World Cup fever!

Even though I am thousands of kilometres away, I can feel the World Cup fever building in South Africa. I would love to be there this weekend, just to enjoy the anticipation and the positive energy that must be flying around. And, of course, with that comes the fun. The Sunday Times secretary, Sandy, sent me this great pic on the left. If you don't understand Afrikaans, here is a rough translation: "Lovie, don't worry. I am at the rugby. Next week I will bring you the bread and milk and World Cup."

I had a good laugh. It's so South African! England and the English fans will be at the receiving end of many, many jokes in the next 48 hours. At least, unlike the Aussies, they can take it...

Here's one of the many jokes:

A little girl was sitting in her classroom in England when her teacher walked in and started talking about how proud she is to be English and how wonderful it is to be an England supporter. The teacher then asked everyone who supported England to put up their hand. Every hand in the class besides one went up. This surprised the teacher and so she asked the little girl why her hand wasn't up.

"Well," said the little girl, "because I don’t support England ."

Even more surprised, the teacher asked her who she supported. "I support the Springboks", she replied. Now a bit irritated, the teacher asked the little girl why she supported the Springboks. "My mom supports the Springboks, and my dad supports the Springboks, so I support the Springboks." The teacher looked at the little girl and with a smirk asked: "Well, if your mom was an idiot and your dad was an idiot, what would you be?"

The little girl looked up at her teacher, smiled and replied:

"An England supporter!"

Here's another one:

A group of England rugby fans die and - finally taking to heart the advice given to them by Springbok supporters - to go to hell.
The devil notices that they're looking rather happier than they should be, and asks why. They explain, "Compared to the English weather, we're enjoying the warmth."
So the devil thinks: "I'll fix them," and cranks up the heat. But the Poms just take off their shirts and drink even more lager than usual. "When the weather gets this good in England we can't bear to waste it," one says.
The devil decides to wipe the smile off their faces and turning the heat down to well below zero, but returns to find the Pom fans singing, "Swing low, sweet chariot" and partying with all their might.
Confused, he demands an explanation.
"If hell is freezing over, it must mean we're going to win the Rugby World Cup Final on Saturday."

Well. I will be ready with my braai at 2am on Sunday morning here in Phuket. I know that all of you will be joining me to moan and shout our way through 80 minutes of hell. I just hope we are smiling at the end....