'girl' interrupted 28 August 2008
Himself and meself treated ourselves to the Heathrow Express from the airport to Paddington tonight. It was a great journey because the in-train telly had sundry facts displayed and you see them and think ‘oh that’s interesting’ and then promptly forget them (but hope they’ll surface during that crucial round of the pub quiz). Then there was a little snippet of Olympic history. In this case it was the winter Olympics about which I know little enough BUT fascinating ‘cos it featured a great champion of the luge, a Mr Hackl of Germany. The luge is the one where they lie back on a sled and speed along a track sculpted out of the ice feet first = MAD! Anyhow Hackl was/is a major exponent of same. The snippet charted how he’d won his first 2 golds (1990 and ’94) narrowly beating an arch rival (an Austrian called Past, I think) in ’94 and was going for a record 3rd gold in a row in ’98. It was TIGHT. Hackl took the first and second runs then Past (Post?) took the lead and…‘WE ARE NOW APPROACHING PADDINGTON STATION’ – nooooooooo. Thank the whoever for the internet as I have just rushed home and looked it all up – he WON. Better still, he is 4 time World Wok Racing champion…yep, that’s modified woks used for people to race on down a bobsled course…see? you CAN learn something new every day, if not a few things…and next time you haul the pan out to cook something THINK how much MORE you could be doing with it…
