Shall we play catch up? Yes, let's.

Hey up

I've been away for a few days (San Francisco, very nice thanks) so I've not managed to update since last week. So, it's time for an Olympic catch up in Athens2004blog.com Headline News:

GRUMPY GREEK SAN FRANSISCO CAB DRIVER WORRIES ABOUT OLYMPIC SECURITY WHILE DRIVING ME TO BAR TO WATCH FA CUP FINAL AT 7AM
Oh yes, he's quite concerned about the whole security issue. And he wouldn't believe me that tickets for the events are reasonably easy to come by or that some of them are quite cheap. Oddly, he didn't seem to speak Greek either. But he did keep bursting into song, albeit somehow grumpily.

GREEKS VERY ANNOYED ABOUT AUSTRALIA ISSUING TRAVEL WARNINGS
The Aussies keep saying it might not be safe to travel to the Games and the president of the Greek organising committee isn't best pleased. According to Gianna Angelopoulos, 'One of our Olympic Advisory group partners, Australia, chose the middle of an overwhelmingly successful IOC coordination commission meeting to release a warning regarding travel to Greece. And I worry that harm is being done to the Olympic Games. I'm concerned that we sent an inconsistent message to those who wish us ill. Telling them incorrectly that there are holes in Athens security procedures, and that our preparations can be circumvented when all of our preparations are designed to achieve the opposite, is bad security strategy.'

DOWNER BY NAME, DOWNER BY NATURE
In response the Aussie Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said he stood by the advice. Humbug.

AFGHAN GIRL POWER
Nice cheery story this (ironically coming on the day that The Independent newspaper tells of the worsening situation in Afghanistan) about two women who will be the first females ever to compete for Afghanistan at the Olympics. For the full story see the link:
Reuters.com: Two Afghan Girls Bid For History At Athens Olympics

SITARIST ROCKS THE OPENING CEREMONY
Indian sitarist Gaurav Mazumdar - a disciple of Ravi Shankar - will be playing one of Shankar's tunes at the ceremony, as the flags unfurl.

AND FINALLY... THE OBLIGATORY SECURITY STORY
Apparently the United States are providing the Greeks with nuclear detection equipment to help guard the Olympics against a 'dirty bomb'. The machines cost $2.6 million, proof beyond reasonable doubt that the annoying woman sitting across the aisle from me on the plane home today was wrong when she insisted that all electrical goods are ridiculously cheap in the US.

And that's about it at the moment. Hope y'all are doing good. And let's have some comments - those helpful people at Blogger.com made them work (for some reason they weren't) so you might as well take advantage of them!