The Walk of Life

Today the 36 year old swimming record of Mark Spitz of the US was equaled by another fellow American, Michael Phelps when Michael won the Men's 100 meters Butterfly event this morning, beating Serbian Milorad Cavic by 100th of a second! Michael finished at 10.58 secs. while Cavic 10.59 secs.

It was such an exciting race but from this event I can see how Michael using his brain, won the race. Even as near as 3 meters from the finish, Cavic was ahead but during the final touch, Michael raised his hands above the water to make contact whereas Cacic hands were under water. Of course movements is faster in the air than in water and so Michael Phelps snatched victory with this simple act. Its a case of Brains over Brawn!

I would love to see Michael Phelps get his 8th Gold Medal in his last Team Event. Others are hoping that he won't make it for they say he already won too many medals already. Well as for me I love to see records broken for such are the building blocks of Motivation! With these, the human race advances, always doing better and achieving higher goals! I will cheer for Michael Phelps for the sake of Progress! If he wins his 8th Gold Medal, it will break Mark Spitz's record of 36 years and I wonder how long it takes to break Phelps record!

Sometime back I shared about our youngest daughter Dawn did a month long study of the Japanese Art Form 'Butoh' and she did her Solo Performance titled OLIN which is basically a Butoh Performance. Received this Review on her Solo Work and sure made us proud of a job well done. Here is a copy of the Review of Dawn's Solo Performance.

Go Solo 2008 Created and performed by the graduands of Toi Whakaari | NZ Drama School Directed by Jade Eriksen, Annie Ruth and Sophie Roberts at Te Whaea - SEEyD Space, Wellington From 21 Jul 2008 to 3 Aug 2008 [1hr 20 minutes approx per group, no interval] Reviewed by Thomas LaHood, 28 Jul 2008

Group C begins with Dawn Cheong's OLIN, an impressively choreographed, Buto influenced visitation from an insectoid god. Cheong's emergence from the chrysalis is a powerful opener and her mesmerising movements are well supported by dramatic lighting states and elemental sound effects.

For many of these young actors, this season is the first time they will present theatre that truly originates from them as an individual; for some it will also be the last. It is a tribute to the calibre of Toi Whakaari as an institution that in this season, as in last year's, we are able to see such diversity of thought and expression presented with such flair and confidence.

For those who wants to know what is 'Butoh' you can watch a Youtube video of the origins of Butoh whose founder was Hijikata Tatsumi.

I am stung with the 'Wimbledon Fever' and this is a good excuse for laying off blogging for a week i.e. until Tuesday next. My normal routine had been upset by all the Sports excitement over the week-end recently. First was the European Cup Final when classy Spain beat Germany to be the supremo in European Football 2008.

Then the Wimbledon matches where the top women players like Maria Sharapova, Anna Ivanovic and Jankovic were all knocked out in the Third Round! This morning was the exciting match between British only hope in 70 over years, Andrew Murray, where he won and entered Quarter-Finals from 2 sets down by beating the French player R. Gasquet! Of course the super-talented Nadal R. beating Youzhny and R. Federer knocking out Leytton Hewitt of Australia.

Year 2008 is quite a remarkable Year in terms of Changes happening around the World! Its like some 'turning-point' in History! Starting with our own change in Government Structure, new Head of States in other Countries to Sports! In Wimbledon, rising from the Horizon are the Asian Ladies to the likes of Jie Zheng of China and Tamarine Tanasugarn of Thailand! On the Men's side, there is a very strong possibility of R. Nadal toppling Roger Federer to be the 'King' and perhaps Andrew Murray of UK becoming the 2008 Wimbledon Champion!

With so much exciting things happening in Wimbledon I would be glued to the TV from 6.30 pm right up to 4.30am!!!! Even Rock got involved in the games and we did some side betting! Poor Rock she lost all her bets because she never followed the ups and downs of the players! Hehe! Won myself some pocket money enough to have some great hawker food! I think this year is my best as far as Football and Tennis are concerned! Rock allowed me to watch all the games! She sacrificed her TV Dramas for my sake!

So folks, sorry for being MIA and catch-up with you all next week! :)

Words fascinates me and especially how creative writers use them so very effectively, impactful, humorously etc. I admire writers for their ability to use Words to communicate their thoughts which truly enlightens the readers' minds. Ever since I watched the movie "My Fair Lady" back in 1960's what Prof. Higgins said about being able to tell the character and from where that person comes from, made me pay attention to what people say and how they say it.

Before coming to the subject matter, I would like to pay tribute to the person who wrote these words and which gives me the opportunity to use them as a Brain Teaser! the words below are either single word or a few words, but they can be rearranged to other word or words that more or less has the same meaning, implications etc. For the adventurous reader, try them out and see what you can come up with but please don't look at the answers below for thats part of the fun! Here we go:-

• DORMITORY


• PRESBYTERIAN


• ASTRONOMER


• DESPERATION


• THE EYES


• THE MORSE CODE


• SLOT MACHINES


• ANIMOSITY


• ELECTION RESULTS


• SNOOZE ALARMS


• A DECIMAL POINT


• THE EARTH QUAKES


• ELEVEN PLUS TWO


• MOTHER-IN-LAW

THE ANSWERS

• DIRTY ROOM


• BEST IN PRAYER


• MOON STARER


• A ROPE ENDS IT


• THEY SEE


• HERE COME DOTS


• CASH LOST IN ME


• IS NO AMITY


• LIES - LET'S RECOUNT


• ALAS N MORE Z'S


• I'M A DOT IN PLACE


• THAT QUEER SHAKE


• TWELVE PLUS ONE


• WOMAN HITLER

When I saw these photos sent to me, I thought these were shots of ladies in transparent or see through skirts! Well, in reality they were not! Actually these were prints made on the skirts to make it look as though you can see through their skirts! I am not surprise at that this latest fashion comes from Japan. among the Asian culture, Japanese are the most liberal and daring! I am sure our local ladies would not dare to wear a skirt like that. Perhaps I might be mistaken!!!!!!