2 coach parks, and 2 park and rides and the coach park that i was in charge of was to look after apprx 30k people per day.

In theory there should not have been much to do. Bus Eirean and Dublin Bus had a load of staff to look after the busses, and really i was there only to make sure there were no problems. In actuality, it was perhaps the harest 6 days of work I have ever had to do. My "office" was on teh wrong side of the Security tents, and I could not see the coach park from the office - so I barely used it. The coach park itself was not tarmac, rather shale, which caused problems in itself. I also had three separate distinct areas (park and Ride, hotel coaches, and Private coaches) which i had to look after. So I basically spent most of my days walking around on the shale checking on the three areas. During the busy periods I was standing in the middle of the coach turning circle from where i could just see all three areas.

Ireland was not kind to us weather wise. It rained almost every day, and I can tell you it is not pleasant to be standing in the rain all day long. Blisters upon blisters on my feet, shin splints, aching back, aching miscles - it was nasty. WE were up at 04:00 each day to be at the coach park by 05:00 and we generally left the south coach park at 21:00 and went up to the north park, from where we went home for about 22:00. 6 days in a row of this was not pleasant.

The icing on the cake came on the thursday evening. It was about 20:00 and I was stanidng right in the middle of the coach park, when suddenly Hurricane Gordon hit. The weather man tells me that it was gusting at 120mph, which I have no idea what it feels like - but this wind was strong, and almost immeidately we evacuated the park - evacuated everyone that is, except for me, who had to stay behind and make sure everything was staying where it was and was not being blown away :-) That was a strange experience - somewhere that has been so busy was evacuated within 10 minutes, and suddenly i was alone, rain lashing down (and up!) wind blowing everything over, and not having anything to hang on to!!

All in all and weeks after the event, I actualy enjoyed the week, but I will be in two minds as to whether I do that again in a couple of years time.