WORLD CUP BLOG: Time off, power cuts and England v Algeria

In the run-up to the Slovenia game, our blogger Hayley reflects on life in South Africa and that awful England performance against Algeria.

Today is a day off for me from the stadium and I am at home in Mafikeng. 

My jobs today were to go to AVIS car hire and go to the bank to change my last £50.

I cycled to AVIS office which is about 15 minutes each way.

Since February of this year, I have been trying to apply to be a preferred customer as I must have spent close to £5,000 on car hire over the past year or so.

The preferred customer status gives me a variety of benefits.

I was first only told about this after almost a year of hiring cars which I did in February.

Since then I’ve been trying to contact AVIS with a view to finding out what’s happening. 

Anyway, today I decided to cycle to the office here and find out.  It turns out that the fax number on the preferred customer application is wrong and there is now a new one which I have to resend the form to!

So I complete the form again and plead with the assistant to help me process this quickly as I’ve been trying unsuccessfully and I really need a car now. 

He says, quite matter-of-factly: “Yes it will be done fast, you will hear in two weeks!”

I shake my head and walk out. I get back on my bike and then cycle to the new shopping mall, which is now about 20 minutes away back towards where I live.

I queue up in the bank for what seems like ages while a man behind me in the queue is shouting and complaining at the top of his voice about how ridiculous it is that there aren’t enough staff working at the service points.

Anyway, I get to the teller and hand over the pounds that I want changing with my passport. 

The teller says “Ah, so want to change 50 rands?” I explain “No, I want to change £50 pounds into rands.”

I can see he still looks confused so he calls over another colleague to assist him.

Together they count the notes.  Another five minutes pass by and he says “Ah, 50 euros?”

“No"” I said, “It’s sterling.. British pounds.”  A few more minutes pass, in the meantime he is checking his mobile phone and I think proceeds to send a text message! 

Then he asks: “Is it United Kingdom pounds?” Hoorah! “Yes,” I said. “That’s it.” So eventually, I get my money, leave the bank, get back on my bike and cycle home.

Nothing here is straight forward or easy. Most things take twice as long as you would imagine and you have to a lot of patience.

 I do get frustrated at times, with things like that and the AVIS issue. It took me all morning just to do those two things. 

I get home and switch on the TV to watch Germany v Serbia, and five minutes before the end of the match....there goes the electricity! 

I’m lucky I’ve still got a bit of battery power left on my laptop, but as I write this there is only four hours to go until England kick off . . .

I’m praying the electricity comes back on in time to watch it, but, to be honest, this is just an average day living here.  

If anyone thinks they need a challenge in their life come and live in Africa!. And remember I live in the most developed of African countries.

I never really understood the term “a developing country” until I lived here and it is, it really is.

South Africa is a long way behind the first world and in many respects is a third world country.

It’s still developing, roads, electricity supply, water, rural villages still don’t have toilets and the urban townships face serious challenges of poverty, sickness (one in four people have HIV), there is along way to go here.

Being an English girl in South Africa you can imagine that everyone I know wanted to talk to me about the England game.

Just like everyone whether English or not, I was excited to watch the match, and had high expectations about the match. 

I had planned to watch the match at home as it was a day off for me from Rustenburg Stadium. 

I had spoken to a few journalists from UK the day before and there was speculation about who was going to be the goalkeeper but most of all the expecations were that England were really going to come out with guns blazing and make the nation proud.

My pre-match preparations included making sure there was a few cold ones in the fridge, the snacks were on hand, my shirt was ironed and my flag was on the wall.

 

I as write this now we all of course know the result and what a disppointing performance we witnessed. 

So how come they cannot perform like they do for their club when its time to turn out for their country? 

England may be host to the best league in the world and some of the best players may play there, but I continually tell people the Premiership is home to many many international players so it cannot be compared to the England team who come together and have to play a totally different style of football. 

I suppose the Premiership would get all the credit if the England team were winning matches!

Personally, I get the impression that the England players seem to play with a touch of fear, and are simply afraid to be brave and try a shot on goal. I think it was Gerrard who tried to cross the ball inside the box when we have seen him time and time again for his club take a shot at goal. 

 

For me there was simply not enough passion and determination and commitment from the players.