Today in Trust member Kate Thompson’s South Africa diary, goes back to Cape Town for Germany V Argentina
Day 25 Saturday, 3 July 2010
A 6.30 start for yet another flight, back to Cape Town for the quarter-final between Germany and Argentina. I have decided to support Germany, for several reasons: they knocked us out, so we follow them, they are European but – my strongest reason – I will never forgive Maradona for the ‘hand of God’.
This time we were travelling with South African Airways and were given our boarding passes for both flights. These were my 9th and 10th flights in less than a month. The flight left on time at 9.00 and we were served breakfast, landing in Cape Town at 11.00. We were taken by coach to the ground and then had about four hours before the 4.00 kick-off. I decided to walk back to the old lighthouse at Sea Point, because I hadn’t got a decent photo of it, but it took me longer than I expected. I walked back along the edge of the sea and thought I’d get a bus back to the Waterfront, despite the warnings about local buses. As it happened the first one was ‘out of service’ and the next one was full, so I ended up walking.
I had lunch at an Italian restaurant, somewhat surprisingly called ‘Hildebrand’, which had featured in a guide to good restaurants. I had a nice meal: coniglio (rabbit) sauce with pasta and fruit salad; with a fruit juice and coffee the whole thing only came to about £16 – about half what I’d paid when I went out on Thursday with the other four!….
Although it was a lovely sunny day I knew from experience that it could be chilly in the stadium so I retrieved my coat from the bus and got into the stadium at about 3.30, about the latest yet. There seemed to be a lot of English supporters, and some English flags; we were pretty disgusted that the German and Argentinian fans did not on the whole sing their national anthems. Perhaps they don’t know the words! Angela Merkel was at the game and I gather so was Mick Jagger, although they didn’t show his ugly mug on the screen!
Argentina 0 Germany 4
It was a cracking game and I really can’t see anyone beating Germany if they continue to play like they did. They were well organised and worked hard for each other, something that England couldn’t do. They scored in the third minute but there were no further goals until the last half-hour, when they rattled in three more. The Argentine players couldn’t cope with them and their few efforts on goal were either skied over the bar or put wide. Their fans were distraught and obviously (unlike us) have little experience of being humiliated. Maradona’s face and body language were a picture, if you’ll excuse the mixed metaphor.
Our return flight wasn’t until 9.30 as they had to allow for extra time and penalties, so it was another boring wait at an airport. However, I did manage finally to finish one of the books I had brought with me. I haven’t opened two others so that was weight I could have left behind. The flight wasn’t full and I again had a window seat. The middle seat was empty but the aisle one was occupied by the passenger from hell, I assume an Argentinian.
To start with he had about four pieces of cabin luggage, which he distributed in several overhead lockers, then he kept bouncing around and talking loudly. When he decided he wanted to go to sleep he asked several times for people to stop talking! He called a stewardess over, presumably to ask her to get the other passengers to shut up, and she tried to persuade him to move further back, which he didn’t want to do. I had had enough by now and told him that he couldn’t expect other people to stop talking, at which he gave the Argentine equivalent of a ‘hrrmp’ and shut up! He had filled the middle seat with his possessions and totally ignored the steward who asked him to put them on the floor for the landing.
When we arrived, I got into the aisle quickly, as I only had my coat in the locker, and then he was pushing me as he tried to retrieve all his stuff. I ‘accidentally’ took a step backwards which catapulted him into the arms of his friend! But it worked and although he obviously said something derogatory about me, I had no further trouble. The moral is, I may be small, but I know how to stick up for myself! He was obviously a bad loser!
We arrived back at our hotel just before 1.00. Breakfast runs until 10.00 at weekends, so I should be able to catch up on lost sleep.
Part fifteen of Kate’s diary will appear soon