On Saturday I believe I truly experienced Olympic magic and now - as if I wasn't already a fan of the Games - I know I want to make the journey all the way to 2012 and continue to be part of it. In Shunyi District with a beautiful mountain backdrop I watched the mens four row to gold victory at the Olympic Rowing facility. Then in the Birds Nest Stadium I was present when the world record for the 100 metres was broken. The following day I was still hoarse from cheering on all of Team GB and the rest of world in their quest for sporting glory. The experience of visiting the 2008 Games has been worth the mosiquito bites and the lack of sleep and four years until it is our turn to host the world seems just too far away.

We are into our final week of rehearsals for the London Handover Ceremony and through my many years of working on shows worldwide I can honestly say this has been the most fascinating event I have been involved with. It is the first time in quite a few years that I have felt a real sense of a team, the whole cast and production team totally look out for one another and I have never worked with such a happy together collective. From the urban dancers of ZooNation to the ballet dancers of the Royal Opera ballet there are no traditional entertainment egos here, just a true will to put on a great show for everyone back home and around the world. Aside from the sporting aspirations of many, to entertainment industry professionals there is no bigger event in the world and I have always dreamed of working on an Olympic Opening or Closing Ceremony. Three years ago I was sat in a bar watching London win the bid thinking maybe just maybe I could be involved in 2012. Little did I know that a few years later I would be one week away from the closing ceremony of the 2008 Olympics and I cannot describe the sense of excitement, pride and terror at the thought! Working on concerts and television shows I am used to audiences of thousands and millions but when the figure changes to billions its an entirely different prospect. 

…but if Christopher Robin (or anybody from LOCOG) goes down with Alice then he or she might be surprised at what they find this week on one of the world’s greatest spaces because we’ve arrived! In fact even the Changing of the Guard is being adjusted this week as we prepare for the Visa London 2012 Party on Sun 24 August. The area surrounding the stage and the backstage area is all fenced off, some of the roads are shut to allow our event production company to get on with the work and it’s a hive of activity. Whilst pedestrians and cyclists are coming and going as usual, we’re providing extra entertainment as the various elements of the show go in. So far, the framework for the stage is in, as are the backstage offices, catering (very important for the hundreds of crew on-site), our sponsor area construction team and the site is a hive of yellow-jacketed men and women, forklift trucks and equipment. With a fine weekend’s weather behind us, we’re on time and in good shape.

Think Beach Volleyball, and what do you see? The depilated, golden amazons of Copacabana, perhaps, the impeccable cool of California's beach scene – or maybe those female Volleyballers in Sydney 2000, etched on so many (male?) minds. Austria, safe to say, does not spring readily to mind.But lack of coastline and tropical climate have not prevented Austria getting a men's team through to a quarter final at the Beijing Games. It’s one of those wonderfully meritocratic moments – defying geography, culture and probability – in which the Olympic and Paralympic Games abound. Just where exactly does the team practise?Last night I watched Austria’s beach boys – seeded 24th out of 24 teams – in action against Brazil at Chaoyang Park Beach Volleyball Ground, a beautiful recreational area in the east of Beijing. Talk about David and Goliath. It was a wonderfully accessible occasion. Going through the park to get to the Volleyball stadium, we passed families taking an evening stroll while enjoying the Olympic atmosphere, people playing ping pong on outdoor tables under the floodlit trees, and teams of teenagers on a public Beach Volleyball court constructed outside the stadium - a nice way of involving members of the public without tickets. It's a little corner of Brazil transplanted to Beijing.The stadium is a temporary venue constructed specially for the Games, though you’d never know: it’s a sturdy coliseum of steel. On the sand court below, four barefoot guys were walloping (note to self: find out correct technical term) a ball across a high net, swooping and diving in spectacularly balletic rallies. Unlike the women, who wear bikinis, the men wear long shorts and vests – there's an interesting double standard. Even I managed to grasp the rules quickly: a match comprises the best of three sets, each of 21 points.

The London commuter is a funny animal and conceivably a unique species. Unlike the transport networks in other cities around the globe, travel takes place in silence on the part of the commuter, often plugged in to an mp3 player, reading a paper or tapping at a mobile device like I am - the hush broken only by the noises created by the system: announcements, beeps, the squeal of wheel on rail. So imagine my surprise this morning, returning after a week learning lessons from the Beijing Games, to hear conversation all the way through my journey to work this morning. And imagine my delight that the thing that had brought this cross section at least out of their natural reserve was the very Games I had been working at last week.

It's 4am and I'm sat on my couch waiting to watch the Union Jack be raised, and God Save the Queen to be played, in honour or Rebecca Adlington's simply outstanding swim in the 800m freestyle. The Olympic Games have always been in my heart: as a 7-year-old the 1984 Games captured my imagination, then as a budding athlete they were my sole focus. Now as 31-year-old lawyer at the London 2012 Organising Committee I'm just happy to be playing a small part in an event which can entertain and inspire like no other. Rebecca's success in Beijing has been special for me...I don't know her personally but used to swim for Nova Centurion, her club, and swam under her coach, Bill Furniss. Rebecca has far surpassed my aspirations and I'm overwhelmed by what she's achieved – I hope the public appreciate the significance of breaking Janet Evan's 19-year-old world record and of becoming double Olympic champion. Above all though, I'm delighted for my coach, Bill, and I write this blog to credit Bill and to highlight the contributions of all the people it takes to put on a Games and create an Olympic champion.

Last week, a mere eight days into my time as Sustainability Advisor at the Olympic Delivery Authority, I boarded a bus outside the shiny facade of Churchill Place, and headed for a tour of the infamous Olympic Park site. Despite having been bombarded with numerous facts and figures pertaining to the Park, nothing else could have really given me a truer sense of its scale or enormity, than the 45-minute drive around the perimeters of the site, and ultimately through the entire Park itself.

For once the sun is shining here in Beijing – or to be more precise 70 miles east of Beijing. I'm sitting on an old mattress in the entrance to an empty factory unit. A welcome zepyr is diluting the searing heat, and in the distance I can squint hard to see the Great Wall of China climbing over a jagged mountain top. There are times on this adventure when one has to stop the clock for a few seconds, take it all in and capture a once in a life-time experience. Inside the factory unit there are rows of desks with PCs, bays of sound and lighting controls, bolts of fabric, huge spanners, crow bars and some welding gear. In the distance there's a bank of floor-length mirrors and a set of dancers exercise bars. This is our rehearsal base for the team preparing the . Outside there's a concrete apron and in the distance there are various items of the our modest set which scream of life back in a London street. Our dancers are about to start the next of their endless rehearsal routines. As they stretch and flex every sinew it could just as easily be a exercise class at the Royal Ballet. And yet here we are, some eight thousand miles away in the shadow of the Great Wall. There's such a buzz to the place. The technical and production team have worked miracles to turn a redundant industrial park just a few days ago into something more like a film set. The dancers are coping with heat, humidity and the kind of bugs and beatles which would even scare Attenborough. They're all driving hard to realise the plans made over so many months in London. Everyone is focused in a way that you dream of in any creative production.

Yesterday I flew in to Beijing to work in London 2012’s press office which is (a very small) part of the huge Main Press Centre here in the city. Having arrived first thing in the morning, fellow press officer Annabel and I had the chance to have a wander, find our feet and shake off the after effects of the flight. It was difficult to come to Beijing without having some preconceptions – particularly when it came to air quality, so we were pleasantly surprised to be greeted by brilliant blue sunshine and, as expected, searing heat. First stop was Tiananmen Square, which was spectacular and full of visitors to Beijing as well as locals, passing the time of day in the sunshine. Many seemed to standing or sitting in lines – initially, I assumed they were queuing for something.

Hi! It’s Mike Dobriskey again and as you know I work as part of Team Stadium. My daughter Lisa is currently out in Beijing preparing for her 1500m race. She is getting ready to run in the semi finals on Thursday 21 August starting at 11:00am UK time. The first eight to finish in each race and the next two fastest times will go into the final on Saturday 23 August at 11:50am…not that I'm counting down or anything. Lisa with her gold medal from the 1500m at the Melbourne 2006 Commonwealth Games