Another day, another cooker in Beijing. Now I know why people carry umbrellas here – it is so hot you need shade even if you have to carry it!  Canada is racking up the medals and sits about 9th. Not much of great excitement, so I will continue on my tidbits piece –

They actually call the medal ceremonies Victory Ceremonies….

The steering mechanism on the chairs that the athletes hit to steer around the corners is called a compensator….

You may have seen this, but they use large remote control cars to return the javelin, discus and maybe the shot back to the athletes after each throw. They are red and the officials place the javelin or discuss in the car and the “driver” then brings it back to the throwing area. I guess it saves on someone running back and forth, but in a place with millions and millions of people you have got to wonder…!

The white cane express….the blind leading the blind leading the blind….in the Village you see lines of “sight impaired” people walking along in a train with their hand on the shoulder of the person in front of them, sometimes even led by one person with a white cane. It is just another thing to watch out for as you walk around the Village.

Everyone knows those personal walkie talkies that people have at home. Well, here you need a permit to use them. One of the trackies had them to talk to her husband and son, but when the people at security spotted it they took down her name and accreditation number and told her she had to register to use them. It all worked out fine quite quickly, but I am sure if she was not an athlete at the Games her fate would not have been the same.

And on an outside the Village note, they don’t use many diapers here despite having so many people. The infants seem to have them, but todlers just don’t have their pants sewn up the bum seam. They don’t wear underwear either. So when they have to go, they just squat and go – where ever they are. I say a lady holding her kid peeing over a garbage can, but also have seen them squatting on Tiananmen Square!! At least the parents do seem to clean up somewhat after them, rather like people at home do after their pets I suppose! The explanation for this currently is landfill. I think that it is more likely cost and availability until very recently.

Spent the morning at the track, then back to the Village for a bit. I will spend the evening at the track once again, as things are rather routine that way now.

Having a great time – wish you were here!! Paige