Olympic Standard, May 2000
An old friend from days of yore had lobbed into town and I'd taken the day off work to drive her around to see the sights. We stopped for lunch at a small cafe. A man alone at the next table looked familiar from behind, but I didn't quite recognise him. I sat directly behind him.

After a few minutes Glynis asked me if I was going to the Sydney Olympics.

The ticket prices and conditions of entry had just been published and I took a real dislike to the restrictions. I gave her my opinion of them at length, including that I thought the organisers were a mob of control freaks who wanted to treat paying customers like sheep. Or was it "like shit"? Shit, sheep, who cares?

I didn't notice the man at the next table get up and leave, but a few minutes later I saw him again in a newsagency.

It was Robert de Castella, gold medallist in the marathon at the 1982 and 1986 Commonwealth Games and fifth at the 1984 Olympic Marathon. He competed in four straight Olympics. Until 1995 he had been the Director of the Australian Institute of Sport and was probably up to his neck in organising the Sydney 2000 Olympics.

Bloody Glynis had known all along.
(Redemption blamed it on the Bossa Nova since, Sat 18 Aug 2012, 23:12, 2 replies)

I don't think
the Deek would've been worried.
If you had offended Cliff Young's ghost that would be another thing altogether.
(Misery McUglywife an attention seeking sociopathic fuckstain., Sun 19 Aug 2012, 8:55, closed)

I don't know why
this worries you. It was an opportunity for him to hear what it actually is. Instead of what his tribe of sycophants agrees to tell him.
(the other guy not the one that gave you coochie warts, Mon 20 Aug 2012, 1:48, closed)