London Games

The official website for the London 2012 Olympic Games counts down 1 day, 21 hours and 37 minutes to the opening, as we speak.  Like the average Brit, I'm not overly excited about the summer Games this time around, oddly.

Maybe the host city, London as a place and Olympic venue doesn't interest me as much as Havana would but the bidding Cuban city unfortunately never made the shortlist.  I missed a lecture yesterday, 'From Showcase to Place: London 2012 Athlete Village' by Greg Deas, the Chief Architect from LendLease assigned to jump-start the urban revitalisation program at Stratford, East London.  Deas wanted to talk about the "urban design, and sustainability strategies" his team of 17 architects have put together for what essentially is 'a housing project' fashioned as a world-class Olympic Village at the heart of the brand-new English Olympic Park.

I never quite got why London should host the event.  Then again, the 1940 Games was awarded to Tokyo (and it never took place there).. did they really not see World War 2 coming?  Would the romantic spirit of the Olympic Games really have had prevented the nuclear strikes?

Spoken during the bid back in 2005, the Brits hoped to "inspire a lasting change" and they believed that they "understood the recipe for (a) magical Games" which would include having a "superb technical plan".  That's exactly the kind of pitch a Chairman of the British Olympic Association would sell - the kind that corporate executives are so used to throwing out there to look and sound good.  For starters, didn't the Brist whinge endlessly about how much harder it is to get to work on the tube of late?  They do it without the Olympics anyway but this time, they get to whinge on TV.

At wrap-up, they boldly guaranteed that the Games would "create a community where sport is an integral part of everyday life - a model for 21st century living, the embodiment of the philosophy of Pierre de Coubertin".  Didn't they know the Olympic Games founder was a romantic writer who believed that struggle is more important than triumph?  He won an Olympic Gold Medal for literature!  Yes, literature - and they won't even make chess part of the summer Games as a contending medal event.  I digress.  If only Coubertin knew that the Olympic Oath has been changed to include this phrase:  without doping, and without drugs... 

Still, I'm interested to see how London takes shape in the coming years; how those "lasting changes" would effect London so we can then quantify the 'success' of the 2012 Games.  Whether or not the Games would be "magical", I only care for two events this time i.e. the tennis men's singles, and the 100m dash on the men's track.  Hopefully Roger Federer clinches the Gold at Wimbledon (even better if he beats Murray again *wide grin), and the 9.58secs mark gets broken - by Usain Bolt or not.  A few rare inspirational stories here and there on sportsmanship will also be refreshing.

Let the Games begin.

Popular Culture

A few weeks ago, I received a whatsapp slap from a former colleague, Sha whom I last saw in 2008.  It read, "Woman, your Facebook performance is lacking!" 

At first, I laughed - at the notion that my Facebook presence is regarded as some kind of "performance".  Then, I felt guilty - for the fact that I've had selfishly gone AWOL for the most part since 2010 - on Facebook or not.

It appears that Facebook has taken popular culture centre stage, and there is little escape of it in order to remain relevant.  Being on it and having The App on your mobile device is simply not enough - you have to actually check in regularly enough so that others can track your digital footprints at their will.

As Charlie Brooker (TheGuardian) wrote: when you lose touch with popular culture, it's tough to get back.  Except for MasterChef Australia this season and American Idol last season,  I have, like Brooker developed some sort of an aversion to anything that appeals to the mass.  I gave up watching The Voice before the last blind audition ended - Jessica Sanchez has set too high a standard for amateur singing contestants!  I haven't seen The Apprentice since my flat mate left two years ago and I certainly have no plans on wasting any time on The Shire.  I also don't tweet and can't tell the Kardashian siblings apart.  I can neither name contestants nor describe acts from the Australia's Got Talent show, even though Kyle Sandilands cracks me up usually... and Facebook, I almost don't use anymore. I'd never commit Facebook suicide, though.

Brooker suspected all of that has either to do with his departing youth or his spending hours being a Dad to his newborn.  In my case, I'm a different kind of Facebook user, one who isn't quite willing to spend more time than necessary online because of the gazillion other things - mostly offline, that require attention.  Still, I find Facebook handy as a directory at my fingertips, or a bulletin board for announcements and this currently works out better.

I suppose at the end of the day, I do appreciate the nudges I got from friends and those who care to see if I've had died in my sleep.  Such lack of "performance" indeed deserves a good smack, and I hope to do better - on and/or off Facebook.

Quinh met  up with Sha for lunch as soon as she wrapped up her full-time job a few weeks ago for a career break and she recently got back on to LinkedIn after a 9-year hiatus.

Lawn Tennis

I very much wanted a Roger Federer victory at Wimbledon this year - it's a more meaningful piece of history to write than that of a Briton, any Briton for that matter winning the crown in 76 years. As the French saying goes, 'A loeuvre on connait l'artisan', Federer indeed crafted tennis history yet again - simply a class (or two) above.

Many said Murray played well, but probably not well enough. I thought Murray generally still needed a lot of work. He paced himself poorly from the start of the game, called out challenges senselessly and wrestled himself to the ground on occassions. At the peak of his career without still a Grand Slam winner trophy, Murray is one of the many poor sods who has to deal with a Roger Federer getting in the way at Grand Slams. It must also be hard playing for a nation whose high hopes unnerved more than inspired and whose support seemed so divided: yes, we want you, Murray to win (because Great Britain needs a Wimbledon victor in modern times to call her own) but we actually don't mind Federer winning again (because the Swiss is a living legend and we adore him).

This is my first 2012 entry! My Wimbledon campaign, while proved worthwhile has fatigued me in a brandnew way. We're expecting our first newborn this November and sleepiness has never been this hard to fight!