In order to best demonstrate exactly how relaxing and pacific this "vacation" has been, an d in order to illustrate why I have less than eight minutes to type this, let me tell you about four hard-boiled eggs.
My father boiled them on Wednesday morning. We got a call from my aunt Nolene before we could eat them. Two cups of tea, a glass of Tang, and four hard-boiled eggs sat in the kitchen for 24 hours, until Thursday morning, when we rushed out the door to meet my Uncle Joey, who was driving us to do some shopping.
24 hours later, we had to sprint out of the door so that aunt Florrie could drive with us to the Park and Ride to get to the game. I managed to microwave one cup of tea and drink it. The Tang had a fly in it and had to be thrown out. The eggs remained uneaten. My father's tea went in the sink.
This morning, we'rein a screaming rush to get on the road in our hired car so that we can drive to Port Alfred, and then take the coastal road to East London, stay for two days, then drive back like mad things on Monday morning so that we can Park and Ride for the afternoon game here in Port Elizabeth at 1600h. The distance from Port Elizabeth to East London is approximately that of Edmonton to Calgary. As the crow flies. In reality, the road curves like a sumbitch all up and down the coast.
No rest for the wicked.
Good to see that Mike Telford is coming to South Africa for the quarter-finals, but I doubt I'd be able to match his ticket asking prices. Still trying to decide if we should try for tickets to the quarters in P.E. or in Cape Town. Seeing the game in Cape Town would mean slightly less hustle and bustle, and an extended stay in one place for over a week (gasp!). On the other hand, watching a game in Port Elizabeth would most likely be cheaper, easier to obtain, and in a more familiar game environment. Have until tomorrow to decide.
Agree with Kropfreiter that the referreeing nin the past few games has been shocking. Absolutely shocking. I can only theorize that the officials are so aggravated by the vuvuzelas that they want to vent as much ichor on the world and everything in it as possible.
The offside call against the U.S. was a crap call in an otherwise half-decently reffed game. The German game was atrocious. I've never seen anything like that. I don't know what you people saw on television, but from where I sat in the stands, any time a German, a Serbian, and the ball were found in the same hectare of land, there was:
- a free kick (usually against the Germans)
- a yellow card (usually against the Germans)
- advantage played (always against the Germans)
The ref spent half the game indicating advantage. The German players spent more time looking at the ref and trying to interpret what they'd done wrong this time, and less time looking at the ball or the Serbians. I'm surprised that the ref managed to make it through 93 minutes of having his arms extended in front of him without spraining something in his back. How to confuse and disrupt a young team in the World's biggest tournament, lesson one: Whistle down absolutely every incidental contact until they are so paranoid about going near the ball that their only recourse is to lob floating balls over the last defenders and hope that the linesman won't blow offside again. Oh wait, there he goes. OK, there are no plays to be made. What a joke. If ten-man Germany could still manage to struggle valiantly against fourteen man Serbia, I say congratulations. I just wish that a black African ref would have officiated a game. I would really love to see an African ref awarding kick after kick to the most virulently racist, ethnic-cleansing yobbos in the tournament. Leave it to the Spanish to fully get onside with the boorish intolerant bigots. They're good at that. Réal Madrid has a special place in the Bernebéu set aside for that lot. So congratulations to the incompetent, the intolerant, and the mediocre. You have won a tremendous triumph.
Must run. Back when I can.
Cheers,
—mARKUS
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