Tumultuous welcome to South Africa

Banks, phones, accommodation, adapters, internet connections, flags, updates for our company's radio channel Classic FM (Abu Dhabi and Al Ain on 91.6 and 105.2 frequencies), email, accreditation, Mexican fans wearing sombreros, tickets, cars, hotels. And blogs.

Having arrived in Johannesburg late last night, things have rapidly increased in terms of workload, and strife. My fellow 'Hunter' Euan Megson's bank card was - for no good reason he maintains - cancelled, and he has spent most of the morning screaming down the phone at some poor sap with the bank. To no avail.

The National's 'Big Game Hunters' [find us on facebook] have, however, managed to set up internet connections and phones, so at least we are in contact with the office - which helps when they are footing the bills. Since the phones were registered we have already destroyed both batteries through overuse.
Good news came through from the media department of Emirates airline. Gary applied for 15 games in the group stages, but several were oversubscribed and he was placed on a waiting list - along with half of the world's sporting media. Emirates have come to the rescue though, offering corporate hospitality for six of the seven games he was going to have to miss.

Johannesburg appears to be buzzing; every car and shop is decked in the Rainbow Nation's colourful flag and we spotted a few Mexican fans wearing their colours with pride.

Now we are off to collect our accreditation, followed by a launch event organised by Sony at a purpose-built '3D dome' in Nelson Mandela Square. Luckily, we won't have to watch many of the World Cup games on television, but Shakira is going to be there so it would be rude not to show our faces.  

While I have had the luxury to put my thoughts together with some peace in this chaotic times, Megson - multi-tasking as always - also talks at incredible decibels down the phone to his mother even as he updates me with the latest for this blog. Bless mums: they always come first - even at the first World Cup in Africa.

Bafana Bafana!