SBS World Chant - Lets all play some football!

It's not often that you make your singing debut on national television… Somehow this has happened to me. Luckily I've left the country! Sorry if you all want to shoot the screen by the end of World Cup!

I shot this for SBS back in about April and left the country before it came on TV but just found it on Youtube. 

I think they've done a really good job of bringing an honest representation of many nationalities together. The creative team at US Sydney worked hard to find real football fans from all around the world and travelled to something like 8 countries in 2 weeks to capture the footage you see in this clip. 

Well done on a beautiful song!

I've been up to lots of fun stuff in the last couple of days - will get a post together as soon as I can! 

Rustenburg Week: Other things to do...

Rustenburg's Fan Fest will keep us occupied for a lot of the evening hours but if you're after some non-football adventure options then there are a few other activities to check out. 

The Sun City Casino complex claims to be South Africa's 'Las Vegas' and is located just outside of Rustenburg. If you're sick of the natural landscape of South Africa you might just be able to hide yourself in this place. It's a wholllee lota man made.  A huge entertainment complex with nightclubs, cinemas, golf courses, an artificial surfing beach, a crocodile park, a waterworld for parasailing, water skiing and sindsurfing, a Disney-inspired Lost City... The list goes on...


Sounds like a cross between Crown Casino in Melbourne and the Gold Coast... Here's an article from The Age. 





Another destination is Hartbeespoort Dam which offers paragliding and handgliding, lots of water sports, an aquarium, private zoo, a snake park and a cable way! The area seems to be a bit of a weekend get away with lots of touristy things, local art galleries and events going on. 

The Magaliesberg Mountains offer a breath of fresh air. With canopy tours, hot air balloon trips, abseiling, horse riding this might be a good option if you need a break from the football fever. 

Also, while you're here - Botswana is only about an hours drive from Rustenburg, I really wanna go there! 

South African Cuisine

Instead of holding Bratwurst in bread in one hand and a Beck's in the other, this World Cup it'll be a little different. Below will be our pre/post match eats!

A 'Braai' the South African's answer to a BBQ (Thanks to Azza on the GGarmy

forum for the cultural lesson) . The Curly sausage is 'Boerewors'.

'Bunny Chow'. Strangest looking little concoction and name, however apparently 

quite yummy. It's Curry in hollowed out bread and mostly resides in Durban.

'Biltong'. Beef jerky style. Gross!

'Frikkadelle'. Meat Balls. Cool name, looks yum.

'Ouma Rusks'. You dip it in your tea! Maybe for the day after the match?

'MelkTert'. Say this one out loud and you'll fit in in SA straight away.

'Malva Pudding'. I have such a sweet tooth so I'm looking forward to hunting this 

one down...

Game Parks South Africa

A little disappointed to find out that these ‘game parks’ my South African friends have been telling me that I MUST get to turned out to be something different to what I thought… I was envisioning a ‘Gold Coastesque’ kinda situation. I probably shouldn’t be admitting in a public space that I thought this, but annywhoo, if it’s not rollercoasters and fairy floss I’m DEFINITELY up for a rumble with the lion’s!!! I LOVE ANIMALS!

This Youtube clip is amazing… I know y’all are busy but it’s well worth the 8 minutes and 24 seconds! Thanks to my Papa for finding it.

Durban Fifa Fan Fest

The Golden Mile

That's the arch of Moses Mabhida Stadium in the background

The next best place for Aussie fans while in Durban other than Moses Mabhida Stadium will be Durban's Fifa Fan Fest. If it's anything like Germany 2006 this place is going to be a mixture of many nations embracing the football, partying, chilling out and avoiding the portable toilets. 

The Fan Fest which will cram in at it's best around 25,000 people is going to be located at Durban's 'New Beach' which is at the end of West Street and is a part of Durban's famous stretch of surf the 'Golden Mile'. It's a walkable distance of 3.5km from Moses Mabhida Stadium and 20km from the new Durban International Airport. 

With live screenings of the 64 World Cup matches upon a backdrop of the waves of the Indian Ocean and sweet sweet security (we hope), what more could you need? 

There will also be two other public viewing facilities in the neighbourhoods of  KwaMashu (15,000 capacity) and Umhlazi (10,000). All venues free. Yipppeeeeee! 

Aussie Invasion II

Today, amongst all my junk mail I received a very detailed and lovely email from the author of Facts About Durban, Allan Jackson! It made me very excited that an actual person had sent me an email longer than two sentences…

I titled the email ‘Incoming Australians!’ and he promptly informed me that in fact, this would not be the first time that Durban has had an Aussie invasion. He said that there were millions of troops through Durban during WWII including lots of Australians on their way to fight in North Africa and Europe.

An interesting little fact I thought I might share!!

Thanks to Allan for all his bother – his Durban Diaries have more information then I could ever post so check it out!

Durban Fast Facts

To Put It Simply...







FAST FACTS - DURBAN101

• Third largest city in South Africa
  
  
• Population 3.5 million
• Apparently Durban will be 'the warmest place during the World Cup'
• Average sea temperature of 19 degrees
• Average min and max during June will be 11-23 degrees
• Has the busiest container port in South Africa
• Durban is in the KwaZulu Natal province
• Football Clubs: Amazulu, Golden Arrows, Thanda Royal Zulu, Maritzburg United (Premier) Durban Stars, Nathi Lions (1^st Division)
• Key economic sectors: Tourism, transport, agriculture, manufacturing 

DURBAN WEEK!

This week I am going to Google the holy guacamole out of DURBAN! I'm going to try and find every little nook and cranny and bring it all right here to Girl Meets Ball.

To start off I've found some great pictures of the Moses Mabhida Stadium which will be Australia's booting ground on June 13 2010 kick off 8:30PM. It's lookin pretty damn sexy if you ask me. Close to the beach which is essential for any Aussie fan, plus there seems to be a massive rail network right next door. Convenience! 

Tomato sources:

Some hard facts: http://www.archdaily.com

Good starting point: http://fifaworldcup.durban.gov.za