The World Cup.....

I have been a bad blogger but have just lost my mojo over the last few weeks.. plus I actually like football and have been watching the world cup too... and.... DH won us a trip to South Africa to see a quarter final match which was actually Ghana v Uruguay and we stayed in a 5* hotel in Pretoria, had hospitality before the match and after the match which included the most yummiest of foods and any alcohol you like and as much of either. We also got a Sony Ericsson bag before leaving hospitality for the match which included an Official World Cup blanket, Official Programme for the match, a seat cushion and 2 hand warmers as it gets very very chilly at night over there and they wanted us to be comfortable watching the match. I will tell you another time what gift we got when arriving at the hotel as I need to photograph it.

10 of us flew out to South Africa together, 8 of us stuck together a lot of the time we were out there, here is a photograph of us all as we were about to leave the hotel for our flight home, can you notice that we are all soooooooooooo tired... they were all really lovely people and we all came from different parts of the UK and we also won the trip in different ways... DH won by answering a question on Absolute Radio, but another guy on there won by buying a shed online..... how strange is that!! ha ha

We travelled to South Africa overnight and this is the sunrise from the plane window whilst we were flying over Africa.....

This is me in the park opposite our hotel, the hotel is the big building behind me.....

OMG I was so so excited when we had these tickets in hand, can you see the price... $300 USD each... how much Papertrey Ink stash could I have bought with that... ha ha

This was our first glimpse of Soccer City, the football stadium where they had the opening ceremony and the World Cup Final, we were still on the coach at this time, it still seems unreal that we were actually there.

Anyone know who the bald guy is? Well he was in our hospitality tent... it was Sepp Blatter the Head of Fifa, the guy who doesn't want goal line technology which would have stopped our England goal being disallowed against Germany.... we were so busy taking his photo we forgot to tell him we wanted the goal line technology and he disappeared quickly.... must have known of our intentions... lol

So we decided we were going to cheer for Ghana, as did most of the stadium, there were not too many Uruguay fans there.... this photograph is me outside Soccer City.

This photograph is the 2 teams lining up for the National Anthems, we really were that close to the pitch, no fancy camera with me this time, just my little pocket thing with hardly any zoom.

A throw in for Ghana during the match.

This was Ghana taking one of the penalties, which is how the outcome of this match was decided after Suarez decided to handball the ball out of the net when Ghana were about to score a goal.... right at the end of extra time.

Do I look tired? That is because it is 2am and we had just arrived back at the hotel....

A view over Pretoria from the park opposite our hotel... you could really see for miles.

Me with a bird of paradise flower, just growing in the gardens.

And now I have finished boring you with my photographs... I will be back tomorrow with some proper crafting ones as I have quite a few bits to show you now. Take care and have a good evening all xx.