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Habibti dragged me off to the “Fanwalk for Peace and Unity on Mandela Day Sunday 18th July 2010” and in typical Cape Town shoowa style it took forever to get started. This was actually very cool as it allowed us to meet up with some great friends and family before things got moving. Personal highlight was the Caramel Popcorn that I got from one of the stands, the fact that half the Cape Town police force rocked up to escort a few hundred people and the singing of our national anthem at the end. The only down side was the fucken vuvuzlias that pfaaaaped next to me head.

What I find amazing about the whole things was that it started off as a Tweet from Charly’s Bakery and grew from there. People took it up and expanded the idea to Facebook, blog posts and news articles. Much as I hate the whole social media thing, this just underlines the power and potential.

Walking for Peace with Habibti, the Noodles (3/4 of them in the above photo), Brother-In-Law, my NBF and her mom was worth the wait and a great way to spend a Sunday in Cape Town.

I’ll be upfront and say that I’m not attending any live matches of the Soccer World Cup. Reasons are:

• Cost – I can’t afford it.
• Apathy – I really left things way too late.
• Crowds – I just don’t do them.
• Noise – Vuvuzela (need I say more?)
• I’m just not that in to her – even though she is the beautiful game.
• Italy – If I want to watch people fall down dramatically I’d watch TheatreSports

With Habibti’s involvement with the Fan Park I admit that I’ve become a lot more active in reading most of the news articles, blog posts and Twitter feeds on the subject and as a result I feel some regret now. Maybe one match would have been fun to go and watch. We’ve done our bit to buy in by decorating our house with flags and little balls. Habibti has flags on her car, to the point where we feel guilty going out sans flags. We’ve watched some of the warm up matches on TV and started short listing our “other teams” should Bafana get knocked out.

But the more I read about the bungling FIFA the more I’m starting to believe that they are doing everything possible to make this a failure come what may. Now I read that “FIFA deceives hundreds of fans” and last week it was FIFA blocking access to condoms and HIV education materials at World Cup stadiums and fan parks. We all know that there are two reasons why the Arian fans are happy about the World Cup taking place in South Africa:

• Soccer
• ? (Hint – It’s not babotie)

South Africa is the HIV/Aids capital of the world!!

Habibti is experiencing a painful red tide this morning so I pootled off to walk the two bitches in rolling mist while she stayed in bed with her NBF. Before that I was listing to “The Waterboys – A rock in the weary land”, a LP that I haven’t heard before. One line in “The Charlatan’s lament” really hooked me and has been in my mind ever since:

By dawn’s empty light I cried to no-one at all

How many people are there that feel this every day? No matter how complicated and hard things may seem in any given moment my life rocks. It’s about perspective and appreciation.

Now onto Shitpark, there has been an increase of people who don’t pick up after their dogs and it’s driving me insane. I live graphic fantasies while I slalom through piles of shit trying to identify the steaming blobs of my charges. I dry heave as I wrap my hand in little blue bags and scoop, but I do it none the less. It’s not hard, just a moment of throwing up into my own mouth and tears streaming down my face when Bayla has a nervous tummy. When I see piles of shit next to the slide and swings I imagine myself sitting on a vantage point with a sniper rifle and taking out the fuckers that don’t pick up. I imagine myself following the guilty home with bags of ignored shit and throwing it at their front doors or smearing it over the door handles of their cars.

We’ve just found out that the World Cup is coming to good old SA, so we went out and got some paraphernalia for 14 Duke street. We’re proudly South African!