Water Cube Tested, Day One of The Good Luck Beijing 2008 Swimming China Open...


Yesterday we went to do a story on the NAC, a.k.a, the Water Cube. I am feeling a bit down right now because our story did not turn out too well. I aim for perfection, and most of time, it backfires. Kinda like the woman who is never happy with her appearance and gets plastic surgery more often than she gets paid and ends up looking like a melted Barbie Doll by the 100th operation. Off topic, sorry... My point is, the news doesn't stop and there is no time to dilly dally. Deadlines cannot be changed, and when you're rushed for time, doing the best standup, writing the perfect script, editing the right pictures just sometimes isn't an option.

We arrived at the Cube around 6:00 pm. We though the event would go until 9 pm, but not enough relay teams were competing so it ended at 7:30 pm. When they announced that the meet was over, we kinda went into a frenzy because we had only gotten one interview down and needed at least 2 or three more...

A bit of pandemonium as spectators make their way out. We did manage to speak to 3 more groups of people, but it was a close call. We kinda just grabbed whatever looked like it could form a sentence.

Back to the station at about 9:20 pm. Deadline to make is 23:15... About 2 hours to go. The tape has been "poltergeisted." It looks chewed up as jumps and flashes cut through our beautiful footage almost every 5 seconds. "Zhen Dao Mei!" Apparently the camera was messing up the tape.


Above: Fellow Canucks! Jordan and Sonya Tetley from Toronto, Canada and their beautifull baby girl.

Poor Guan Yuan spent hours salvaging the clips we could use, while editing images over shots that were affected. In the end, we did the best we could from what images we had. It's just a shame because the Water Cube is such a beautiful venue, and I feel like we did not do it justice with this story. Some things you control, other things you can't.

That being said, the Water Cube is a world class venue. You walk in and it feel like a spacious hotel that can be transformed into an Igloo of a night club. It looks much bigger on the outside. There are technically 3 pools: one in a separate room for training, then in the main staduim, a 100 metre pool for racing and then another one for diving.

Here are some interesting things that did not go in the story...in case ur curious to know:)

- The 3000 bubble-like air cushions on outer membrane made from the same ETFE plastic first used in Aviation industry, and now it is used in China for the first time on the Water Cube (also the world's largest ETFE covered building)

- Each bubble you see can withstand the weight of a car!

-Cube's life span = 100 years, or, 25 Olympic Games (every 4 years...lol...see! I can do math!)

- The 80,000 sqm venue is about the size of 15 American
football fields.(Ohhh....more math!)

-42 Gold medals will be up for grabs in Swimming, Diving and Synchro come August

Below: Germany Team

IN TODAY'S

"BELIEVE IT OR NOT, BEAR"...

(INSERT DRUMROLL)

(GASP!) THERE IS SUCH A THING AS A MEAN OLYMPIC VOLUNTEER!

The Olympic volunteer outside the venue was power-tripping on us and trying to play traffic patroller cop, which she had no authority to do since she was off the venue's property when she rudely told us, and just about every vehicle slowing down along the sidewalk, that they could not stop. She looked so pissed off that when we were putting our tripod in the cab's trunk, she had her hand on the trunk door ready to slam it down!

It's sad that she is abusing her position as an Olympic volunteer. Just because you wear a neon uniform with the Olympic logo, does not mean you have the right to impose your own rules and authority over the rest of the public. Be nice. At least there's still time to practice!







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