One of the funniest things I can remember happened in the 80s and involved me, my friend Joel, and a two-man row boat in a theme park in Manila. I was up front, him at the back, and for the life of me, even at this point, I can’t help but chuckle every time I remember his deadpan, dry-humor reaction, as apparently I wasn’t rowing deep enough, to him getting drenched after only a few minutes of rowing. Not only was the water on the filthy side – it was from a small, closed, artificial lake – he was absolutely soaked from the waist down! Even though our little wooden boat wasn’t anything even remotely professional, that was the first thing that came to mind when I saw line upon line of rowing teams in the Amsterdamse Bosbaan. It was quite nice to look at, I stood there for several minutes just taking it all in.

I’m happy for the rowers and all but after taking some pictures, I couldn’t help but think it was bound to cost a pretty penny just for the equipment alone, not to mention having to rent the lake for practice. Life is but a dream in the first world indeed.