Welcome World!

So funny! I'm listening to a train doing a vuvuzela imitation as it pulls out of the station. Everyone wants to be in on the action - you have to admire the train driver's lateral thinking. And he has the edge; his whistle is so much louder. Vuvuzelas have been blasting away since before 6am in this sleepy valley. Some crusty people live here, I kid you not - bet some choice words were flying around at such a rude awakening! The concert to welcome the world to the World Cup happened last night in Soweto. The vibe was amazing, but the music didn't do it for me. I gave up after a while and just popped in from time to time to watch the crowd; listen to Tutu; watch the Mandela video; stuff like that. As SA people we are so thrilled with this all happening right here in our own country; so happy that overseas people get to see this wonderful place and experience the vibrancy of its people. We may be getting a lot of things wrong; we certainly have our problems, but oh man! there is nowhere quite like this. . . The first match is at 3 this afternoon. The weather is superb - sunny and cool. No wind. The stadium, brand new, will be packed, everyone armed with all the trimmings - which will certainly include earplugs if they want to remain sane and retain their hearing. The sustained volume of those vuvus is going to be horrendous. But thats how we do soccer here - I don't think they will ever be able to take that away from the locals. Specially and bizarrely, now that they have almost become a unifying symbol. All colours of the Rainbow Nation blowing together. Who would ever have guessed!