Had a little high when I saw Olympic floor champion Ioannis MELISSANIDIS at the check-in counter dancing a jig. Got up enough courage to go up to him and ask for a photo. He smiled and replied, "Only if you are in it as well!" ARRGGGGHHH!!! His teammate took the shot. "Have a good trip home!" when he found out I was from Singapore. Swoon! Must pay more attention to men's gymnastics now.

Crumbs! I don't believe it! Tweedledum and Tweedledee are here! Yes, the two blue hospitality girls from Britain! Michele and Michelle, are you reading this!?!

Also saw Yvonne "The Russian" TOUSEK in the gift shop. That's the nickname some folks gave her after ARKAEYEV spotted her during the meet on UB. Also present were the Japanese. And yes, so was the solitary South African blonde chap. We kept on running into him at Lausanne! Koreans, Taiwanese and Brazilians as well.

My my, do the Brit girls look smart! Team UK came to the airport all suited out in blazers and uniform and sat down with the Canadian girls, one of whom cried out, "Look at you all in your uniforms and here we are looking like bums!"

On the same flight was the Taiwanese team. I ended up chatting with one of the Taiwanese coaches, a gentlemen with a ponytail. He was surprised I had come all the way to watch gymnastics. We talked about how the Singapore education system works against us producing good sportsmen. We parted ways at Zurich Airport.

Connection from Zurich to Singapore was full. And full of happy members of the Australian rowing team back from a triumphant Rowing Worlds (quite a lot more coverage of canoeing than gym in the papers, sigh)in France. How happy? Well, as we descended to Singapore, an empty large bottle of whisky rolled (rowed?) its merry way down from the back of the economy seats into business class.

Home with a bump and bucketfuls of great memories and lousy photos! End of diary. Wonder how long it will take me to do one for the Commonwealth Games (Sep 98) and the Asian Games (Dec 98)?