Ms Chocaholic with lots of opinions and an attitude

Sunday, June 13, 2010

FIFA World Cup 2010 ...my sleepless days begin

So the World Cup kicked off on June 11th, and no Im not going to attempt to compete with the millions of sites already reporting the news, the latest result or the predictions. What I will endeavour to do is share snippets of my own experience, interesting or otherwise :)

First game: South Africa vs Mexico. Even without really caring either way for any of the teams (sorry to my Mexican and South African friends) - I did, however, head out into the cold cold Sydney night (forcast said 10 degrees, but my bodythermometre tells me it was closer to 6 degrees celsius!) and watched it at Darling Harbour at midnight! yes thats right, 6 degrees at MIDNIGHT!! for teams I dont really care too much about. The things I do in the name of football huh??

Second game: South Korea vs Greece. I get a call from S [an aside: at the time I had no idea who S is!!] turns out Sam is a friend of another friend, who has been tricked into going to watch the game at the Enmore Theatre. So he called me to ask for back-up support. An explainer maybe needed here: S is Korean. Anyway......you may still wonder why the back up? The Enmore Theatre is home to Australia's large Greek population!!

We walk in, a girl friend with her red coat and red scarf - head right to the front of the theatre, where S proceeds to stand up in front of the crowd, and waves around his red scarf :p nice move. I do the same when the South Koreans scored. When it became 2 nil up, I said to my friend, "Im grabbing that Greece flag from the stage on my way out. Thats gonna be our safety ticket out of here" :p
[ I do have to add that - despite all the boo-ings we received, they were a great crowd, and most of the time they were abusing their own team :p ] Sorry Kat and Vicki and all my other Greek friends - I know Im a bit of a traitor.

Reminded me of sitting in front of the big screen in a Gummersbach conference room with Natie, Lara and Enikoe - 2 Argentinians a Hungarian and a Thai making the maximum noise in our white and blue flags and shirts, while a crowd of Germans hover behind us!

Watched bits and pieces of the next: Argentina vs Nigeria game, and totally missed the ENgland vs USA game. I will have to make a bit more effort on the foregoing sleep, but then again I understand I didnt miss much on the England game :P

Can NOT miss the Australia vs Germany game tomorrow morning though. 4.30am.......oh what joy that is going to be staying awake for, not to mention the conflict of interest. (Ive got my Green and Gold flag ready, but also found my Black Red and Yellow wrist band!)

Saturday, June 12, 2010

While I was sleeping....

On May 31st Israeli commandos raided a ship carrying aid destined for Gaza in international waters. Nine killed. Details on various news site: Reuters, New York Times

With my inexplicably strong empathy and allegience to the Jewish people, I have always mostly been a supporter of Israel, but with this latest incident, I find my support more than wavering.

Archie Comics introduced a new character - gay Kevin Keller! (I didnt even realise they still have Archie Comics. Well, it is just one of those things that you stop paying attention to, and you assume it ceased to exist? Used to read them in my teen years - absolutely loved it!
From the Archie Comics website:

On September 1st, Kevin Keller, Archie Comics' first openly gay character, will be welcomed into the town of Riverdale.

"The introduction of Kevin is just about keeping the world of Archie Comics current and inclusive. Archie's hometown of Riverdale has always been a safe world for everyone. It just makes sense to have an openly gay character in Archie comic books," stated Archie Comics Co- CEO, Jon Goldwater.

Good on them :)

And finally, cant exactly claim this happened while I was sleeping, on the contrary, while I was wide awake (and likely to be going without sleep for most of it): the FIFA World Cup 2010 kicked off on June 11th! Of course this event will get its own separate post(s) in ensuing days :) My Oranje shirt is ready....but I now realise what I should have bought is Oranje scarves and jackets! given how cold it is in Sydney these days.