After months of negativity

As I sit here by the braai, with a locally-brewed wife and beer by my side, I am filled with hope, positivity and optimism about the future here in SA. And, for once, it seems I’m not the only one.

After a wholly-unsolicited ‘I’m going out of my way to tell your viewers this’ quote “Let me tell you, South Africa is going to be ready and it’s going to be a great World Cup” from a Daily Express football writer (recently returned from these parts) on Sky Sports yesterday, Piers Edwards of the BBC has come out with a brilliant blog telling the world the other side of all the negative BS and hightlighting the double standards of the international press:

When I asked the Australian delegation if they had any security concerns, they almost laughed in my face. Thankfully, they politely grinned instead while explaining how their sports stars have been coming here for years without any problems.
Indeed, their cricketers came over for last year’s IPL and Champions Trophy and there was great irony in both tournaments’ relocation to South Africa after security concerns in their original host nations – India and Pakistan (and wasn’t it strange how South Africa’s crime issues were ignored when the IPL changed venue?).

And it is, of course, the media that drives and fuels the negativity.
Why?  I’m not sure. Perhaps they’ve just lost the ability to actually write anything positive anymore. Maybe no-one would believe it.

While English-led questions about Bafokeng dominated Fifa’s news conference on Tuesday, it was interesting that not one Brazilian journalist, and there were a few there, asked about the five-time champions’ hotel – whose completion date is as late as England’s. In fact, the endless focus on Bafokeng drove Fifa’s urbane General Secretary spare.
“If the question is ‘could we host the World Cup tomorrow?’, the answer is ‘no’,” Jerome Valcke snapped. “Soccer City isn’t ready [and] we have 700,000 tickets still to sell, but we will be ready.”

Valcke is right. SA is not ready to host the World Cup. But that’s actually just fine, because the World Cup doesn’t start until June 11th and right now, we’re still in February. If the World Cup were to start tomorrow, we’d have failed. But it doesn’t, so we haven’t.
And positive quotes from big names like Marcello Lippi:

“I’m expecting a great tournament, in fantastic stadiums, with perfect security,” says Italy’s 2006 World Cup-winning coach, who was here for last year’s Confederations Cup. “I’m not expecting anything negative.”

and Germany coach Joachim Low:

“I see the happiness in the locals’ eyes and their sense of excitement,” he said. “They can’t wait for the World Cup and South Africa will do everything for this World Cup – that’s what I am feeling.”

being reported are a welcome change from the usual doom and gloom that has surrounded the build up to this tournament.

But even as I read the comments below the post (and they’re worth a read), there were those in there who are still stubbornly waiting and hoping that South Africa will fail, still spreading their misinformation (CAPADONNA is a good case in point – WTF is he talking about??) and striving to pollute the excitement and belief around the World Cup. Piers has a message for them:

After 80 years of the World Cup, Africa – whether some Europeans like it or not – deserves its chance to host the finals: and had you decided against coming here because of the horror stories (rather than financial restrictions), when the media changes its tune from negativity to fawning praise as the World Cup begins, where would you rather be? 

I know my answer…

World Cup Willie

Disambiguation: for World Cup Willie (1966 World Cup Mascot) click here.
Otherwise… read on.

I read today (here, actually) that John Terry, the now disgraced former captain of the England football team, is flying out to Dubai to try and convince his estranged wife, Toni Poole, that their marriage is still worth salvaging.
In case you’ve been under a rock:

Poole, the mother of Terry’s two children, fled to the UAE soon after reports emerged regarding an affair between the Chelsea captain and Vanessa Perroncel, the ex-partner of the 29-year-old’s former club team-mate Wayne Bridge.

The incisive Guardian reporting tells us:

Terry had a serious look on his face as he was escorted to the plane at London’s Heathrow airport shortly after 8.30am, wearing blue jeans and a white hooded top.

I’m not bloody surprised (at the serious look, anyway) (the white hoodie did come as a bit of a shock – I dunno – I thought something in blue, maybe?  A splash of colour. Cheerful. Bright. Make some effort, man.)

Anyway, I hope he’s got flowers and I’m sure he’s got his little speech lined up.
After all, he does “love her to bits”.

How do I know?

Oh – just this little gem I picked out from that exclusive John Terry Interview in the Observer Sport Monthly back in May 2006:

And you’re not married?

No, I’m engaged to my girlfriend Toni Poole, she’s been with me since I was a YTS.

She looks very nice in the photographs.

She is. And she’s good for me. She’s been there from the start. When I was earning £46 a week she was earning £250 a week – she was taking me out to restaurants. It’s nice that she’s there for the right reasons – for me.

And she’s forgiven you your indiscretions?

Indiscretions – you know, I’ve never cheated on her or anything like that. I never would. I can look you in the eye and tell you that. There’s been stories out there that I’ve cheated on her but I certainly haven’t – I love her to bits.

There was an interview in the News of the World where I’d seen a reporter out and I’d apparently admitted it all to Toni. I never admitted anything to Toni because I’ve never done anything. With me saying I’m a loyal person, that goes with my girlfriend as well as with Chelsea.

But you must have been sorely tempted?

Yeah, there’s occasions. I’ve obviously explained to Toni that we get opportunities, we get approached and I’ve probably been in situations that she doesn’t approve of. Maybe. But it certainly wouldn’t be the case where I’d take it any further.

Certainly not, John. After all, you “love her to bits” and you’re “a loyal person”.
You can look me in the eye and tell me that (but you’ll still be lying).

If he’s done it once, he’ll do it again (see Woods, Tiger).
My advice is to dump him, Toni – but only after the World Cup.
While he might have been covering the hole that Wayne Bridge had left at the back (sorry), he’s still a damn fine defender and part of the backbone that will win the World Cup for England a bit later this year. (Albeit that we need a decent coccyx.)

As long as he’s not in a state of abject depression.
So please just lie back and think of England (literally), until July 12th.

Thanks.

Road Closures for State Opening Of Parliament

Following yesterday’s rehearsal for tomorrow’s State Opening of Parliament, the times of the road closures for tomorrow’s State Opening of Parliament have been updated.
Good job they had a practice, then.

Fortunately (as ever), here at 6000 miles… we’re ahead of the curve and we have those updated times available for you right here in handy PDF format.
You don’t need me to tell you to just right click on the link and SAVE TARGET AS:

ParliamentOpeningRoadClosures (PDF, 77kb)

Aside from updating the timing of the road closures, the rehearsal seemed mainly to consist of these guys practicing their formation flying over my house.

They looked to have it pretty much sorted first time around, but just to make sure, they kept it up for another couple of hours until one of them eventually ran out of fuel and dropped out of the sky.

Let’s hope they don’t make the same mistake tomorrow.

Cape Town Rugby Festival – a few thoughts

How any rugby fan could possibly ever complain about vuvuzelas after yesterday’s inaugural rugby match at the Cape Town Stadium is beyond me. At least they make you realise that you’re at a major sporting event.
As for yesterday, I have experienced more atmosphere on the moon. Not personally, obviously, but my good friend Buzz Aldrin assures me that it was one long party while they were up there, although bodily functions were a little difficult to perform. 
What a sterile occasion. Sure, rugby fans can drink a lot, but they are seemingly almost completely silent during big games. 40,000 of them, mainly white, quiet as mice for large periods of the game. When the stadium announcer has to organise and then continually propagate a Mexican Wave, then you know that something’s not quite right.  

In fact, the biggest cheer of the day was for Emperor of the Western Cape, Helen Zille and ineffectual City Mayor, Dan Plato, who entered the field pre-game to a bizarre Medieval-style regal trumpet fanfare, then gave overtly political speeches about how great it was to have a stadium, frequently interrupted by sycophantic and raptuous applause.
Quite where those speeches were for the football a couple of weeks back is beyond me, although every cynical bone in my body (and I have a few) is screaming something about the “wrong audience”.

Bryan Habana also got a huge ovation when he came out in the first half for a bit of a warm up. Later in the match, he came on for 20 minutes and didn’t touch the ball once. Obviously, he would have scored loads of tries if he had touched it though, because he’s Bryan Habana.

For those of you that don’t follow me on twitter, my son was horribly ill on Friday night and Saturday morning and wasn’t allowed to go to the match (Doctor’s orders). Both he and I were hugely disappointed. (Our plans for Saturday morning will also have to be rearranged). So he didn’t pass his World Cup readiness test.
The Stadium, on the other hand, did (I think). Yes – there were traffic issues on the way into town – mainly thanks to the disco effect traffic lights at Buitengracht and Western Boulevard – and yes, our seats were removed to make way for a TV camera position. But we got there in plenty of time and we were swiftly apologised to by Sail-StadeFrance staff and escorted to the VIP section to watch the game. Nice.

I haven’t heard much public opinion on the organisation for this event, but I certainly didn’t see any major problems. The traffic on the way out was amazing – 29 minutes from leaving our seats to getting home to Kenilworth. It regularly takes longer than that to get home from the rugby at Newlands, which is less than a quarter of the distance.

The stadium is looking superb, and despite the breezy conditions outside, was very sheltered within – no problems for the kickers. The pitch looked great and the players certainly seemed to enjoy the day. Even the Boland team, who were beaten 47-13. All in all, it seemed like a great success and who knows if it will help WPRU to do the sensible thing and move from Newlands.

If they do, they’ll need to import some more excitable fans, though.

Cape Town Rugby Festival set on flickr.