sunset

I get these amazing views from the eighth floor.

I’ve just finished uploading my photos from my trip to the FIFA World Cup in South Africa. That was my third major sporting tournament I’ve attended and will probably be the last I travel abroad to.

London has the Olympic Games in 2012, maybe England will get the World Cup in 2018. Apart from that, I’m done. It’s not that I am no longer enjoying myself, it’s there are lots of other things I want to do.

There major football tournaments on three different continents in eight years is enough for me.

new friend

So what next? I can’t afford to be a space tourist. So maybe a couple of months in China or India, perhaps a cruise around the Adriatic or Caribbean. There are lots of places I have yet to visit in Europe. I have never visited Paris, Berlin or any other major capital city. I tend to stay off the beaten track.

A couple of years to think about it yet, and I need to get off my ass and find some more work to pay for it all.

Once I have a new plan I have incentive.

I was in South Africa as long as the English team was. South Africa is a country of great contrasts. Each day was like a different holiday.

As well as the football, I went by cable car to the top of Table Mountain, played football in a township, night clubbed in Cape Town, wine tasted in the Cape Winelands, I went on safari, visited Robben Island and generally played the tourist.

I met lots of great people and made loads of new friends.

bafana bafana

I’ve uploaded some of my photos from South Africa. They capture the many different aspects of this trip.

The most moving day (apart from watching England get stuffed by Germany) was the trip to Robben Island. Here Nelson Mandela spent a good part of his life as a prisoner for resistance to apartheid. Now it is a museum.

We were taken a tour of the prison by en ex-political prisoner. This man was only a couple of years older than me. We would have been at University at the same time. Whilst he was organizing against apartheid on his campus, we were doing similar things in London.

great view

He spent three years in Robben Island for his ‘crimes’, I went down the pub afterwards. How different our lives have been. It makes me realise just how easy things have been for me.

South Africa has come a long way since the end of apartheid. But it still has many problems to face. The FIFA World Cup 2010 has changed the image of South Africa for me. I expect it is similar for the many that ignored the scare mongering and followed their teams.

I suspect it will have changed South Africa as well.

thank you south africa

England won 3-1. A good result, but they missed the Chelsea players who were being rested. This made it difficult to see how the team is progressing. The World cup is only two weeks away now.

During the match, I took part in a record making event. With the exception of the Mexican part of the stadium, every seat in Wembley had a free t-shirt draped on it before the game. These were either red or white.

When everyone put them on, it made two huge England flags. With 80,000 people taking part this was a record. It must have cost at least £100,000.

the record

Almost Ready to Go

I’m getting ready to go to South Africa. Every day I do another job that brings the tournament that much closer. This week I have:

• Bought travel insurance
• Ordered travel money
• Bought an adaptor to fit South African power outlets
• Bored everyone I know with how soon I will be going away

We have been planning this since England qualified last October. This time in two weeks I will be in Cape Town watching the opening game. I am finding it hard to concentrate on anything.

I’m getting lots of fresh air and starting a tan. Seriously, I can get sun burnt in an English April, the ginger curse.

I’m meeting lots of new people, most of whom are nice even if they are not voting our way. Some are coldly polite. A very few are unpleasant. I had the first door slammed in my face this week, luckily I remebered to turn my microphone off.

I have been visiting parts of Stevenage I haven’t been in years. On the way from leafleting, I took a short cut through woods I used to walk through on the way to school. It’s much overgrown now, as the school is no longer there.

Bluebells were in bloom. They are late this year because of the long winter. I had forgotten about Bluebells. It’s now official: Winter is at last over.

]]> http://www.timneale.co.uk/2010/bluebells/feed/ 0 http://www.timneale.co.uk/2010/canvassing/ http://www.timneale.co.uk/2010/canvassing/#comments Fri, 09 Apr 2010 20:01:08 +0000 Tim Neale http://www.timneale.co.uk/?p=1914

canvassing

Like many people in the UK I have become disillusioned with the status quo in our national politics.

With a general election announced this week for May 6th, I thought I would try to be positive. I decided to become a party activist for the first time. Be one of those people knocking on doors and cold calling to talk about politics.

This fits in with my life policy of trying something new every year. And of pushing myself outside my comfort zone occasionally.

John Mead, Julia Davies

Knocking on strangers’ doors is definitely outside of my comfort zone. I can’t remember when I was last so nervous. I have been giving presentations at work for years no problem.

I spent Wednesday evening accompanying Julia Davies, our candidate for Parliament, to learn what to do and say. I knocked on my first door on Thursday night.

All week I had been thinking about this momemt and no one answered.

Then no one answered the second door or the third. Someone answered the next door but did not want to talk to me, and so on.

Not a good evening, few people answered the door to me. Perhaps I’m intimidating. Maybe no one feels guilty in ignoring me.

Perhaps they can sense I am terrified and I am secretly hoping no one answers the door. It’s lucky I am not a door–to-door salesman. I would starve.

But, by the end of the evening I was feeling better about the whole thing and will be back out Monday to Thursday for the next few weeks.

Tomorrow I will be in the Town Centre shopping precinct giving out leaflets and posters. This’ll also be outside my comfort zone.

The scaffolding’s reached my floor. It’s strange to see people standing outside of my window. On the eighth, you get used to privacy. Walking into a room and coming face to face with someone is a shock.

new neighbours

But they have moved on up. Next they will be encapsulating us in the blue plastic. Everything will be dingy and blue.

I’m told that the worse part is when the drilling starts, eight hours a day, five days a week. I don’t know weather I’ll be able to work.

At the end the block will have cavity wall insulation. My heating bills should go down. Maybe it will be worth while.

great view

Another couple of letters arrived from Stevenage Homes today. Again, I haven’t opened them as I don’t want to spoil my good mood.

Tomorrow maybe, after I finish the Leaseholders Online site.

home (not so) sweet home