It has been some time since we last met...

Although there has been plenty of music in this LadyBlogger's life, as always, there has also been plenty of Olympics-watching. I tend to get a bit obsessed, as I do with SIPCA. This year is no exception. Having little to distract me from the television, I spend a lot of time with it, watching sports I never suspected I'd be interested in.

I was quite spellbound this evening watching a young Chinese woman lift almost three times her own body weight. It was very exciting!

Yet, as always, my heart belongs to the swimming. Whenever I mention this, I am asked this inevitable question: "Do you like it for the sport, or for the male bodies?" *wink* While I can assure you that I wouldn't leave Eamon Sullivan shivering on my doorstep if Stephanie Rice did decide she was really finished with him, I must admit that I like the female events just as much as the male. Therefore any question of eye candy is null and void. There's just something terribly exciting about the swimming. It's the one sport I will always go out of my way to watch. It's been a great few days in the pool. I've even enjoyed some of the races Australia didn't win. I admit to being terribly impressed with the Kiwi Moss Burmester, who mixed it with the big boys for most of the 200 freestyle final today before just fading into fourth place. Still, he took it out hard and led Michael Phelps at the first turn! That is nothing to sneeze at.

I also must confess to disliking Michael Phelps. There can be nothing but admiration for him as an athlete, but something about his personality just doesn't quite gel with me. Sure, I've never met him in person, so I'm just being judgemental... Yet there's something so refreshing about the Australian attitude, as evinced by a certain Eamon Sullivan after breaking the 100m world record this morning - he said he felt good in warmup so decided to have a go at the world record, and was pretty pleased that he got it. So unassuming... and not in-your-face like the American relay team in their (admittedly historic and amazing) victory.

I'm still sore that Ian Thorpe decided to give up the ghost before he should've. In my opinion. I, of course, am a dedicated armchair expert. I can swim decently enough but certainly nothing to write home about!

Well, tomorrow will be interesting. The 100m freestyle final. Three fastest men in the world... who will win? I'm betting the Aussie. I'm a firmly one-eyed patriot, yes, but also I think he's got the mental toughness to take them all out.

This has been an almost completely unmusical post, but I have one thing left to add: Upon hearing the Italian national anthem for the first time in recent memory, it struck me that it sounds just like it's been lifted from early Verdi. Very jaunty indeed!

on that note, I shall end. Goodnight!