Tom Tom Tom

Thanks to all of you who have sent me those nice messages, I can't reply to all of them, but it is much appreciated and I really had a Birthday feeling yesterday.

Tonight will be the final of the women hockey and even Roberto has got tickets. We will do our best to scream this team to a gold medal ! After the gold of Anky yesterday this would be worth another celebration.

Roberto and I never wrote about the third person in our appartment. We are staying in the centre of Athens and we are sharing our apartment with Tom. He is a very nice 63 year old man, who is also volunteer for the transport department. If you think we are experiencing a lot in Athens you have to read the following story about Tom.

The other day when Tom and I had visited a hockey game, I had to work. He thought to take a nice walk around Monestiraki, when a guy asked him to join him for a drink. Normally he would never have done this, but as he not had eaten yet he might have been a little bit not so concentrated. After walking to a cellar near the square he had an orange juice. Then all of a sudden some ladies showed up and... well Tom realised he was not in the nice little bar he expected to be. He wanted to leave the cellar immediately but the bouncer asked him to pay 160 euro for his drink. He only
had 45 in his pocket so they took that and threatened him that he should bring the rest of the money the next day. Realising he was robbed he walked home. Unbelievable but you can't go to the police for this sort of things.

The next day he went to work. He had to go to a Hotel were transport arrives at a certain time for all those people who don't stay in the Olympic Village. A bus arrived and Tom wanted to go and look inside the hotel if there might be some persons still waiting. The doors were all of glass and one door was for exit and one door for entering the Hotel. In his enthusiasm he ran up the stairs and unfortunately took the exit door instead of the entrance door. This door did not go in the direction he expected but with the speed he had, a correction was not possible. A big bang was the result.

After a few minutes an ambulance arrived to take him to the Olympic Hospital for a check. Nothing really serious, they took pictures of his arm and an MRI scan of his head, and decided to let him go home. He had to walk with a thing to support his arm for several days and I think he is OK now.

Tonight we go to the Hockey game with Tom, we enjoy his presence, and I hope he will not add any more stories which we have to publish on this blog.

Rene