Saturday 9 August 2008

An Olympic Day



It was not so busy in the office yesterday so I decided to take the afternoon off. I had hoped to meet KE for some fun in the afternoon but unfortunately he was not available so instead I went home to watch the Beijing Olympics Opening Ceremony. Zhang Yimou did a great job and created a spectacular show. I particularly liked the drummers and the performance that symbolized printing. Very, very, very, nice. This is one event that is watched by billions all over the world: OS called his brother in Colombia who woke up at 5am to watch the opening ceremony.
The parade of the athletes was a bit too long and boring (can't we just have one team for "Islands Far Away That Nobody Has Ever Heard Of"?). On the other hand, I was impressed that the Chinese TV people found our Prime Minister Jan-Peter Balkenende and Crown Prince Willem-Alexander and his wife Princess Maxima in the crowd when the Dutch team made its appearance. Now let's wait what the sports will bring us: people here are hoping that the Dutch will improve on the Sydney Olympics medal count (12 gold, 9 silver and 4 bronze) which won't be easy.
GO came to pick up an old table that was collecting dust here at home and that they can use for their Bed and Breakfast, and we watched part of the Olympics together while sharing a glass of wine. I first met GO through OS in 1996 (they came to this country at the same time and took Dutch language classes together) and I immediately liked GO - a lot. He is everything that a man wants: intelligent, masculine, funny and with so much energy. Well, perhaps he is not so sweet but nobody is perfect! Anyway, he forgot his wallet when he left the house so we agreed to meet in the bars at night so I could return his wallet to him. MA, JE, RO, RM and AA were also there so it was the usual drinking extravaganza again. Around 330am I had had enough and when walking to my bike I received an SMS from GO "where are you, let's go to Eagle". I hesitated but decided that I was too tired and drunk for that kind of fun.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I think the drums were the highlight of the ceremonies. But a bit imperial, no? I expected an emperor to enter. Ah! Maybe they are announcing a new empire.