GOLD COAST: Non-Transparent bottles are not allowed inside the stadium. Nor water. Most of the fans in the thousands that turned up over the weekend realised only after coming to the stadium that water is not allowed in any other bottle except transparent ones. Once the volunteers informed them that this is not allowed, they quietly went to a designated spot and emptied their water bottles. There are filling stations inside the stadium. If they have non-transparent water bottles, they quietly keep them in one of the orange armours placed outside.
These armours have holes in them to store the bottles. In the end, no hole is left empty. The tricky part is to find the hole the bottle had been tucked in after the event. And to your surprise, all the bottles left there are collected. The missing rate is low. A lady even left a bottle of perfume behind. And she took it on her way back. No one touches these. Oops in smoke!
All places in New Queensland are smoke-free. Tobacco laws are very stringent and smoking is banned in all public places, be it indoor or outdoors. All the venues are smoke-free. But it’s no secret that there’s almost universal liking for smoking among journalists. Initially, the main press centre (MPC) was smoke-free. Little did the organisers realise how difficult they have made it for the scribes to create that creative spark before writing!
The intro was lost in the search for a convenient place where you cannot be penalised. Suddenly, the place outside the main press centre started getting more crowded. Realising the folly to restrict scribes from smoking, the caring organisers put up a designated area within the precinct to smoke. At another venue, the Carrara Sports Precinct, where athletics, weightlifting, badminton and later wrestling will be held, hit upon a novel idea. Since the precinct is huge and complex, the media volunteers here have printed sheets of a map. It leads you to an arena where you can ingest all the nicotine. But for that, you have to walk through a maze-like path for 10 minutes. Perhaps the organisers have unknowingly ensured that there is some kind of health benefit even after a smoke!