Thaindian News

London, Aug 3 (IANS) As Olympic fever peaks in London and the world soaks in the Games frenzy, a food team has been plotting 24×7 to serve 14 million healthy and fresh meals to athletes and spectators alike.

The blueprint for the food and drinks on offer at the Games was written way back in 2009 in the “food vision”. The key aims of which are to ensure affordable food that offers choice and diversity, is healthy and can cater to special dietary and cultural requirements too.

The Food Vision centres around five core themes: food safety and hygiene, choice and balance, food sourcing and supply chains, environmental management, resource efficiency and waste, and skills and education.

According to the official Games’ website, the Olympic Village’s daily food requirement — described as the world’s largest peacetime catering operation — is: 232 tonnes of potatoes, over 82 tonnes of seafood, 31 tonnes of poultry items, over 100 tonnes of meat, 25,000 loaves of bread, 75,000 litres of milk, 19 tonnes of eggs, 21 tonnes of cheese and over 330 tonnes of fruit and vegetables.

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Cab-cum-hotel-room!

With people from across the globe pouring into London for the Olympics, a British cab driver has hit upon the novel idea by converting his taxi into a hotel. David Weeks is offering visitors a clean bed inside his taxi for $75 a night.

Weeks is currently leading a twin life of a cab driver by the day and a hotelier by the night.

His mobile hotel contains a mattress, a Union Jack blanket, alarm clock, and the iconic stuffed Paddington Bear. He parks his cab on his driveway, allowing guests to make use of his home’s bathroom.

With traffic congestion on the busy London streets becoming the order of the day resulting in losses to the cab drivers, Weeks’ idea is soon catching with others who too are thinking on offering their vehicles as makeshift hotels.

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Wenlock and Mandeville invade comics world

The mascots for the London Games Wenlock and Mandeville are getting slammed in the virtual world. They have been called everything from “creepy”, “sinister” and “menacing” to “molten aliens” and “horrifying monstrosities straight out of a fever dream”.

However, their creator Grant Hunter has been mounting a robust defence in favour of his creations.

“Like a proud parent who has dropped off their loved ones at the school gates for the first time, I worry about the bullies,” wrote Hunter on Salon-online news and entertainment website.

“Bring on the naysayers who say they are creepy…the characters were designed to inspire young people to get involved with sport. And the simple fact is — kids love them,” wrote Hunter, creative director at the marketing and design firm Iris Worldwide.

According to Hunter, the mascots’ yellow head lights are inspired by London black cabs; Wenlock’s bangles use the Olympic rings colours and Mandeville wears a timing device to track his ‘personal best’. Their single eye is a camera, which will ‘capture’ the people they meet, the places they go to and the sports they try on their journey to 2012.

Amid all the criticism, Wenlock and Mandeville have now invaded comics, courtesy Britain’s weekly The Beano and cartoonist Nigel Parkinson.