Saturday 10th July

I was up and out the door by 9.15am, safe in the knowledge that somewhere (most likely, the Mugg & Bean cafe or Keg & Countryman pub) would be showing the opening match of the Tri-Nations rugby tournament between New Zealand and South Africa, which was being held in Auckland. Leechie, Simon and myself had…

Friday 9th July

I woke up at 11am, and soon enough had Simon Bellis filling me in with the details of his sleepless night thanks to our interuptions. It turns out that Leechie’s cab dropped him off down the road at 2am, when he then buzzed to get in, I got back at 4am (and buzzed to get…

Thursday 8th July

I was afforded just over 4 hours’ sleep before my alarm went off, reminding me that I needed to pick Leechie up from the Gautrain station in Sandton after his flight up from Cape Town. I snoozed it, and woke up 5 minutes later…and snoozed it again. This went on for half an hour or…

Wednesday 7th July

Wednesday started early. Germany vs. Spain in the World Cup Semi Final. With a German in the camp, there was never any doubt that it would be anything other than an early start. At 7.40am, there was a knock at our door…it was Valeria, who had dragged Cath out of their room and was ready…

Tuesday 6th July

There were issues first thing in the morning when the taxi for George and Kaz (due at Park Lodge at 5am) failed to turn up, meaning Simon (who’d been to collect George) had to take them to the airport himself, or they risked missing their flights to Port Elizabeth. At that time of the morning,…

Monday 5th July

I woke up at about 10.30am, and got straight into editing the matches I was behind on…namely, most of them so far! The fire was still burning in the log burner in the dining room, so the room was warm and actually (shock horror!) quite cozy, as I started things off. Simon had just woken…

Sunday 4th July

Independance Day started with a trip to the Mugg & Bean for breakfast (how original!) following a late lie-in that I woke up from at 11.30am…Simon had started to cook scrambled eggs, but the moment I mentioned I fancied something out, he dumped the lot and had no hesitation in joining myself and Cath in…

Saturday 3rd July

I felt like I’d only been asleep 5 minutes when the alarm went off at 5.45am, 3 and a half hours after I shut my eyes. I chucked on the clothes I’d taken off all at once the previous evening, and staggered towards the front door, car keys in hand, to find Valeria stood outside…

Friday 2nd July

We spent a few minutes figuring out how to pack the car today, knowing that we had a VW Touran and a tiny Picanto-type car to fit 9 people in (plus gear) for our trip to Soccer City. Marc had changed his flights and was heading home in the evening, so we decided to take…

Thursday 1st July

July! Wahoo! I woke up knowing I was now on the home straight towards getting back and seeing Meggy, Izzy and everyone else in apparently-sunny England. In the morning, Bellis and I had assigned ourselves the task of taking 2 of our 4 cars back to Thrifty (2 lovely Nissan Tiidas, a hatchback and a saloon), as…

Wednesday 30th June

The boozers arrived back at the Lodge at about 7.45am…an epic night was had by all accounts! Chris, in particular, had some tales to tell, leaving someone at the gates to the Lodge before walking through the front door. Fortunately, with 2 days off now here, it didn’t matter, and the Lodge kicked into life…

Tuesday 29th June

We had all day to look forward to Paraguay vs. Japan in Pretoria! However, a lot of the guys in the Lodge had been put on the waiting list for this match, which operates on a first come, first served basis. The waiting list is for people who have not initially been granted a pass,…