Imagine the smell

By now most of us will have heard about the fake fireworks and the chubby girl with uneven teeth who wasn't allowed on-stage during the Olympics Opening ceremony. What was news for me today and what we couldn't smell on our TVs was the stench in the stadium. Read this:
BEIJING - Soldiers operating the huge scroll that formed the centrepiece of last week's Olympic opening ceremony had to stay hidden under the structure for up to seven hours, wearing nappies because they were not allowed toilet breaks, state media reported on Friday. Nearly 900 soldiers were hidden underneath the scroll, many of them moving giant printing blocks with Chinese characters, the Beijing News reported.
"The performers for Chinese character parts went into the models underground at 2 pm, and after getting in there they could not come out," the newspaper quoted choreographer Han Lixun as saying. "The underground area was so hot, there were 897 people there, and they had to wait until they finished their performance," Han said. "So altogether they had to stay there for six to seven hours, and they could not even go to the toilet, so they all wore nappies," Han said.
897 soldiers in nappies. This must have been watersports-lovers paradise.

Foreign talent

Sport is quite racist: guys who run fast are often black, guys who swim fast are almost always white, and girls who can play ping-pong well are likely to be Chinese. So I wasn't surprised that our all-Dutch girl Li Jie (top picture) beat typical Spanish chica Zhu Fang (middle picture) today and will face Austrian Mädchen Liu Jia (bottom picture) tomorrow.

Simon - the movie

On Saturday RE and I watched "Simon", a Dutch movie about the unlikely friendship between a shy gay dentist Camiel (right on picture) and a very straight drugs dealer and ladies' man, Simon (left on picture). They meet when they are in their 20's, and become friends - probably because opposites attract. Simon likes to make fun of Camiel and Camiel is attracted to the joie de vivre of Simon and his many lady friends. One drunken night Camiel is seduced by Simon's girl of the week, and the friendship is brutally interrupted. Fast forward 14 years, and they meet again when Simon is suffering from an incurable cancer. Their friendship grows stronger and Camiel asks Simon to be his best man at his (gay) wedding. In the mean time, Simon is planning his death (euthanasia) and asks Camiel to take care of his teenage children. A beautiful movie about friendship, life and death.

Chen Yibing - worth watching the Olympics

So far, I haven't watched much of the Olympics. I was away last weekend, and I was quite busy last week so I didn't have a lot of time to watch the events. The Beijing summaries in the news here highlight the successes of the Dutch athletes (so far a bit disappointing at only 3 gold, 5 silver and 4 bronze medals). Tonight, however, I had time to watch some of today's events and one guy was worth watching: Chinese gymnast Chen Yibing who won the gold medal on the rings. His routine was flawless. And it definitely helps that he is a pleasant guy to look at.
In the mean time, the expected photo finish between China and the USA in terms of the medal score doesn't seem to materialize. China is far ahead and will most likely show the world that, at least in sports and helped by the "home advantage", it is ready to be the next world superpower.

The bungalow where I lived age 9-12

We are back from our bike tour, which was nice. The weather was perfect for biking, sunny and about 22C. We managed to find all 3 of the houses where I lived from birth until age 12. A trip down memory lane. Next year, I should take pictures of the 5 houses where I lived between ages 12 and 32, when I moved to my current house.

The house where I lived age 4-9

On our way from Almelo to Emmen (via Germany)