Participation at World Championships sounds very exotic, but is in fact quite tedious at times. The swimmer’s need to rest between 1 or 2 swim sessions a day, which means that you spend most of your time either at the hotel, the pool, or travelling between those two places. With little time for touristing the place, it are the small things that keep our spirits high.
For instance, Jón and me noticed that house cleaning takes good care as not to throw out anything that we haven’t completely finished, up to the point where she didn’t throw out a beer can because there was a small swig left in it. So we started collecting, beginning with that same beer that has been standing untouched on our table now for 3-4 days.
Another highpoint was when I noticed that the bathroom door handle was completely loose, but forgot to tell hotel staff (and my room-mate Jón). Resulting in him having to call for help, because he went out there while I was out, without a handle to get out again. A situation that only would have been better (for me), if there wasn’t a phone in the toilet.
(woohoo, free slippers)
Eamon Sullivan is having fun too, I see on Twitter, finding a cricket in his omelet this morning. Be assured that it has been fully inspected for possible Clenbuterol contamination by the Shanghai organizers :-)
(cricket)
But jokes aside, swimmers have to take care as not to get too bored and lazy, or else there is danger that they will be sluggish in competition. Pál has therefore been instructed to open all curtains in his room, to get so much daylight as he can, and has his daily routine to go through, balancing between rest and being ready.
Tonight it will be the 400 freestyle and 100 breaststroke that we look forward too, rooting for Paul Biederman and Alexander Dale Oen :-)
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