Less than 6 days to go and the gees is palpable. For the Irish among you let me explain. Gees is an Afrikaans word meaning vibe or spirit, and pronounced "gheese." Believe me, there is plenty of gees around at the moment. I suspect that if the Irish players had known just how much gees there was going to be be in South Africa they would have tied Thierry Henry's hands behind his back before the match started.
The gees can be felt all over town, in fact all over the country. Cars sporting flags and wing mirror socks; buildings draped in the flags of the 32 participating countries; people of all ages and colours wearing Bafana Bafana shirts. We visited the V&;A Waterfront today with my sister Colette and her husband Pat (visiting from Ireland) and the atmosphere was crackling. In fact a large crowd was watching South Africa's final warm-up match against Denmark on a big outdoor screen. It is going to be absolutely electric come Friday. You want to watch the opening game (SA vs Mexico) in a crowd just for the atmosphere, but finding a venue with space might be a problem. Foreign fans can already be seen walking around the Waterfront and a massive ferris wheel 60% of the size of the London Eye has been erected to add to the fun.
The highway approaching Joburg airport has been festooned with flags and is guaranteed to induce goosebumps in arriving supporters. In fact goosebumps are in evidence everywhere. There is only one topic of conversation in town this week and the sense that we are about to live through something enormous is tangible.
For the past 6 years we've been hoping that the atmosphere would be like this. It's surpassing our best expectations. Roll on Friday. Roll on the next 5 weeks.
3 comments:
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Wow. Am i jealous. Wish my son David and i were with you. We'll be thinking off you as you start your trip.Thank you again for collecting the programmes and bits for us as you go around. Come on South Africa and England.Enjoy your first match on Friday.
John/Dylan i've just finished watching the video. Wow! Lover te soccer pich in the office, loved Megans blanket but Dylan's room is something else especially the countdown board. Dylan your so like my 13 year old son who is 6 foot and scores goals from outside the box for fun. Who do you follow Dylan?Did you know that Dave and i have over 10,000 soccer programmes which makes us anoraks i'm told and hence why it is so important and nice of you to collect the programmes etc for us.I'll be looking forward to sending you some stuff from the uk. Dont forget the pictures esp when your in non footballing areas.I'll be looking at your blog on a daily basis.SA are now my adopted team behind England.
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