hey So 4 days in and many, many hours of television later, where are we, exactly? 1.) Thanks to the .za swimmers and their gold medal-winning, world record-breaking relay swim Sunday night, young Michael "Flipper" Phelps' chances of breaking Mark Spitz's record and earning a cool million dollars from Speedo (that's 6.61 million in .za money) were scuppered. Great, great performance by our boys, though, it must be said. 2.) Ian Thorpe and Phelps' anticipated showdown of last night went the way of the Aussie; with Dutch 3rd protagonist Pieter van der Hoogenband largely ignored by all and sundry, even though he popped in for Silver. 3.) In no less than 2 diving events, nobody has bothered to try my brilliant plan as detailed in my last entry. Instead, all are trying very hard to adhere solely to the rather tricky Steps 1 and 2 of the plan. Well, if that's the way you want to play it, hey, go for it. But I bet you the Chinese and the Russians are wishing this morning that they'd tried my plan... gotta feel for them, though. One wonders what will happen when they get home - the old USSR certainly wouldn't have tolerated that sort of failure; and the current China... well, they are lightening up a bit over Beijing way, but I still wonder if re-education will be prescribed... 4.) Puerto Rico in the basketball and Iraq in the soccer seem to be surprise packages, don't they? Good Lord! 5.) How hardcore was that little Turkish guy who won the weightlifting for the 3rd successive Olympics? And how hardcore are the female weightlifters? Note to self: Do not piss those women off. World class entertainment, I tell you! Apart from that... well, nothing much. I am enjoying a mini international food festival for lunch today, with leftover pizza (Italian) and q'uiche (French) in my little lunchbox. Jealous? Thought so! Wow - is that seriously all my exciting news and social commentary? Note to self: Get out more, you loser! [castanets] ok bye PS: Yes, for the 3rd time since Thursday, colours have all changed. This is not a trick of the light. Although, given the way eyes and computer monitors work, I suppose it is, really. .