Turn off the TV. Turn around and look at the people behind you. These people are your family (you may have been forgiven for thinking that Ian Thorpe is your long lost son and Tatiana is the daughter-in-law you’ve always wanted). There is life beyond Channel 7, go forth and find.

There is no excuse of being late for work anymore. Trains and buses have returned to Sydney time and there are no lost Americans left in the City to redirect to the Olympic Store.

Go for a walk. Not inside, toward or out of Olympic Park, or even the year long trek around Central Station. Go somewhere NOT to end up where you started.

Stop chanting ‘Aussie, Aussie, Aussie’. This is not acceptable behaviour in normal society, and it’s bloody annoying.

Save your flags and tattoos for the next international event. They don’t really match your suit and you can’t attach them to your laptop.

Start cooking food at home again. Fast food is not one of the basic food groups.

Find out what is happening in the other parts of the world. Read parts of the paper other than the sports and results. It may surprise you, but the world kept spinning around while you were tuned to events in Sydney.

Stop picking up things and saying ‘I’ll keep this, it might be worth something.’ Chances are your Macca’s Olympic scratch card will be worth exactly diddly-squat in 50 years time.

Go and see some of the Olympic exhibitions. It’ll be nice to see what all the fuss was about.

If you must watch sport, re-familarise yourself with the out-of-season footy news. It really isn’t cool to talk about artistic gymnastics or ‘syncro’ over a beer and a pie.

Go and buy tickets to the Paralympic Games.

Kelliann Constantine Olympics.com

Source: SOCOG