Gold Coast Notebook – Day 9

Journalists working at a train station in Gold Coast while waiting for their transport to the hotel. PHOTO | ELIAS MAKORI |

Scribes burning the midnight oil

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Traditionally, Kenyan journalists are the first to arrive and last to leave the media centre at many international sports competitions, especially track and field. It’s not any different at these Commonwealth Games. However, unlike many competitions where the media centre is open for 24 hours, or late into the night, the operations here close by 1am, forcing many Kenyan journalists to work at train stations and in buses, cabs and trains as they struggle to beat deadlines in between shuttling from stadium to hotel.

Drinking tours in vogue here

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“Drinking tours” of Gold Coast are an exciting offering for tourists and locals too visiting the downtown Surfers Paradise entertainment district. With a payment of 40 Australian dollars (Sh3,080), one can get a ticket that allows guided entry into five pubs and discotheques, complete with a drink at each venue. The “drinking tour” usually starts at 6.30am and runs until the wee hours, usually 5.30am. Or when the “client” is drunk. Not a bad idea considering that a drink at many pubs costs 10 dollars (Sh770) per bottle at many of these clubs. Cheers mate!

Once a sportsman, always one

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Webuye MP Dan Wanyama played for Kenya’s national volleyball team and also coached the women’s side at the World Cup in Japan in 2006. The legislator is in Gold Coast as part of a Parliamentary Sports Committee team taking lessons from these Games and has been torn between giving coaching instructions to the players and coaches and cheering the teams. “I was a sportsman and I’m always going to be a sportsman,” Wanyama, a star sprinter, volleyball player and footballer in the Kenyan parliamentary sports teams, said before heading off to one of the competition venues.

Aussies are extremely courteous

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Aussies are extremely courteous people. They offer apologies whenever they feel someone has been offended or misled. My attention was drawn to an advert appearing in the Australian ‘Daily Telegraph’ in which the Woolworths store offered an apology: “We’re sorry,” the ad said. “You might have noticed we made a mistake in the Woolworths catalogue, on sale Wednesday, April 11th, 2018. The Chicken Sandwich Schnitzel on Page 8 may not be available in all stores due to stock issues. We apologise for any inconvenience caused.”

I wish this would happen in Kenya!