08-08-08 and the Olympics

Today marks the start of the Beijing Olympics. It is also my younger sister's X2nd birthday. I told her with the rapid advancement of medical science, she may yet be celebrating another 08-08-08 birthday in a century's time!

Anyway, the Olympic Games has always held special memories for me since 12 years ago. Then, the 1996 Olympics Games was held at Atlanta and it was the only Games where I got to watch almost all the events, even those which were telecasted past midnight.

At that time, I was on maternity leave with my firstborn. Son No 1 had bouts of colic and to a newbie mom, it was distressing. To the uninitiated, colic is characterised by unexplained cries by infants at certain times of the day, normally night time. No one really knows the reason for it - though the Chinese tend to attribute it to "wind". It will go away after a period of time.

So, to pacify the crying child, I would cradle him to sleep close to my chest in the recliner chair. He seemed to be comforted by the warmth and maybe the mother's heartbeat and would then fall asleep. In the quiet of the night while he laid sleeping, I was glad to be entertained by the Games athletes - whose names have blurred in my memory now. It was a games about "The Power of the Dream" by Celine Dion and one where the legendary Mohammad Ali lit the Olympics torch.

Son No 1 knows this story well. He first heard it during the 2000 Sydney Olympics, again during the 2004 Athens Olympics and now in the 2008 Beijing Olympics. In time to come, I hope it becomes a story for him to tell to his children every four years.