The bags are packed.

After 2 years and almost 5 months of planning, the time has finally arrived to go to South Africa. Looking back, I have noticed that I may be a bit off the scale in terms of "normal" when you hear the story of how much time, I actually put into winning this lottery just, to purchase the initial seats.

I set my alarm for 2am. on Feb 20th, 2009. This is where the determination goes beyond most individuals. I spent the next 5 hours straight pounding refresh, on my home computer screen and on a separate laptop.
Pining to see the Fifa Championship, with feelings of discouragment set in around the 3 hour mark. Sigh, I made a cup of tea... Then closer to 5am cst, knowing that the whole world was still trying, I began to lose doubt. Surely I thought; by now the 88,460 seats for the Soccer City in the Joburg venue must be sold out. I wanted to throw in the towel. I personally believe that most "rational" individuals would have given up at that point, but thanks to my "stalker like" firmness, I sought out my former lover; the most popular game of the world.







Long story short, at appoximately 7am[cst] I got in on the laptop link...Next>>> total jubilation as I screamed, jumped up and pinched myself. All of this activity scaring my Tanja, who usually has very subtle morning rituals of greeting the sun with her yoga practice and then having a fruit smoothie... Meanwhile I was dancing like the 14 yr. old at their first concert.[** my childhood flash back to 1984 Michael Jackson and the Victory Tour, a shout out the good ole' days.]



I repeated the same computer scenario set up later in that week. I was fortunate to be able to purchase with only 10 mins of invested time two other games. I felt that it would be a shame to visit South Africa and only visit one city. Our final schedule of events will weave us from the "Mother City" of Capetown through the wine country, climbing table mountain, touching the cape point penguins and finishing up on the garden route in Port Elizabeth. Aside from soccer, we will attend Africa's largest art festival and visit a Big 5 game reserve. A trip and dream of a lifetime for my lovely wife and I.

Please stay tuned and feel free to comment.
Next stop, London.