Help, I've been hit by the fever

I am not sporty. I neither have the build nor aptitude. At school I usually managed to avoid compulsory morning calisthenics and gym classes by producing a note from my parents claiming I was allergic to exercise. As such, up to this point, I have been studiously ignoring preparations for the Olympics.

This reminds me of a joke that is doing the rounds and involves a Chinese word for avoiding pregnancy, "biyun" that has been adapted by people who are put out by all the fuss going on with the Games. Since "aoyun" is Chinese for "Olympics, "bi-yun" is a euphemism meaning to avoid the Olympics. I have, metaphorically speaking, managed to avoid impregnating anyone so far but am gradually losing my self-control.

Olympic fervor is taking hold and even Yao Ming mania is beginning to affect me. It is impossible to ignore. He is on the news, between the news in adverts and larger than life on a billboard in downtown Wangfujing Street. No wonder the International Olympic Committee and Beijing organizers of the Games tagged him to act as a spokesperson for the "Play safe - Help stop HIV" campaign. As part of this, AIDS literature and condoms have been distributed in the Olympic Village.