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The End

It was AWESOME while it lasted. Well done South Africa! Well done Spain! Well done Paul the Octopus!

More M&E

Well played, Ghana!!

Man, this result isn't a fair reflection of the actual game. Ghana outclassed Uruguay tonight and I loathe the death-by-penalty shootout result.

Thank you, Ghana! Africa loves you.

Ghana vs Uruguay 1/4 fnl (in progress)

2nd half of extra time and THIS GAME IS KILLING ME!!!! Come on GHANA!!!

England vs Germany (in Progress)

33 mins in... 2-0 Germany.

Uhm... ouch England! Here's hoping they can actually put up a bit of a fight here. Cos this is so sucking for them at the mo'. Go on, England.

PS. Maybe I should start rooting for the teams I DON'T want to win, because I seem to be jinxing those I actually side with.

M&E's World Cupness

Italy vs Slovakia (in progress)

...and it's 1-0 Slovakia.

Oh dear... I wonder if this year I'll be subjected to another drunken phone call from Chevon, only this time the tears will be of pain instead of joy cos her beloved Italy crashed out without making it into the final 16. That would suck, them being defending champs and all. And I'd have to deal with drunken, depressed Chevon and distraught, devastated Nathan.

Oh well, here's hoping they win! Because not only would it be a crying shame for the defending champs to put up such a paltry show but it would also be a crime for the WC to lose such a damned fine looking man like Fabio Cannavaro this early in the tournament. That tragedy alone would be enough to send me into a tailspin of despair.

So come on Italy. Get your bloody act together man!

The Unthinkable

Today... the worst thing imaginable happened... some of my 11 year old male students started to making vuvuzela noises in the classroom. They thought that they were being hilarious of course, they kept saying, "Natasha-sensei, Natasha-sensei... bvubvuzera!!! BZZZZZ!!!".

And then to make matters even worse, they were pretty damned good at producing an accurate imitation of the monotonous buzzing. And they did it with these hilarious deadpan expressions on their faces, all serious while, "Bzzzzzzing" at me. After that went on for a while, they'd crack up laughing before starting up again.

Siiiiiiiiiiigh.

Well done, Bafana Bafana

We all knew that it probably wouldn't amount to much unless Bafana Bafana scored a shitload of goals against the French, but we all desperately wanted that win and damn it felt good. The Boys gave the tattered and beleaguered French team a run for their money and had so many near misses in the second half that qualification into the next round was closer than any of us had ever realistically dreamed.

The boys played like warriors and I'm very proud to be a South African today (and equally happy not to be French - ouch! I mean what an awful and embarrassing WC they've had. The disgrace, the draaaaamaaa). The best thing about having this WC cup in SA (the WORST being vuvuzelas. But yeah, we won't go there again :P), is that the country is SO football mad and we have been desperate to host this tournament for so long, that Bafana Bafana doing well would merely have been the cherry on top. This is one host nation that will NOT lose interest in the tournament because their team exited early. Nope, if I know my countrymen they will support their second, third, fourth favourites with equal fervour and devotion.

Cos that's the way we roll down in old Minami Afurika.

Poor North Korea

7 - 0 ????

Hazukashii.............

Shame ne

Today's weather in SA:

Fabio Cannavaro

............. drooooooooooooooool!

Just sayin' y'know.................

...and another thing

PS...

Because it bears mentioning and it would be an injustice if I just let it slide... but there are some very, very HOT men on that Serbian team.

Phew!

Germany vs Serbia (in progress)

Whenever I see a card-heavy game like Germany vs Serbia tonight I always have to curb my gut instinct to yell mean things at the ref through my TV screen. Things like, "What?! Are you fucking INSANE Mr Ref? He was playing the ball!!! OH COME ON, you blind fool! Who the hell paid you to make THAT call?"

I blame this instinct on having grown up watching this sport with boys. Inevitably, depending on whose side they were on (and they were ALWAYS on opposite sides), every yellow or red card EVER was met with a similar response and this naturally led me to conclude (cos remember, these were my formative years), that the referee is just always wrong. Poor guy.

My brother and his buddies were always so passionate about this game. They'd be all competitive during the game, talking smack and what-not and then afterwards, backslaps and handshakes (like THEY were the ones playing the actual game FGS) and "Nah, bru, kwaai game!"

PS. I'm guessing that it's a bit agonising being a German at this time. Nice save by the 'keeper earlier! No Jabulani ball angst for him.

The increasing bane of my existence!

Every time I think, see or hear of a vuvuzela I can't contain the impulse to roll my eyes. Damn those things, they're a clever marketing campaign by some oke getting stinking rich off of playing on the gullible patriotic nature of South Africans. Give us a gimmic and tell us that we're not South African enough if we don't love it and we'll fall for it hook, line and sinker!

GAH! Look back on any SAfrican domestic footie match and while the vuvuzela is a presence, it's not a dominating, all-consuming force of fecking nature. No we actually have singing, dancing and even some OTHER instruments at our football games. Whoever thought of this horrendous marketing scheme has ruined our WC and destroyed the real spirit of the game in South Africa. Bastard. Cos now not only do we have South Africans being stupidly Proudly South African with these things, every foreigner in the country feels the need to buy one and they have no idea how to play the things. Short, controlled bursts (direct quote from Aliens by the way) interspersed with singing and chanting, you stupid ASSHOLES!

Siiiighh. This is not how I imagined my WC updates would go. I was way excited. I didn't think I'd get wrapped up in this one small thing... but seriously, it's pretty overwhelming and people back home don't realise how negatively it is perceived by people in other countries. I get sick of the arrogance of people constantly saying, "It's OUR World Cup." Uhm, excuse me, no it ISN'T. It's not called the South African Cup people, it's called the World Cup. And if the WC performances of Bafana Bafana so far have been anything to go by, it'll never, in any way, shape or form be OUR World Cup. So get over yourselves... use the vuvuzela with discretion. And show people how we REALLY enjoy our football... with rhythm, style and lots of singing and dancing.

Vuvuzelas. Stop the Madness!!!!

I think that the WC organisers touted the fucking vuvuzelas too much and now we suddenly have this vuvuzela pride that hadn't ever existed before. Yes they were present at matches in the past but not to the extent that it drowned out singing and cheers. There's really NO traditional African or South African feel to it, it's just an annoying sound and if it carries on, Africa's first WC will be remembered for nothing other than a lot of noise with footballers and supporters alike complaining about the crazy, tuneless buzzing. Is that really what we wanted from this World Cup? Personally, I was hoping people would see how fabulous our country was, how friendly the people, how amazing the atmosphere... but instead we're going to get a bunch of tourists and players leaving the country with a vuvuzela-induced headache, a little bit of deafness in each ear and plenty of disgruntled complaints about how: "If that's South African culture then they can bloody well keep it to themselves."

Seriously where are THESE people?! These are the REAL South African football supporters, this is the REAL spirit of the South African football. But we can't hear them because they're being drowned out by the bloody vuvuzelas.
.

3 hours till kick off

And folks at Lou's office can no longer contain themselves, looking decidedly Australian (ptooey! I said "AUSTRALIA", it was unintentional, I assure you) in their Bafana Bafana gear, the people at The Douglas Jones Collection show their patriotic spirit and effervescence on this historic day for SA.

Good luck, Bafana Bafana. You're most definitely gonna need it. But y'know, over here in Japan, I've been proudly wearing my SA lapel pin all day, in my own show of subdued (subdued only because multi-coloured face paint and bright yellow clothing would probably be frowned upon) support for The Boys.

And in Johannesburg...

Joburg seems to have gone a bit flag mad. My friend Rene thinks it's a bit overwhelming and too distracting to be fluttering away beside a busy highway. I tend to agree but it does have quite a visual impact.

These pics also courtesy of my girl on the scene, Lou-chan

Cape Town's World Cupness

According to my buddy, Lorinda, Cape Town is always slow on the uptake. She seems to feel that the Mother City's most recent contributions to World Cup madness, this (in my opinion) cool football fountain and lights which are very reminiscent of the Christmas lights which go up every year, are a bit random and may be too little... too late?

Pics courtesy of Lorinda



Then again, Cape Town did go to the impressive lengths to construct this massive vuvuzela, on the old unfinished bridge in the middle of the city. May as well put the most pointless bridge in the history of the world to good use.

These pics courtesy of Nuria

It's lekker bru! A user's guide to S.African lexicon

Source: Yahoo! News
Here's a newcomer's guide to some uniquely South African words and phrases for football fans heading to the month-long tournament.
- Howzit: A universal greeting, a short-form version of "How is it going?"
- Bru: Abbreviation of "brother" used to address friends and colleagues as in "Howzit bru?"
- Yebo: The Zulu word for Yes which is now used across the board.
- Sharp: A sign-off signalling an agreement as well as farewell, often said twice.
- Ag shame: An expression of sympathy or annoyance.
- Eish!: An exclamation expressing exasperation.
- Lekker: An Afrikaans word meaning superb or fantastic which is applied equally to a person, object or event.
- Braai: An originally Afrikaans word for barbecue, which often features a sizzling boerewors, a curled spiced sausage.
- Biltong: Dried meat -- usually beef but also from other animals as ostrich, antelope or buffalo -- which is eaten as a snack, often accompanied by a beer or glass of wine.
- Rooibos: Red bush tea, South Africa's unofficial national brew which is grown in the southwestern Cape region.
- Shebeens: Makeshift bars in the townships which sell often super strength homemade brews.
- Muti: A traditional tree or plant-based medicine. Its practitioners are known as nyangas.
- Sangoma: Traditional Zulu healers or sorcerers who often summon ancestral spirits to foretell the future.
- Townships: Black-only neighbourhoods under apartheid that were once mainly shantytowns but now include middle-class areas. The most famous is Soweto, short-form for SOuth WEst TOwnships, near Johannesburg.
- Jozi: The abbreviation for the largest city of Johannesburg which is also known as Joburg.
- Veld or Veldt: An Afrikaans words meaning shrubland, it now generally refers to the countryside as a whole.
- Robot: Traffic lights.

Flag envy...

... we all experience it sometimes.

Pepsi FIFA 2010 - Refresh Everything ad (Football world cup) Best Ad EVER!

FIFA World Cup 2010 Song by K'naan & David Bisbal (official video)

8 days to go before the Football WC opens in SA!

So the countdown begins here and now...

Natsukashi and y'know kinda kawaii

So I'm doing some spring cleaning when I found some farewell cards from my students at Niitsu High School. These are all about 4 years old and they're so cute... but there are also some hilariously random things in them that I thought I'd share.

• Girl: "Dear Natasha Thank you for everything!!" then some bits of paper pasted down and written in tiny print way at the bottom are these words: "In fact. I can't swim."
• Boy: "Natasha. I'll miss you. Please say hello to John. You must come back. Good bye. Take care." So... WHO THE HECK IS JOHN????
• Boy: "I'm poor at English. But I like English a few now. Thank you." So sweet.
• Girl: "Dear Natasha. I love English!! Thank you very much. I've really enjoyed the evening very much indeed (?????? - N). It was very nice talking with Ms Natasha! I love you. Good luck." That whole letter was so sweet but that little bit in the middle was so very...
  
• Boy: "Dear Natasha. Good bye. Please bring me a present when you come back. See you." Don't think he QUITE realised that I was leaving... forever. I keep thinking about him waiting and waiting for me to come back with his present. Oh the guilt.

I really, really loved my Niitsu students. Niitsu High and Bunsui High will always be my all-time favourite schools. Great students and fantastic teachers.

Aaaaaaaawwwwwww!

So Tomo-kun is a cool boy, he puts up this front of toughness for all to see. He does up his name card all sparkly like and looks extra kewl cos of it... he's a 2nd grade 中学生 kid.

BUT... on the inside of this kewl, awesome name card (where his buddies can't see it) is the following super secret message written in the tiniest print ever... which just MELTED my heart. MELTED it I tell ya... into a puddle of chocolatey goo.

Bless his darling little heart for totally making my month!

Freshlyground - "Pot Belly" Music Video

I loveloveLOVE this song!! And the video is super cute. Zolani has the most amazing voice. She sings so effortlessly.

SHOUT SA

Let's make SA a better, safer country for all!

Nagaoka winter. Shudder

Now as all y'all know, I'm not one for the cold and snow, which is why it's kind of ironic that I'm playing the snow queen (or yuki onna) in this year's musical. Worse than that, we're also experiencing Nagaoka's worst snow in 27 years. Oh joy. Some pics for your delight... cheers.