orange you glad i didn’t say “river trip”

so tomorrow i join with andrew of vaughan once more (as i did two years ago) and a bunch of youngsters from Christchurch, Kenilworth, to head up to and then down the river of orange (yes, it’s my new thing, deal with it!) and i am very much looking forward to it…

originally we were hoping that the beautiful val would be able to be there but sadly thesising and her old housemate’s wedding will be keeping her away and so we will have to make do with singing and talking and poetising about her as we did last time – when she arrived to pick me up after the previous trip the whole bus of youths felt like she was an old friend and a bunch of them even got out and hugged her…

looking forward to a big reunion with Ollie of Ver who was our river guide, my co-writer and singer of ‘give me hope Johanna people-on-river-trip themed songs (along with daniel of corder who sadly won’t be making it this time) who challenged me (well i don’t know if it was an active challenge but he did it so i kinda had to) to ten pushups which he did on his canoe which i then did (or did we do twenty?) with another guy (andrew winter perhaps?) across two canoes and then he did a headstand on his canoe and i think it was getting late by then… amazing guide, amazing trip, can’t wait…

altho there is this little nagging feeling in the back of my mind that i call stayawayfromthearguscycletourophobia which is the internal wailing scream of “never again!” that one sings to oneself (in a grunge metal combination of merit) for about 103 of the 109km of the Argus Cycle tour due to pain and cramp and wind and what-was-i-thinking (maybe last year’s argus cycle tour was not sufficient training for this one and getting on my bike at least once between races might have helped) and so on. but then a day later someone asks, “so are you going to do the argus cycle tour next year?” and you hear the words, “oh of course yes, wouldn’t miss it” come out of your mouth like some bad twilight zone episode curse…

so there is that nagging feeling… i’m not sure if it was the cold or the wet or the killing my arms by playing gondolier boy to lucy (my most excellent boat buddyess except in the bringing-suitable-snacks-for-brett department) slash showing off or the missing of my future wife or the bugs or the hard floor or the…

oh boy.

it is here less

so it’s finally over

i remember when it was announced that south africa would be hosting the soccer world cup and countdowns of four years or more and then 300 days and finally a few weeks and then it was tomorrow…

we missed a large portion of the group games due to being on a namibia namrocking trip but we got to watch the opening ceremony and game in a restaurant called amazink in kayamandi township [where i used to live before i got married] with a completely diverse crowd with such spirit and life which was a complete vibe

we missed south africa/uruguay (namibia) but got back in time to watch a heartbreakingly close SA/french game which at half time looked headed towards the 4-0 we needed to progress – then my buddy dunc took me to watch netherlands/cameroon live at the cape town stadium, after watching slovakia take italy out at a packed quay 4 complete with orange saturated vibe in the afternoon before the game

and then tbV, Reegs, Muscle-John and myself did the fan walk which was a complete crazy exciting buzz (yes, and vibe|) and watched netherlands take out uruguay at on broadway

and finally back to amazink for the final with some okes from enGAGE for what i thort was a pretty awful game of soccer and reffing (and the third worst one i watched after france/uruguay and brazil/portugal) and afterwards really thort they should have given the cup to germany or just maybe kept it til the next cup – way too much acting on both sides, some questionable reffing decisions (netherlands missed out on two corners at least) and yellow carding and apart from a few exciting moments and a decent goal from spain, a pretty boring affair after some really quality games leading up to it

south africa proved we can host and did an incredible job which i think the whole world is pretty much agreed on

and so far no sounds of the feared xenophobia so hoping and praying that the hoping and praying has paid off – so much good in terms of unity, bringing people together and nation spirit has happened it would be tragic to lose that now

so well done south africa – brilliant job and bafana bafana you did us proud (agonising equalising goal from mexico on that first nite)

but, having enjoyed it quite a lot, and enjoyed hanging with people, i am relieved and ready for it to be done now

too much worship not directed at or near God – too much focus away from the things in life that count – way too much distraction

“it’s life Jim, but not as we know it” [dr bones, star trek]

aaaaaand….break.