Olympics, four years on Part 1

Some of the books, magazines and newspapers I brought back with me from the city of intellect

Olympics...ah, as we look ahead to almost a month of sporting spectacle, I can recall a lot of things that took place in the previous edition in Athens.

I remember the gang from the New Straits Times group bunking together in an apartment some 20 minutes from the Main Press Centre (MPC) at Kiffisias Avenue.

While Lazarus Rokk and Tham Foo Kan were trying to surpass each other in breaking the decibel levels with their snoring (they roomed together), Azahar Mohd Taib from Harian Metro and I were room mates for almost one month that we grew bored with each other!

Badrulhisham Othman, always the romantic, preferred to take the bed between my room and the lavatory, while Khalid Redza and later Hamdan Saaid from Bernama had the TV all to themselves upstairs.

I'm sure the gentlemen remember the landlord's two daughters - Dina and Dora, one a lawyer the other a doctor.

I remember the Press being made to wait for VVIP Datuk Azalina Othman Said for a get-together outside Carrefour which was situated adjacent to the MPC. The Greek tragedy in Athens, in many ways, provided an excuse for Azalina to trample on institutions...

Who would be made the scapegoat should we return again empty-handed?

I wonder who Datuk Ismail Sabri Yaakob, Azalina's successor, would point his fingers at...