Paul's Family

Paul the Octopus has family living in a tank outside
a restaurant down the street from me!

Farewell World Cup 2010

Image from Google Images

 
It came. It entertained. It deprived us of sleep. And now it's gone. The 2010 FIFA World Cup is over, and if you give me a quizzical look as if to say, "What the hell are you talking about?" then I'm going to have to slap you right here. Right now. You simply can't not know what I'm talking about. For the past month, and months leading up to it, the World Cup (soccer, in case you didn't know) held in South Africa, has headlined every possible form of media.

Honestly, I wasn't expecting to get caught up in the soccer hype, but online friends from almost every continent made it a lot easier to adapt to the erratic sleep patterns I endured. On some days, I was napping from 8pm to 10:30pm. Watch a game. Nap again and wake up at 3am. I'd stay awake till about 5:30am, nap till 6am or until I absolutely had to start getting ready for work.

Many people asked how I managed to teach my classes. Well, with great ease! It was at 3 or 4pm when it would feel like my body became sluggish, while I was still at work.

Last night I woke up at 1:30am to watch the Closing Ceremony - which was simply incredible. It was pointless going back to sleep, so I stayed up and watched a bit of the game (Spain vs Netherlands) but I kept dozing off. I woke up just in time to see the trophy being lifted into the air by SPAIN!

As someone who never followed soccer before, I had the best time watching, supporting, cheering and changing my nationality every day for the different teams that were playing.

Who cares if I didn't know the severity of yellow cards, red cards or penalties? I had fun anyway :-)

I think South Africa did very well as a host nation. I wonder what's next for Mzansi?

Waka Waka Baby

My buddy (Ajay) sent me this clip of a baby dancing to Shakira's Waka Waka.

Vuvuzela Explained

Click to enlarge:

Via Mashable

2010 Worldcup: Moses Mabhida Stadium (Durban)

Thanks to Yogita for sending this
(Pic by Hugan)

Is the vuvuzela too noisy for the universe?

From K-Times:

South Korea: Will World Cup players be exempt from military duty?

By Kang Shin-who
Staff reporter (K-Times)

Whenever Korean athletes make outstanding performances at international sports events, a sensitive issue surfaces: the exemption of players from completing mandatory military service.

Right after the South Korean football team secured their ticket to the round of 16 at the South African World Cup, the chief of the football organization said he plans to propose the government to revive the exemption of the players from military duty.
 
Cho Chung-yun, chief of the Korea Football Association, said, "What the players want is to be exempted from their military duties."

His remark is causing a fresh round of disputes on the Internet.

In Korea, all able-bodied men over 20 are required to serve in the military for about two years under the country's conscription system. Olympic medalists and gold medalists from the Asian Games have been exempted from the national service.

Africa Football Shoe

From Korea Times

Vuvuzela on Korean classroom timer?!

Even the animated Korean teacher on our classroom timer
looks like she's blowing a vuvuzela!

WC 2010 - Hite behind 'em!

Korean beer, Hite celebrates the 2010 FIFA World Cup with these colourful labels.

WC 2010 - The Fresh Kick

2010 World Cup mint tins from Watsons

Viva Bafana Bafana Viva!

Ok, granted I don't usually follow soccer, but the FIFA 2010 World Cup is extra special as the host country is South Africa.

For the past three years, I've lived in South Korea and my love and patriotism for my country has definitely increased over the years.



Since last week Thursday, June 10 when I (virtually) attended the Kick Off Concert, I have pulled all-nighters - gone to work, meetings and tried to maintain a somewhat balanced lifestyle as I straddled two timezones (South Africa and South Korea).

On Friday night when I watched the kick off match with hundreds...thousands of fans across the world (online), my heart skipped a beat when Bafana Bafana scored a goal in the first match of the 2010 World Cup - on African soil.


Cameras panned over the colourful crowds cheering, dancing, singing, hugging each other as they waved their flags high with pride. I remember tweeting LADUUUMA! (pronounced la-doo-mah... it's a popular South African cheer to celebrate goals at soccer matches) I also sent texts to my parents and brother in South Africa expressing my joy. The electric energy flowing from the bottom of the African continent was contagious, regardless of timezones.

The online community was buzzing, especially of tweets with labels #BafanaBafana. For my non-South African readers, Bafana Bafana means "the boys the boys".  People talked about the team as their own children. "Come on, boys....you can do it" It was quite endearing. When Siphiwe Tshabalala scored a goal in the first match against Mexico on Friday, June 11, South Africans were all praises for him. I felt super proud to be part of a nation coming together like that.

On Wednesday, June 16 (Youth Day in South Africa) I went to bed at 10pm - probably the earliest I've slept all week, just so that I could wake up in time to catch the South Africa vs Uruguay match.

At 03:30, the game started and I had butterflies in my stomach as I watched and half chatted to friends across the world - from South Africa to Germany to Switzerland.

When I heard the Korean commentators shout GOAL! My eyes darted to the TV...who? Who? WHO?

It was Uruguay.

Uruguay 1 South Africa 0.



My heart beat a little faster and I didn't know what to expect. Friends told me, "It's still early in the game, don't give up."

An hour and a half later, the final score was Uruguay 3 South Africa 0.

There were shots on TV of people leaving the stadium before the match was over. People were looking disgraced, sad and angry.

Why were they leaving the stadium?

To me, that was an embarrassment. All eyes are currently on South Africa. People are judging us in every aspect and being the host nation, what do you think they're thinking of people leaving when the game was not even over? It's a disgrace.

And then the online community started their rage. Some said they wanted to cry. I was one of them. I really felt sad. I was surprised at my own feelings, but this is the power of solidarity across the ocean and continents.

Other netizens hailed the day as "the day the vuvuzela fell silent"

Getting ready for work on Thursday morning, I got to thinking about all the comments I read online.

The only comment I know I said was that I felt like crying, but I never hammered the team or its players on their performance.

Granted, only loyal soccer fans will understand how fair the games are or how well the players played, but this is what I maintain:

Parents support their children in sports (and other things) no matter what. Even if they know their little boy or girl is slower than others or not that good, they sit on the sidelines and cheer. When they don't make it, do you see mothers/fathers driving away angry that they children played badly? Do they simply not speak to them?

No! They continue to support their children and encourage them to better themselves next time.

Many South Africans have declared that they will still be die-hard Bafana Bafana supporters, but I was really disappointed to see that others have failed miserably to support their nations team.

Is sex correlated with World Cup Football?

By Kim Tae-gyu, Park Si-soo from K-Times

For naysayers, here is an interesting statistic.

On the Saturday night of Korea's convincing victory over Greece in their opening match of the 2010 South Africa World Cup, convenience stores recorded a jump in condom sales.

It may be thanks largely to the raging hormones of hundreds of thousands of young people braving the rain in rooting for their team outdoors across the nation. Perhaps, it may need two more victories from Korea to see a firm correlation between the two.

GS25, a convenience store subsidiary of GS Group, said Monday that its outlets had sold about 5,000 condoms on Saturday, a five-fold increase from four years ago during the Germany World Cup.

Enjoy World Cup in good health

By Bae Ji-sook from K-Times

I'm going to have to adhere to many of these. I can already feel it taking a toll on me!

The Word Cup craze is soon to once again sweep the nation and even more people are eager to show their support for the South Korean football squad.

However, because of the time difference between Korea and South Africa, people will have to stay up late at night and might become agitated the next day especially after stuffing themselves with alcohol and snacks.

Doctors at Samsung Medical Center have shared tips on how to enjoy the World Cup matches and the accompanying sleepless nights without too much damage to the body.

Korean drums give vuvuzela a good run

I just came across this article from Daily Dispatch. 

Pic from The Herald

FORGET about the sound of the vuvuzela – the Korean drum has proven to be a force to be reckoned with.

The friendly city of Port Elizabeth came alive at the weekend when more than 31 000 fans converged on the Nelson Mandela Stadium to watch South Korea outwit former European champions Greece, winning an enthralling match 2-0.

This, after more than 20000 people went through the gates of the host city fan park at St Georges , to witness Bafana Bafana’s enthralling 1-1 draw with Mexico on Friday afternoon.

The stadium itself was a sight to behold with the drum-beating Korean supporters – nicknamed the Red Devils – proving they would be more than a match for South Africa’s vuvuzela-blowing faithful.

Virtual Vuvuzela

Check out my latest iPod Touch app ;)

World Cup 2010 Cartoon on N + S Korea

From Korea Times

World Cup 2010 Twitter additions

Twitter has introduced two great features for its users to join in the celebrations of the 2010 FIFA World Cup being held in South Africa.  It has created a Twitter World Cup site which tracks tweets relating to specific countries, matches and anything World-Cup related.

Secondly, to liven up and colour tweets, simply add a hash tag (#) before the first three letters of a country's name and its flag (hash flag) will display on tweets when updated.

The full list of hash flags are:

Algeria #alg - Argentina #arg - Australia #aus - Brazil #bra - Chile #chil - Cote d'lvoire: civ - Cameroon #cmr - Denmark #den - England #eng - Spain #esp - France #fra - Germany #ger - Ghana #gha - Greece #gre - Honduras #hon - Italy #ita - Japan #jpn - Korea Republic #kor - Mexico #mex - Netherlands #ned - Nigeria #nga - New Zealand #nzl - Paraguay #par - Portugal #por - Korea DPR (North Korea) #prk - South Africa #rsa - Serbia #srb - Switzerland: #sui - Slovakia #svk - Slovenia #svn - Uruguay #uru - United States of America #usa World Cup #worldcup will display a little soccer ball.

World Cup 2010 Opening Ceremony

After pulling an all-nighter from the previous night, I only got home from work around 9pm, just in time to catch the FIFA 2010 World Cup Opening Ceremony. Seeing South Africa on Korean TV, knowing that the entire world was watching my country.

President Jacob Zuma delivered a message of apology from former president, Nelson Mandela who couldn't attend the event because of the tragedy that hit his family the previous night. His great-granddaughter, Zenani Mandela died in a car accident on her way home from the Kick Off Concert the previous night.

The first match was South Africa vs Mexico (1-1)

World Cup 2010 Kick Off Concert

On Thursday, June 10 2010, South Africa was gearing up for the 2010 FIFA World Cup Kick Off Concert at 8pm that evening. I got home pretty late and at about 02:30 I was ready for bed. Many friends in South Africa were at Orlando Stadium in Soweto (Johannesburg). I wasn't really tired, but had to get to bed when a few friends sent me messages saying "Stay awake!" Others said "It's a once in a lifetime experience" and "It will be worth it". So I did! Watching the live stream on vevo.com, the energy of the crowd was simply infectious.

Artists who performed were: Alicia Keys, Angelique Kidjo, Amadou & Mariam, Black Eyed Peas, Blk Jks, Freshly Ground, Hugh Masekela, John Legend, Juanes, K'Naan, Mzansi Youth Choir, Shakira, Soweto Gospel Choir, The Parlotones, Tinariwen, Vieux Farka Toure, Vusi Mahlasela.

(All pics are screen shots from the live stream on Vevo)

Jazz icon, Hugh Masekela - affectionately known as "Bra Hugh" on the Twittersphere performed "Grazing in the Grass" followed by the late Miriam Makeba's song, "Pata Pata" featuring the gorgeous multi-award winner, Lira.

FIFA President Sebb Blatter and South African President Jacob Zuma walked on stage hand in hand as the crowd cheered.

Sebb Blatter: Football is not only a game. Football connects people.

President Zuma thanked everyone for attending the concert as well as FIFA for giving South Africa the opportunity to hold this special event - for the first time on South African soil.

"I would like specially to thank South Africans for having received our visitors so warmly.
I want to thank you and also ask you to show this warmness for the whole duration of the tournament until they leave South Africa," he said.

Africa is hosting this tournament.
South Africa is a stage
South Africa is rocking. It’s cool.

The Black Eyed Peas disappointed greatly. I still don't know why their opening song was "Where is the Love". Dressed in some kind of military-themed / space cadet costumes, they sounded tired, bored and uninspired as they belted through a medley of their hits, including "Pump It", "Meet me Halfway", "Boom Boom Pow" and "I gotta feeling" which (kind of) got the crowd in the mood for the music talent that set the stage on fire for the rest of the evening. There was a lot of criticism on their performances, especially for Fergie...some bluntly saying that "She can't sing."

Mali's Amadou and Mariam took the stage with "Welcome to Mali" and "Africa".

FIFA is supporting a cause: 1 Goal - Education for All

Angelique Kidjo (feat Soweto Gospel Choir) took my breath away with "Malaika/Africa" She was joined by John Legend who then sang some of his popular numbers.

Out of all the performances, I went crazy for Archbishop Desmond Tutu. He was "adorable" personified!

He walked on to stage looking excited like a child on Christmas morning.

"Fantastic. Just fantastic. Can you feel it?" he said.
"You can touch it. Welkom to ons land, Suid Afrika. Ke Nako."

"The Arch" - as he was affectionately called on Twitter, sang the praises of former president Nelson Mandela.

"We have to pay a wonderful tribute to whom we owe all of this. He is in Johannesburg and if we make a loud enough noise, he will hear us and so we say - Halala Nelson Mandela. Viva Madiba."

The Arch was visibly bursting with energy. "I'm dreaming man. I'm dreaming. Wake me up. Oh what a lovely dream. Ya ya ya ya."

"We are the world. We welcome all...for Africa is the cradle of humanity. So we welcome you home. All of you. All of you. Germans, French, every single one of you. We are all Africans."

"...and we want to say to the world: Thank you for helping this ugly ugly ugly worm - caterpillar - which we were to become a beautiful beautiful butterfly. We are a beautiful beautiful butterfly."

Alicia Keys looked beautiful and lit the stage up with her presence as she sang a medley of her hits, including: "You don't know my name", "Sleeping with a broken heart" and "Falling" before she sang "Empire State of Mind (Part 2)"

"Concrete jungle where dreams are made of
Hear it for New York.
Tonight we're in Jo'burg
There's nothing you can't do when you're in Africa.
Hear it for World Cup, World Cup, World Cup."

She reminded the audience not to "forget to love each other" before she introduced BLK JKS on stage. The crowd went crazy when the group & Alicia broken into "Too late for mama" - a tribute to the late Brenda Fassie

K'Naan got the audience waving a sea of colourful flags as he sang "Wavin flags"

Big Nuz & Tira gave the global audience a taste of local music with "Umlilo"

The Parlotones also impressed with their performance

The show stopper was definitely Shakira. She opened with "She Wolf", followed by "Hips Don't Lie" before she erupted into the official World Cup song, "This Time for Africa" feat South African group, Freshly Ground - who joined her in the second half of the song. The energy was electrifying and I still get goosebumps watching the video.

The finale was "Everyday People" by all the artists