Three Men and a World Cup 2010 » People

Heading West to Cape Town

Carl — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 09:25:12 +0000

Now that the football is complete we have a few days to go and visit friends and other parts of South Africa. So today we’ll be flying South African Airlines just under a 1000 miles to Cape Town located on the West coast of South Africa. I’ll post pictures and updates as they occur. Unless the airline try and charge us for an extra seat, we’ll be taking Chris jr with us.

World Cup Final 2010 – Spain vs Netherlands

Carl — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 13:59:20 +0000

Last night we attended the World Cup Final at Soccer City in Johannesburg. It felt special to be there, and the atmosphere is something I will never forget. To see Nelson Mandela was something special, and everyone in the stadium gave him the standing ovation he deserves, football players are often referred to as heroes by the media (falsely), but Nelson Mandela is a real hero, and a great inspiration for millions of people.

The game did not flow very well, and compared to football played in the 3/4th playoff game from the previous night was disappointing, but lets face it, if I was only interested in the football I could have stayed at home and watched it on the tele with instant replays, attending the games has been as much about the atmosphere as the game itself. The Dutch played dirty and unfortunately their tournament will probably be remembered that way.

As with our other games, we met people in the stands, took lots of photos and did our regular video introductions…

Alex from the train to Soccer City

Andy introduces the World Cup final (be sure to listen to my score prediction)

Stacie, our gracious hostess, provides the closing comments

Chris Jr shows his colours…

Carl — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 08:57:32 +0000

Chris Jr, has an upgrade for the World Cup final. He’s now in colour and sporting a new hair do. Orange hair? Who could he be supporting I wonder?

Chris Jr shows his true colours

Germany vs Spain Intro

Carl — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 17:47:30 +0000

Yesterday we got to watch Germany vs Spain. Didn’t get access to a computer until I got back to Johannesburg so sorry for the delay. The best team won, Spain totally took Germany out of the game, no idea what the posession percentage was, but Germany couldn’t have had it much. Chris Jr continues to get lots of attention, and is very popular with the ladies, much like Chris Sr. There were some fans which missed the game because of issues with their flights, to them I say, what the hell were you thinking? Who leaves their travel to a flight that is supposed to get in a couple of hours early? So now we will have a historic World Cup final, with neither the Netherlands or Spain having won the competition. I have more friends that are Dutch, so I think I’ll be rooting for them.

We did see a person invade the pitch early on in the game, and unfortunately, the security didn’t beat the crap out of him as I had been told would happen. Oh well, I did video what happened.

Intro Video

Chris getting attention

Dumb ass Italian

See you at the final!!!!

It’s not all football, football and more football you know.

Carl — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 21:39:25 +0000

Although did I mention we managed to get FIFA World Cup Final Tickets! Don’t worry, we’ll take Chris Jr.

Seriously though, it would be absolutely crazy of us to come all the way to South Africa and not do a Safari. So for the last couple of days between games we drove up to Pilanesburg Game Reserve. My poor camera didn’t know what had hit it, for the first time this trip I managed to flatten the battery from taking so many photos. They’re still uploading to Flickr, but you’ll be able to see the complete selection in an hour or so (internet is slow here) at the following URL

http://www.flickr.com/photos/iminstant/sets/72157624438149330/

These animals are amazing, they’re massive, and it really comes home when you’re in a tiny Toyota Corolla rental with a Rhino facing you a few feet away. The car was in reverse and I was ready to floor it and lift the clutch if I had seen that Rhino twitch, fortunately the only thing twitching was Andy’s arsehole (so he says I didn’t check).

We stopped at one hide and were lucky enough see a couple of Elephants come for a drink and a Hippo go for a swim.

Pretty tired now, and need to get sleep for our drive to Durban tomorrow, where we will see Germany take on Spain. Who do you think will win?

Spain vs Paraguay

Carl — Sat, 03 Jul 2010 23:02:29 +0000

This evening we saw Spain vs Paraguay. This game was almost as boring as the Portual vs Brazil game. Fortunately it did not need overtime and after hitting the post three times in about 4 seconds, the Spanish scored. Spain looked alot like England this evening, poor passing, poor final ball and not pushing forward very much.

Here are this evenings opening and closing videos

Uruguay vs Ghana, who said tie games are boring?

Carl — Sat, 03 Jul 2010 15:24:21 +0000

Last night, I feel very privileged to have had the pleasure to go to the Uruguay vs Ghana game. The crowd going to Soccer City on the train was in high spirits, cheering and singing the whole trip. The noise in the stadium with the VuVuZelas and the singing was just incredible, I’m not very good at describing things in words, but let me try by saying the noise rattled your rib cage, it was loud!

The game was incredible, Ghana played really well and deserved the win, and if there was ever the evidence needed for the football equivalent of a rugby penalty try, yesterday showed it. Cheat and you can still get through to the next round of the World Cup. Ghana played great, passing the ball, using the wings, holding the ball up, basically they should have won. Sadly it was decided on penalties, and it looks like the English teams penalty coach has been training the Ghana team.

I did take the video camera with me, but it’s taken a little while to sort out missing codecs, but I think I have it now.

Intro video 1

Intro Video 2

Kristine, a pretty girl from Wilmington, USA who liked to dance and I think was very cheery cos of cheap Budweiser, I promised I’d post her video.

A few beers later, Andy doing the closing.

And finally, Andy introduces Chris jr to complete strangers on the train. This lady it turned out is Colombian and lives in Atlanta USA.

Introducing Chris jr

Carl — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 12:32:25 +0000

I mentioned yesterday I would introduce Chris’ replacement today, and here he is, Chris IdoNotes jr.

The three IMigos is now only two.

Carl — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 20:14:38 +0000

We just got back from dropping Chris at Johannesburg airport for his flight back to the USA. Obviously this is a big blow for our traveling team but all is not lost, I have already found a replacement and I will be introducing him to you all tomorrow!

South African people – The Mia family

Andy — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 22:50:51 +0000

You may have read in previous blogs about how friendly we have found the South African people during our stay here. Well, tonight was another example of their extreme hospitality when Carl and I visited (by invitation) Abdul Mia and his delightful family in Mayfair, Joburg. As Abdul has mentioned, this Mayfair is a little different to the one in London – situated on the other side of Joburg to where we are, it was a quick 20 minute drive. We were welcomed by Abdul, his wife and two daughters with South African hospitality including guava juice, Avocado pudding, Masala Tea and biscuits and really yummy homemade Chicken samosas. We spent the evening talking about the World Cup, world politics and other amusing anecdotes. All in all it was a very enjoyable evening and we’d like to thank Abdul and his family for their hospitality.