Making life a holiday with interesting vacation and adventure ideas.

It is not too soon to be planning your trip to the 2010 Olympic Winter Games. 2010 Destination Planner has been set up to provide comprehensive travel planning information on British Columbia's Olympic Host Cities: Vancouver, Whistler and Richmond, together with nearby communities.

The site offers up-to-date information on accommodation availability, transportation and Olympic Arts Festivals' events, which will feature Canada's indigenous people, its cultural diversity, natural beauty and spectacular cities.

Organizers are busy making sure that there is enough accommodation available for everyone to have somewhere to stay, including a homestay program, with a homestay registry planned to be launched this month. Private homeowners are also using rent2010.net to advertise accommodation but prices are already sky high.

Labels: 2010, Canada, Olympic Games, travel, winter

Sunday sees the closing ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympics and part of the closing ceremony involves a handover to London, which becomes the next Olympic City.

The handover will be celebrated with numerous events throughout the UK, including a party in London's famous Mall, with performances from The Feeling, Il Divo, Katherine Jenkins, Russell Watson and McFly. Use the search tool on the London 2012 site to find an event near you.

Sing the Nation is organizing a series of mass city sings on August 24, at 20 BBC Big Screen / Livesites and City centres around the UK. In each participating city, community choirs will lead the public in the biggest singalong that the world has ever seen.

Following the spectacular opening ceremony that the Chinese presented for the Beijing Olympics, there has been much discussion in the UK about what on earth London could do to produce anything that would come anywhere near the 2008 opener; with tongue in cheek, it has even been pointed out that there probably wouldn't be that many performers in the UK. However, the 'Sing the Nation' initiative has prompted me to realize that historically the British have shown a great aptitude for organizing other people and events such as 'Sing the Nation' are notable for bringing people together, so the answer for 2012 is simple, organize a series of mass participation events synchronized with performers in the Olympic stadium but spread out across the UK and indeed the World. I'm on a roll here, what about a 'Mexican Wave' that starts in London and ripples around the globe.

Labels: 2008, 2012, London, Olympic Games, UK

Eight words marking a significant point in time.

Eight is regarded as such a fortunate number by Chinese culture that today has been chosen for the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games.

One lucky couple in Brisbane, Australia, have booked to be married at 8:00am on the eighth day of the eighth month of the eighth year, so congratulations to them. In total, 33 Brisbane couples have arranged to be married throughout this fortunate day.

Playing with numbers, I have just realised that next year gives the opportunity for 123456789 <12:34:56 on the 7/8/09> and 20/09/2009.

Labels: 20/09/2009, 7/8/09, 8, 8/8/08, China, Olympic Games

As the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games approaches, it seems that there is an unprecedented interest in tickets for the event. The Beijing games look likely to break all previous visitor records and despite the allocation of tickets for overseas visitors being increased, it seems that there are likely to be many disappointed fans. Read more.

Labels: 2008, Beijing, China, Olympic Games, Tickets

The 2008 Beijing Olympic Games ticks relentlessly towards August 8, 2008, now less than a year away. Much of the city is busy constructing the sports stadiums, hotels and new subway lines needed to host the Olympic Games.

What better time to begin getting to know China and Beijing? To kick things off, read an informative article in the Times Online from Jane Macartney, who takes an insider's tour through Beijing, and for non-Chinese speakers, start getting to grips with Mandarin by subscribing to the 'Teach Yourself Mandarin Chinese Conversation' by Elizabeth Scurfield & Song Lianyi; the course is also being made available through Times Online.

Labels: 2008, Beijing, China, Chinese, Olympic Games

During the 2008 Olympics, avoid drinking tap water outside the Olympic Village. That is the message in a recent article by Stephen Wade, of Associated Press. It seems that few of the 15 million residents of Beijing drink water from the tap, which is known to be contaminated, relying instead on bottled water.

It reminds me of a trip to Moscow some years back when a similar warning was issued to us. The warning pointed out that it was easy to inadvertently drink the tap water by putting ice in drinks or even eating washed salad. The upside was that we got to clean our teeth using Vodka!

Labels: Beijing, health, Olympic Games, safety, warning, water