Since I’m stuck in the house with a small girl who is engrossed in Barbie presents Thumbelina for the 1000th time, I thought I’d chuck up a couple of quota photos. And today’s theme is road signs.
There are so many new signs going up around the city as part of the infrastructure upgrades for the World Cup (and beyond). Not that these ones will be replaced. Edinburgh Drive is still Edinburgh Drive and the M3 still goes to Cape Town.
For the moment.
After this bit of apparent FIFA silliness, I have decided to relaunch 6000 miles…
Just don’t tell Sepp, ok?
UPDATE: Here’s the offending ad, which Kulula state on their facebook page, has got:
Nothing to do with the WC. Just to be clear.
Well, if by “WC”, they mean “World Cup” (and do they?)
Ja… right.
My take now, having seen the ad (but not the letter)? I’m with FIFA. They have every right to protect their partners’ rights on this.
Unpopular view, maybe – but as I said in this comment, Emirates must have paid a small large fortune to be the airline associated with the tournament and this is blatent ambush marketing by Kulula.
To be honest, the only whining we should be hearing from them should be from their plane’s engines.
Sometimes a good idea comes along and doesn’t get anywhere because it doesn’t get the support it deserves or needs to take off. I would give you examples, but because they never got the support they deserved or needed, I’ve never heard of them. Usually, the only ideas that ever get anywhere are those that are going to make someone, somewhere, some money: cars, computers, drugs etc etc.
But the good idea I heard today isn’t going to make much money. Instead of Rands and cents, this one is all about the currency of goodwill. Which makes you feel all happy and warm inside, but won’t buy you beer. So not perfect, by any means, but still pretty good.
The idea is the brainchild of the improbably-named Dean Oelschig, a creative type from Jo’burg. But let’s not hold those facts against him, for he has come up with the idea of #worldcuphost. This is what is called a hashtag, which is a word or phrase, prefixed with a # that people can search for easily on Twitter.
And Dean’s idea is that willing people from South Africa advertise themselves on Twitter as #worldcuphosts so that visitors coming over from foreign parts can ask all those vexing, awkward or downright stupid questions about the country and how to “do stuff” here – and hopefully get a quick, helpful answer.
I am already predicting a plethora of beer-related queries, interspersed with several on transport, a couple on the weather and maybe even one or two on the football. But mainly beer.
And because the people on twitter are generally of a somewhat higher intelligence and educational standing than on other, less enjoyable social media platforms which involve feeding other people’s penguins on their imaginary farms, the answers those tourists will get will be honest, informative and helpful. Right?
So, go and advertise yourself as a #worldcuphost.
Better still, retweet this post (use the little button below) so that people know what it’s all about, because obviously, the more people that are aware of this – on either side – the better it will work.
Let’s do our bit to make this World Cup a even better experience for those visiting South Africa.
Uh-oh.
The BBC reports:
David Beckham’s dream of playing in a fourth World Cup looks over after he tore an Achilles tendon in AC Milan’s 1-0 win over Chievo on Sunday. Beckham was unchallenged when he suffered the injury and hobbled off in pain before being stretchered away.
The 34-year-old was hoping to be part of England’s World Cup squad in June, but instead will fly to Finland on Monday for specialist surgery. “A rupture of the Achilles tendon is suspected,” said an AC Milan statement.
Consultant sports physician Dr Tom Crisp told BBC Radio 5 live: “It’s remotely possible he may be running in three months.
The chances of him being fit to play for England are non-existent.”
I’m as sick as a parrot. This is a massive blow for England. There’s still no-one, worldwide, who can cross a ball like Beckham. England are really going to miss that talent.
It seems that Ashanti Lodge, whose exorbitant 309% World Cup price increase we noted in January and who still hadn’t sold their rooms for the tournament just a couple of weeks ago, have had to rethink their pricing strategy for June and July.
Their rates page now has a little note for the dates over the duration of the World Cup:
Price on application as match days have different rates to non-match days.
The cynic in me wants to suggest that this is just another ploy to rip off fans traveling over to SA for the football.
And he’s probably right.
What Ashanti don’t seem to have realised is that fans attending the games at the Cape Town Stadium will still have the opportunity to fly out after the matches, as the airports will be running for pretty much 24 hours a day during the World Cup. And with greater numbers of cheaper flights being announced all the time, it will surely be more tempting to head “back home” to wherever you’re based, that to pay rip-off prices in Cape Town.
All of which augers well for businesses in the Mother City.
Not.