Usually, I don’t bother about the Olympic Games, as they seem to have become just too commercial, but I am getting quite excited about the Olympic Games in China, mainly because they have already been so newsworthy, partly controversial and very unusual. I am just watching the opening ceremony whilst doing other stuff and am impressed with the mass spectacle and with what creativity it has been organised. It is a very beautiful, exotic and enlightening performance to watch. I haven’t watched any opening of an Olympic ceremony for the last 20 years or so, because they seemed so absolutely predictable, or in the case of Atlanta very commercial and focused on a few individuals’ performances and celebrity appearances such as Muhammed Ali’s or Cathy Freeman.

Habe heute den totalen Putzfimmel. Den krieg ich normalerweise nur einmal im Jahr, und ungünstigerweise passiert mir das gerade heute. Wahrscheinlich aus zwei Gründen: a) ich sollte meine Abschlussarbeit schreiben und b) meine Schwester hat vor ihrem Abschied in den Wanderurlaub gesagt, dass ich wirklich NICHT putzen brauche. Und das löst natürlich immer die gegenteilige Reaktion aus bei mir. Ausserdem fangen gerade jetzt an alle möglichen Geräte hier verrückt zu spielen – angefangen von der Kaffeemaschine bis zur Spülmaschine, auf einmal machen die alle Faxen. Die Kaffeemaschine will nur noch manuell bedient werden und die Spülmaschine springt gleich immer zum Ende ohne vorher zu reinigen.

This weekend the Book festival starts off in Charlotte Square, with a lot of celebrities and international journalists presenting their new publications. Also, on Friday, the World Press Photography Exhibition starts off in the Scottish Parliament, with the Festival of Politics starting on the 20th of August. I was also looking forward to the Festival of Peace and Spirituality, till I realised that most of the interesting events are no longer free as they were the years before. Maybe I’ll manage this year to go to the non-commercial events of the Edinburgh’s People Festival and the alternative Free Festival. To go to the International Festival or most Fringe events will just be too expensive and unaffordable if I would have to pay.

A policeman has lost one of his pocket rulebook to policing protest at the climate camp. It has been written by a department called NECTU: National Extremism Tactical Coordination Unit, but nowadays apparantly also covering environmentalists. Not since Wikileaks published secret documents about operating procedures in Camp Delta in Guantanamo was it that much *fun* (you know what I mean) to read something the public isn’t supposed to know. [ past report ] The policing at the Climate Camp seems to be rather aggressive – watch BBC video. Unusually the mainstream media seems to be very engagingly reporting from the camp, like The Guardian and also Channel4 News – but for the Press Association, which is demonstrating once again why the journalist profession is one of the least trusted in Britain.

One of my top articles is still “How to catch a lost hamster” with about 60 comments. This gets me thinking – there are always practical animal problems no expert book solves. Like how to introduce adult unrelated guinea pigs to each other. The expert books usually just say to not do it, but practically most guinea pigs are sold in pairs and thereby one is likely to die before the other. And it was a really tricky task to get Minilli to accept Misty. Guinea Lee was more open-minded, but Minilli was very jealous. Interestingly, as soon as I went on holidays, they all got on well together, mainly because they had to move into an unknown to all and exciting new environment.