Some Friday Fun?
It's been too long since the Monitor has indulged in some Friday fun. But with thunderstorms closing in on Monitor Towers, plans for that al fresco lunch have evaporated faster than place cards at the planned opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics.
Which leads us to the task in hand. Despite being four months away, on 8 August, it seems various statesfolk and dignitaries are discovering, most inconveniently, that they've double booked on the day.
First we hear the French president Nicolas Sarkozy won't be at the event, then it's Gordon Brown (though he is to attend the closing ceremony) and now it's UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon. Poor chap is up against "scheduling issues", we're told. Has he not heard of Google Calendar?
But hey, it'll be summer and that means weddings, holidays, water pistol fights... all of which have to be "scheduled". So readers are cordially invited to share the details of their social engagements for 8 August 2008 that - should the invitation drop on the doormat – would, in the most diplomatic way possible, preclude them from being in Beijing on said date.
The best of your excuses are posted below.