a day in the life of a flash quote reporter

Every once in a while, a Flash Quote Reporter has to work a 14 hour shift. Not everyday thankfully, but once is enough!

A day in the life of a Flash Quote Reporter begins at around 7 o'clock. The FQR has breakfast, usually consisting of yoghurt and a bit of fruit. This FQR has trouble with Chinese breakfast, which consists of dumplings and deep fried stuff. 
The FQR heads down stairs, but not before checking the rug in the elevator - the only way he can keep track of the days - to make absolutely sure that he really needs to be up at this time and can't go back to bed.
The FQR, and any other sod who was unlucky enough to pull the 14 hour shift for that day, jump in a cab and head to their venue. In this case, it is the Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronomics.
Upon arrival, a FQR makes a coffee and looks up the contenders for the morning's session. The FQR looks for who might be a good interview in Group B. Group B is on in the morning, and is basically for the the lifters who aren't really a medal chance.
Two FQRs need to be at the venue in the morning for Group B, just in case something amazing happens. It's not out of the realm of possibility, a guy won silver from Group B in Athens. But, Group B being Group B, not much of the media is interested. A FQR spends a large part of his time in the mixed zone. The media stand on the left side of the barrier, the athletes walk down the right. Although I don't have any photos of it, when the Chinese athletes won Gold, the mixed zone was incredibly packed. A FQR can have a lot of difficulty getting in and out of the mixed zone. Not so in this case.
After Group B, there's lunch. After lunch, all the Chinese guys in the venue, put their head down on their desk and have a nap. Some FQRs have tried this.
After nap time, a FQR has another coffee, a relax, perhaps listens to his iPod, and looks at the form of the lifters in the first Group A session. There is usually a Women's Group A that starts at 3:30, and a Men's Group A that starts at 7.
The other FQRs come in during the afternoon, and everyone receives a briefing from our manager, Jane. We're assigned what we will be doing for that session. We are usually either targeting a specific athlete in the mixed zone, standing behind a journalist in the broadcast mixed zone (where we can't ask questions), attending the press conference, being a general rover, or sitting at a computer in the office being the copy taker.
FQRs have a 10 minute deadline from when the athlete speaks to submitting their work. So everyone is in a rush. And while this FQR doesn't like being the copy taker, it is a good system to speed things up. The deadline for Press Conference quote is 20 minutes.
After the afternoon session, a FQR has dinner. Quite often the line is very long, and the food really is pretty bad. But there's lots of rice, so there's always something that's edible.

After dinner, there is another session, and a FQR does it all again. He usually leaves at around 10pm and gets home around 10:30. After a quick chat with the doorman, he heads up to his room.

The FQR might be in the mood for a beer as he checks his email and the headlines, and then goes to bed. Luckily, no FQR has to do 14 hour shifts back to back, so he can sleep in tomorrow!

the people you see

Jaques Rogges, President of the IOC came into weightlifting the other day. Didn't get to talk to him, but someone snapped off a photo.

And the guy in the suit is Prince Albert II of Monaco. Apparently he was voted the world's most eligible bachelor a few years ago. I guess owning a country makes up for a lot...

the cover up

There's a lot of this going on in Beijing. Notice the big, ugly construction site being almost completely covered up by a huge image of an inspiring athlete. Much more 'in  the Olympic spirit' (whatever that means).

Personally, I wouldn't call the Olympics a failure if there were a few construction sites around. I don't get it, to be honest. There are some things that must be hidden, must be fixed straight away. And yet, the things that people are actually likely to care about are not negotiable.

I suppose, to an extent, this is not a new phenomenon. Athens shot stray dogs before their Games, and Sydney swept up its homeless people. But it makes me think that the Olympics, not just Beijing, have missed the point.

opening ceremony night

Josh, my friend from Newcastle and I decided to go to Tiananmen Square for the Opening Ceremony. We assumed that there would be big screens there. There weren't.

Getting there was a hassle. Well no, not getting there. The cab dropped us off just around the corner, and having explored a bit before, I knew exactly how to get there. There were a few problems. The police were blocking off every way to get to the square, for reason I could not see. They told us to wait for a minute. After about ten minutes, we decided to subvert 'the man,' and walked a longer way around. We got into the square through a special media entry. Josh had his accreditation with him (note: we're not actually accredited journalists). I didn't. But I did have my kind of professional looking camera with me, and as they waved him through and tried to stop me, I pointed to him and said "with him." I couldn't really believe that it worked!

While it was busy, it wasn't as full as I thought it might be. In one part of it, there was a bit of a chant going on. People were jumping up and down and waving little Chinese flags. It was pretty intense. 

But, there were no big screens. So we got out of there and hot footed it back to the uni where we watched the rest of the ceremony on a big screen in our favourite restaurant with some other Newcastle people. 

my role

The Australian wrote an article about the Olympic News Service that explains what it does pretty well. Though they do tend to bag Flash Quote Reporters a bit.

tiananmen square

A few days ago, I actually had some energy when we were allowed to leave the venue. So I decided to head off by myself and try to get to the Olympic Park. I caught the subway to the station where you change for the Olympic line, but then found out that I couldn't go any further. One guy told me that I couldn't go any further because there was a rehearsal of the Opening Ceremony on and I had to either have a ticket or the right accreditation. At first I thought perhaps it was just the language barrier, so I tried to explain that I didn't want to get into the stadium, just to look around, take some photos, enjoy my youth. But no. So, leaving my comments about how he was abusing his power to compensate for his shortcomings as a man for another day, I decided to head into Tiananmen Square.

We get free public transport with our venue accreditation, so that's a pretty sweet deal. The metro in Beijing is really quite good. Trains about every two to three minutes, and it goes pretty much all over the city. Unfortunately, there's no station close to BFSU, it's about a 20 minute bus ride. But still, that's quite manageable. 

Here's me and Chairman Mao. Of course, the portrait is painted so Mao is looking at you wherever you are. 

This little kid wanted a photo with me. Fair enough, I thought, as long as his mum took a photo on my camera too. You can't really see it, but on the back of his head he's left some hair not shaved in the shape of the Olympic logo. That's actually not that rare, I've seen it a couple of times. In the last few weeks the number of foreigners has noticeably increased, so I'm not as much of a novelty as I was. But going out in the uniform is always a talking point with the locals. 
So let's see how we go analysing communist sculpture. Firstly, notice that the people at the front of the crowd are a worker (the proletariat) and a soldier, the two groups of people you need on side for any good revolution. There's also a woman right up the front, I suppose symbolising universal suffrage. Notice that above them is Mao, in a God like position. He's not sculpted like the workers, but in a bust like form. And the workers and soldiers are reaching up to him. Of course, everyone is looking in the same direction, except for one soldier, who you can see looking pretty much straight at the camera and pointing his gun. I'm not sure, but I wonder if it's to remind people who's in charge. 
This is actually the big old gate to Tiananmen Square and the ancient city of Beijing. But it's right up the very back of it, on the exact opposite side to the portrait of Mao, and so now days it's not really used. But it's pretty impressive, and about 600 years old.
I hung around the square to watch the flag lowering ceremony that happens at sunset. It starts with these guys marching into the square and mustering the crowd away a long way away from the flag. Whilst I was pretty sure that's what they were doing, it was a bit disconcerting to see a bunch of army guys marching in and then yelling at people to move in a language I don't understand!
Here's a panoramic shot of the square that I stitched up. You can see that the flag is still up, and there is a massive crowd around it to watch the lowering. This is about seven o'clock in the evening, and the square is busy but not too packed.

This is the Grand National Theatre, an absolutely amazing building. It's completely surround be water, so to get in you have to go under it. It's quite a controversial building in China. I think that it's quite a simple concept, but quite a complicated design. It's quite close to Tiananmen, and I had dinner in a hutong which is next to this building. It was weird to be walking down this alleyway that's a few hundred years old where there are old guys playing draughts and drinking beer, and see this building at the end of it. Kris - have you heard about it at all?

This is the façade of the Great Hall of the People, where the Chinese congress meets every few years. It's also where Richard Nixon dined on his historic trip to China. This shot is taken from Tiananmen Square, and the Grand National Theatre is directly behind this building.

I couldn't believe how busy the square was when I came back after night fall. This is about nine o'clock. It's not shoulder to shoulder, but it is very full. But really, this was a nice time to just go and hang out in the square. The afternoon was a bit too hot, and there's no shade at all. You can't see it here, but there is a lot of gimicky Olympics stuff in the square now, and so I'm really glad that I went before and saw it before it was there. 

Today is the Technical Congress before the weightlifting competition. It means that I've got the morning off, because it starts at about 2pm. I've had a much appreciated sleep in this morning.

I've been here for a month now, and in three weeks time I'll be back in Sydney. I'm really glad that I went and did something after work. Yesterday we went to the markets too, and I bought some jeans and a few presents for people. I think if I can do something every few days it will be a much more enjoyable time. 

my room

Not much has been happening in the last week or so, so I thought I'd show you my room. Particularly because mum always likes to know where I'm living!

So this is the view from the door, or a little ahead of it. To direct left is a massive cupboard, and to the right is the door to the bathroom. You can see where I've been drying my clothes. It's weird actually to wash clothes in the water here... the don't quite come out clean or smell quite right. Don't quite know what the little alcove is all about, because behind the brown doorway thing, the alcove in front of the window is as wide as the rest of the room. You can also see my little fridge behind the stool, perfect for keeping a few Yanjing icy for when I return from a hard days work.

Obviously, this is my bed. It's pretty hard, but I actually think my back is feeling better for it. We have our own TV, and there are a couple of english channels. It's interesting to watch the english CCTV channel (state media) to see what it's like. I'm actually surprised to see stories about internet censorship and pollution on there.

So this is pretty much the same position, but you can see my desk, where I'm sitting right now, as a matter of fact. The tall metal thing in front of the TV is a flask of hot water. You get a new one each day, so you can make two minute noodles, or a cup of tea. You can see I really cleaned up for the occasion...
So this shot doesn't really need any explanation. I'm standing in the shower, which is pretty good really, except there is no kerb, only a shower curtain. The floor just keeps going out onto the bathroom floor. So water kinda goes everywhere. Have been brushing my teeth in the local water since almost the very beginning. It's kinda like washing my clothes... they get clean, but not quite clean.

Had a day off for the first time in a week and a half, and it was great! Slept in, watched some of the Friends marathon that was on TV, and then went out to watch the Wallabies get flogged by the All Blacks. Now I'll be on every day until the Olympics, and then everyday once they start...