Coffee, Tea or Yee?: 7/1/10

11 July 2010 - Pretoria to Johannesburg- World Cup 2010 Finals @ Soccer City Stadium

Not sure if it was because of the jet lag (FYI, SA is 6hrs behind our time)... we woke up damn early in the morning, bout 7?

Lazed around, watched cartoons (not much shows on the cable =( ) and head over to the restaurant for our breakfast...

Such a loonng cheese sausage...
Eggs!! *Slurps!*

According to the organisers, SONY requests for all guests to leave for their events 4 hours before it commences, thus, we had to prepare to set off early in the day...

Our match entrance tickets!
Our fellow travel mates were discussing about how much it would fetch on eBay...
Check out the bids for the hospitality pack!
Not the ones we have though...
Maybe we should try posting our ticket stubs on ebay =P

It was quite a long ride to the stadium...
A little jam on the tiny road leading in to the stadium but all worth it when we saw the stadium in person!

First glimpse of the Soccer City Stadium!
Everybody on the bus was excited and busy snapping away!

Police patrolling on horses!

Awesome!
As pointed out by NB, it looks like it's being superimposed against the landscape of SA.

A very impressive and grand piece of architecture they have there.
We really couldn't believe that we were at the place itself.
The stadium that millions around the world are setting their eyes on, on the very day itself =)

And of course, we can already hear the sounds of Vuvuzelas!

Our walk to the stadium/ hospitality tent.

We were ushered to the hospitality suite for some food and drinks (again), chilling out and mingling with other guests while we wait for the stadium gates to open.

Good food, free flow of drinks to fill our stomachs.

The desserts were really good!
Too full to finish the whole lot...

The night view was cool too!
With the lights and sounds of the famous African horns, we can feel the excitment brewing!

Proof that we were there... LOL

The atmosphere was amazing with supporters from both sides cheering, blowing and playing instruments in support of their favourite teams.

Netherlands supporters...

Spain supporters...

Interesting! Some funny signs spotted in the stadium:

Paul the octopus is seriously famous worldwide!
It seems like a common topic among people from all over the world that we've met...

We even watched a TV programme which calculated the amount of money which can be earned using 10 pounds to bet on Paul's prediction... Grand total of 9K pounds, about S$27K!
Claps for Paul!

10 mins to go before the start of the closing ceremony...

Lights, cameras and action!

After the closing ceremony and before the very much anticipated match!!

FIFA referees walking the field

The teams practicing, World cup trophy handed over to the stands by former WC champion, Italy's captain.

Interesting! Check out this video to catch something you didn't see on TV:

This came as a surprise as I merely wanted to zoom in on the trophy and he came into the picture.

Now, NB is saying I'm in cahoots with Jimmy Jump. =P

Start of the game to the roaring sounds of vuvuzelas.

Half time and the McDonald girls were out to entertain us...

Watching the match at the stadium was a whole new experience.
It was in a way, "quiet" as I was used to having a commentary to tell us a little something bout the players, their comments on the game... Basically, just, what exactly was happening on the field especially for novices like me :P
At the stadium, the only commentary I had was from the Holland guy beside me in a language which goes like this "this is F***ing #~!%&^*, off-side goal, F***ing foul, crap &*!#$"

I sat closer to NB the whole night...

And finally, thank goodness, at the 116 min
Spain scored the winning goal!!!

I thought I was going to be frozen in my seat cause it was a pathetic 1 deg celsius that night.
My hands were in my pocket most of the time and some video shots I took were damn shaky cause I was shivering.
A good way to burn my fats nevertheless!

All the celebration on the field!
Surprisingly, the place seemed to warm up a little when the match ended as everyone (except the guy beside me who left straight after the whistle went off) cheered and basked in the celebratory mood.

Oh, maybe the fireworks gave out some heat too =P

Yay! =D

Winning team at the podium with the trophy!

This is such an incredible experience! Loves!

I want to go to Brazil for the next world cup, so much!
NB, let's try out best for the next round again ya! =D
We can go see hot brazilian girls, wee woo weet!

10 July 2010 - Singapore to Johannesburg

- Sony World Cup Finals Gala Dinner

Though we've won the tickets for some time, the actual excitement, anticipation kicked in only a few days prior to our departure.
Might be due to the tons of reports on the crime rate, violence etc that we came across.
Many have advised us on precautionary measures to make sure we return to our city safe and sound. Thanks all! :)

Nevertheless, we are pretty sure we will be fine since this trip is with compliments from Sony and believe they will do their part in making sure we are back in a piece.

And sure enough, we were superbly taken care of! ;)

After a day's work on Friday, rushed home, threw last bit of stuff into my luggage and we are off to the airport.
Been some time since I last took SQ, couldn't wait!
Our flight timings are good actually, we depart early Sat morning and will be reaching Jo'burg in the morning, their time. That means, no time wasted!

Our 2nd overseas trip (not counting M'sia)!

Hung around till it was time to board, at 1am+...

Our plane took off a little late though...
Total hours from S'pore to Jo'burg: 11! Phew!

NB wasn't too lucky cause his inflight entertainment console was out of service.
So, for the whole trip, he got to lean over to use mine while I slept.
(yes, he didn't wanna change seats with me)

Arrival at OR.Tambo Airport, Johannesburg.
First glimpse of SA.

The first continent other than Asia that I've been on!
(Still can't believe it's Africa! =D)

Interesting!: Even their plane has a football painted on it!

Welcome to South Africa!

Coca Cola branded everywhere!
Cans of Coke freely distributed when we arrived at the airport.
Love the pint sized cans!

I was so excited to see this! ;)
So many vuvuzelas! *Buuuuuuuu*

Was afraid Sony guys couldn't find us/ we couldn't find them initially.
But no, there was an army of Sony staff, we won't be lost!

All Sony staff in black!

The process was pretty smooth and we were quickly escorted to our vehicle, to the hotel.
We also met our security guy and someone from Sony who chatted with us along the way...

The airport we arrived at was in Jo'burg but we had to travel some 40km to Pretoria, also a city within the Gauteng province of SA, where our hotel is situated.
Wowed by the vast piece of land we see on the way to the hotel, we were wondering what Singapore would do should we have so much land available?

As we chatted, we learnt that Sony has actually invited over 3,000 guests (the likes of us) and 3,000 staff all over the world to the WC matches.
Let's take the average cost per pax to be S$10K with lodging, flight, match tickets, food, security officers etc included.
That would be... how many zeroes?
It's not just money, imagine the amount of planning, logistics that's going on just so this will be a success. Kudos to them!
*Salutes*

We reached Court Classique Suite Hotel with a warm welcome from the hosts.

Picture courtesy of Court Classique, didn't manage to take the external view.

We were ushered to the Sony Hospitality Suite while they brought our luggage to the room.

In there, we can make ourselves at home and help ourselves to the free flow of food and drinks, all day long ;)

There, we were also presented with our Sony Guest pass, Sony gift pack and a vuvuzela with compliments from the hotel!
Weet! Our first Vuvuzela! *beams*

Our room, no. 8~

This is how the hotel's surrounding is like...
They've got ducks wandering around and we got to becareful not to step on their poop.
Pity we can't use the pool cause it's damn cold!
Court Classique is not your typical 4-5 star posh hotel but you will definitely feel like home, very cosy with many many friendly staff. :)

As it was still early, we popped by the nearby mall, Brooklyn Mall with new found friends from Washington D.C. and NYC. Interesting how we get to meet people from all over the globe through one trip huh?

Honestly, there wasn't much things to buy but we did manage to get some interesting flavoured chips that we don't see in Singapore to share.
Random: Looking at the pics above, don't you just love the sky there?

This trip alone cost us S$20 each just on transportation!!

Interesting!: Speaking about the transport in SA, because their country is huge and their public transport network isn't well developed, it's really not very convenient to travel from one area to another.

Just taking the hotel for example, the subway/train station is about 5-8km or so away.So you probably need to take a cab to the station before taking the train?

And for a staff who lived about 3km down the road, he had to take a bus to the central of the city and switch to another transport back to the hotel, making a huge detour!

Maybe we should be more forgiving towards our local public transport providers...

Hmm...

After much grumbling about the expensive trip to the mall, we had to get ready for the Gala Dinner.

Dress Code: Business Wear/ Dresses

All Dressed up!

Wore the huge jacket over my dress cause it was freezing la...So super un-glam =P

Off to our special invite...

Sony GL Dinner at Sandton Convention Centre.

And I swear we had a close encounter with the Spain Footballers cause our bus was passing by a hotel with tons of fans awaiting at the entrance. And in front of the entrance stands the official Spain footballers' coach bus.
They were no where in sight when we left... =(Pity =(

Before the dinner, we had to go through this 3D presentation which is actually Sony's chance to present to us their latest 3D technology brought to our homes...

I would have to say this really brings a whole new meaning to "Home Entertainment".
Can you just imagine wathching live football matches in 3D?
You can with Sony, as the images practically jump into your face and you can feel just as if you were in the stadium yourself!
Would love to get 1 in my home but I believe the price ain't low. :(
Being a Sony fan isn't cheap :P

Hanging around at the cocktail party before the dinner.
NB loves the prawns (or "Shrimps" as what the Washington D.C guy would say, I'm wondering how big are prawns in the states...)

Nice setting for the dinner below:

Coincidentally, 2 of the Singaporeans sitting at our table is actually of the same age as well (all 1986s) and they know my colleague as they've worked with them before. How crazy is this? Getting linked up half a globe away!