Archive for the ‘People’ Category

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.

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

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!

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.

We met a few Japanese fans when we watched the great game between Paraguay and Japan this evening. These two were special:

The one on the left is a guy….. so when he left and went for a beer, I snuck down and asked if I could get a picture with the funny costume…

NOTE: yes that is really Andy in there, not photoshop.  He walked down a few rows and asked to put it on for the shot.  They were more than happy to oblige.

Not sure which teams they are, but I’m a big fan.