Daily Archives: June 29, 2010

Tuesday 29th June 2010 published 29th June (Andy’s blog)

A quiet day for a change, given we are full on again tomorrow game driving in Madikwe we need a rest!

Caught up on some writing and then Dom, Keith, Nat returned from the Holland vs Slovakia game in Durban ( having made a 4.30am start!) complete with little Andy and Bella.

We took a trip into downtown Johannesburg which has ‘changed’ down the years and hit the Carlton Centre in order to seek out ‘Ball Man’ which is an installation made by Nike constructed from 5,000 mini footballs. These balls are predictably in Brazil livery (everyone’s favourite second team, apparently). This was in the middle of this centre which is smack in the middle of the old and formerly prosperous central business district. Underneath were an array of oversized Nike boots, complete with orange heels, the ones specially launched for this World Cup and what every kid will be wanting like, now. Apparently there are four different models of boot, all grey with orange backs. There was also an impressive display of all the Nike World Cup kits – Brazil, Holland, Portugal, South Korea, New Zealand, Australia, Slovenia, Serbia and USA all fitted onto weird models (torso upper and lower, and legs) which were internally lit and housed in glass cases. Nike also supply Ambassadors who’s job is to talk the public through all things Nike and technical. Overall this was really impressive stuff. Add to this that I managed to pick up a Kaizer Chiefs 40th Anniversary track suit top and it turned out to be a doubly interesting day. Fabulous!

As we left, I noticed a quote by Luis Fabiano which kind of hit the spot for me. ‘In Brazil your first gift is the ball, so you always have that with you’. It’s in the blood, it’s in the breeding, it’s in the DNA of every Brazilian. 5 World Cups and counting. QED.

Wednesday 23rd June published Tuesday 29th June (Kirsty’s blog)

Match day morning and we have a lovely breakfast whilst chatting with Wendy and Mardie (who is pictured below). We try some traditional South African chuckaluka (sorry about the estimated spelling) it was gorgeous, about as spicy as a vindaloo the spice certainly woke us up!

Dom, Keith, Simon and Chris turn up to collect Simon’s blackberry which had been left in the restaurant the night before and yet again we tried to see how many grown adults can we squeeze in one car trick! It was two in the front, three in the back and me lying across the laps in the back, poor Chris and Andy took the brunt of the weight and vuvuzela Keith rode in relative comfort.

Dom dropped us at the boardwalk where we were looking for our mate Ben Grant who we haven’t seen for a couple of years since he moved to Australia. On the way we see the bizarre sight of two English coppers with proper helmets, it looks so strange to see them out here out of their usual environment. We stop them for a photo op, very friendly they are too though when we commented on their technical mountain climbing looking gear they said the material was cheap and not as good as it looked due to cost cutting, though still miles better than the old style cotton shirt with collar scenario. How football is changing…here I am on a football trip fraternising with the rozzers and discussing fashion tips.

It’s a sea of red and white and as usual the English have marked their territory and draped flags across every bar and restaurant. Amazingly in the crowd we find Ben and his mates who have all travelled from Oz, there appears to be ten or twelve of them all wearing the Italia ’90 blue England away kit…after that throughout the whole day we keep spotting a little group of blue. It was great to see Ben and the boys and after a few pints and a catch up it’s time to head to the stadium.

En route we pick up ‘the boys’ who’ve been enjoying themselves in a bar right on the sea front and they’re all in high spirits.

As we start walking down the road towards the official FIFA fan shuttle buses which will take us the 5km to the Nelson Mandela Bay stadium we keep spotting the local minivans, they’re like a hop on, hop off transport service for the locals (the ones that FIFA have advised fans not to use), so as one of them stops at lights we all hop on and take over the minibus, I asked the guy at the front how much it would cost to take us to the stadium, his response was “whatever you want to pay mam”. The guy had the biggest smile accompanied by the biggest gold tooth I’ve ever seen! We kept taking pictures and he thought it was hilarious that we wanted a picture of his cold tooth, not only was his dentistry unique he also beat all the FIFA buses, scooted round a back street route and got us there ‘quicksticks’ (this is Andy’s favourite new phrase, he heard South Africans use it a couple of times and has taken it as his own…complete with the accent).

We bump into the boys in blue again, Ben and his mates and not the coppers and look for somewhere to drink, though there doesn’t seem to be anywhere to drink outside the stadium so we head inside for beers.

Talking of police, there are twelve British police out here, probably as a profile thing rather than assisting the South African police, however there’s been zero trouble, the atmosphere has been brilliant wherever we’ve been. Lots of singing and partying, lots of fathers and sons, husbands and wives and families, there hasn’t been a single English arrest…football really is changing, and with any luck it will be exactly the same when we play Germany and Argentina. (this bit was written before our campaign was brutally cut short in Bloemfontein, that report to follow).

Once inside we’re ridiculously early as usual and have time for a few more beers in the glorious sunshine, the England fans are in fine voice and easil drown out the vuvuzelas. After kick off the singing gets louder and the atmosphere is fantastic all aided and abetted by a completely different England team to the one we saw play Algeria. After the goal, there were deafening chants of “we’re not going home, we’re not going home, we’re not going, we’re not going, we’re not going home, oi!” much to the amusement of the locals who asked me what the fans were singing.

We could see ‘the boys’ from where we were sitting an after the game we jumped back onto one of the little minivan taxis and once again took it over, there were two women already on the bus and they looked a little intimidated at first at the noise, chanting and singing filling the van, along with us banging on the windows at passing fans, though they soon started joining in and even gave us a traditional South African song.

We hit a bar back at the boardwalk and from there on in it all becomes a bit of a blur, though I do remember a couple (Hannalo & Hannes Cilliers) who were innocently on a night out for a civilised dinner when they were suddenly surrounded by drunken, singing England fans spilling beer on them and completely ruining what should have been a lovely dinner date. We got talking to them an it turns out they live right out in the country and had booked a babysitter and had decided on a romantic night out, the first for many months, so Hannalo and Hannes we apologise profusely for turning your dinner date into a raucous, messy beerfest!

I would love to tell you stories from the evening as we laughed all night long…however I can’t remember what we were laughing about, I just remember singing, dancing and laughing. Frodo/Ewok/Eva Major has pictoral evidence so as soon as we upload them, we’ll get them posted, they may shed some light on the evening…then again they might be messy ;o)

Monday 28th June published Tuesday 29th June (Andy’s blog)

We awoke in ‘my Nona’s room’ in Bloemfontein to the sound of barking dogs. Everyone has dogs seemingly in South Africa, and they all live outdoors, guarding property rather than providing company I suspect. Our host Irene was nowhere to be seen, so we had a cup of coffee, a quick shower and then away. I felt strangely positive and liberated. The focus now was not on getting to Cape Town to play Argentina, but getting an earlier flight home and looking forward to the game drive at Madikwe we had booked when we felt the quarter finals were a possibility. One always needs tasks and targets in life, doesn’t one? Always look on the bright side and keep positive!

The journey home was unremarkable but for one thing. A Piper light aircraft parked somewhat casually on the side of the road. Sadly we were going too fast to take a picture, but it was there large as life. We then heard on the radio that it had landed the day before when the pilot reported that he had encountered difficulties and decided that the N1 highway was the only place to land. Apparently some of the passengers were being treated for shock. Amazing stuff.

Radio 2000 provides much useful information not least the news about the aircraft. However, Kirsty did wonder if royalties and the payment of is an issue as there are loads of cover versions of well known songs not least a version of ‘Wonderwall’ sung by some laconic and slightly off key crooner who had clearly taken too much mescaline. The radio presenter was doing a lovely job of ‘filling’ between covers. She mused about what other event in the world would bring women together and in the spotlight in the same way as the World Cup. Outside of the Olympics, there is nothing to compare, but bless her she did suggest a ‘beauty pageant’.

The next item of discussion was centred around South African’s president Jacob Zuma’s call for the Ghana team to change their nickname from the Ghana Black Stars to the African Black Stars, such is the continental support for Ghana now. He said that they carried the hopes in the same way as ‘The Blue Samurai’ are doing for Asia. I wonder how long it will be before England get an official nickname, obviously there are plenty of unofficial ones flying about!

We arrived back in Johannesburg shortly before 2.30pm and the rest of the day looked like this.

Sort flights home.
Eat.
Watch Holland vs Slovakia.
Watch Brazil vs Chile.
Sleep.

We fell at the first hurdle. We had booked a game drive in Madikwe a park north of Johannesburg, on Wednesday through to Friday and so wanted to head home at the weekend. Not a chance. Johannesburg airport is like Dunkirk, there are thousands of English fans trying to get home and the earliest our ‘fully flexible’ Virgin flight could muster was next Tuesday evening. It will be fun hitting the office straight from the airport on Wednesday! I caught up with Steve and his team who were at the airport trying to get earlier flights – they had booked their’s for next week as well and the thought of staying on was too much for some of the boys.

So given we have a few days on our hands, we decided to book a trip to Rourke’s Drift at the weekend. Fortunately there was one room left in the prestigious and historic lodge, ‘Fugitive’s Drift’. It has always been a lifelong ambition of mine to visit the scene of the famous enagement between a hundred and fifty British soldiers and 4,000 marauding and freshly victorious Zulu warriors who had massacred a column of 1500 men at Islandwlana the day before. So something brilliant to look forward to before we head home. The only downside is the great David Rattray who I saw a couple of times on his tour of the UK some years back, was senselessly murdered in his house by burglars about four years back. The world was robbed of a great historian and a great speaker. A man with passion for his subject who was committed to keeping the stories of the Zulu War alive. He always had the utmost respect for both the British and more importantly the Zulus. A wonderful man and a tragic loss. ThEe

We headed off to eat and watch the game. No surprise that a solid Holland beat an unimpressive Slovakia who have the worst haircuts in this tournament. I am sure that Holland are capable of upping the stakes and they will have to when they play Brazil. Later Brazil were to resemble Germany of old- physical, technically brilliant, athletic, clinical in front of goal and amazing stamina, virtually impossible to break down and solid in every position. Chile looked like Brazil of old, circa 1970 except that they could not supply the final ball. Brilliant skills, close control and wonderful use of space. You can’t really see past Brazil, Germany, Spain or Argentina winning this tournament to be fair.

In between games I sat down my co pilot and chief organiser Kirsty, variously known as Payne Lite, Number 2, vice captain and 27, to watch Zulu. If we are off to Rourke’s Drift she may as well ‘know ‘er ‘istory’ after all ‘it’s enough to make yer heart go whooa whooa whooa whooa’.