It's official - I've gone Bok mad!!!!!
You may or may not know that the Boks (aka Springboks aka SA Rugby team) did their World Cup victory parade thingy for Durbanites in South Africa on Sunday.
Weeeellll, I printed out their itenerary from the East Coast Radio website - I was armed and ready for action..... a girl with a mission & what a mission it was.
First good move was to team myself with a like-minded die-hard who was prepared to go the extra mile (pun intended).
After a bit of confusion (ahem Durban needs to up their organizational skills a bit) we eventually found the start point - Elangeni Hotel. Much screeching, cheering, many photo's on Bok Barbie's cell phone and then the Bok bus moved on. But like I said I was armed & had a plan.......I told my friend this is the route that they are taking, so we'll go round this way & meet them at city Hall.......good timing...more screeching & cell phone photo's...and the bus moved on again. So we took our route.......I kid you not...we were like professional stalkers....it was the ultimate Amazing Chase........ we drove up NMR or (something chabalaka something....Bok Barbie needs to brush up on her citi-ographics).....Kim (the friend has a name) told me to turn around in a side road....so there we were parked at an intersection while the bus approacheth....but oh oh...there were traffic cops in front of them...I sat there chewing my nails, dreading them telling to 'move along'. The cop approaches, he winds down the window & shouts something I can't hear, I gulp, get out the car & say 'excuse me?' he yellls "Get the kids out the car so that they can see!".... oh soooooo cool.
So picture the scene...there's no one else on this section of the road & we are ALL the Boks can see.....and we are jumping up & down SCREECHING (have you HEARD my shriek?) and waving, those good old handsome talented upright humble professional (ahem....sorry) Boks, laughed smiled waved & were just great.
So, as they passed, we just promptly joined the parade, keeping as close to the security cars as possible so as not to be left behind by a robot..........SERIOUSLY..........We win the fan award for this one.
We followed the parade hooting & 'gaaning aan'.........
When they parked the bus back at the Elangeni, we had to be good little chicks and move along - the cop told us so, but he didn't have to use a baton or anything, don't worry.
So we parked our car to say good bye but we missed them. But we DID hear a rumour that they were coming out again at about 12 to board their bus to the airport....so we waited, with hundreds of other people outside the entrance for an hour and a half!!!!! Listen, at that point I couldn't have got out of there if I tried, it was so crowded. But the crowd was fantastic!!! we sang Shosholoza, Nkosi Sikelela, Hier Kom die Bokke & We are the Champions.....harmonising & everything (well sort of - we tried)
Every guest of the hotel that had to pass through the pathway we had politely left - we were very well behaved without any official supervision - we cheered them as if the Boks had just walked through.......
A black man stood up & called for our attention and after a pass-the-parcel type "ssssh" went through the crowd said
"ladies and gentleman, I have a msg from our future president..." ( - a few people srarted to look worried - ) "....Jake White [SA coach]..." (loud cheers) ".....said the Boks are on their way out, he just sms-ed me now..." (loud laughter)
seriously it was like that for the whole hour and a half, laughing, joking, singing, cheering..........man, Woodstock eat your heart out............
And of course you can imagine the noise when the Boks came out. Of course this time we did have police control...
And then they left...on their bus
And no, we didn't go to the airport - even Bok Barbies get tired :-)
Bye
jadestar posted on Oct 30, 2007
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Comments
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polarheart said on Oct 30, 2007....
Hi Jade, its so nice to see you back here! My brother lives in Durbs very close to the waterfront and the open topped bus went right passed under their flat window! It was such a treat for them and he said you guys had wonderful weather too! -
jadestar said on Oct 30, 2007....
Thanx for stopping by polar. The weather was great! The crowds were great! The Boks were even better!!! I loved it. It's going to take a while for the euphoria to wear off I think.I'm not really back, so to speak....time here has become soooo limited. But I just HAD to do this quick post while still in the mood of things..........I hope you are keeping well, polarkins.My mom is staying with me, for now. We've found a not-sure-temp-or-permanent place, will have to wait & see what happens (there may be people moving in Dec or March but we keep praying.)It's a beautiful place - stunning view & closer to the Pinetown/Kloof areaI'll try catch up when I can againluviesme -
lfbno7 said on Oct 30, 2007....
rugby? umm, you don't hit a little ball in rugby do you? i'm kinda used to seeing guys hit balls with sticks.
you all get together and clobber the other guys, right? we call that football, but we don't mean your football, we mean our football. the object of american football is to all get together and clobber the other guys.
is the object of the game to carry a ball over a line? we're kind of used to carrying balls over lines. and the guys on the other team try to clobber you as you try to carry the ball over the line.
does everyone get their teeth knocked out? around here we call that hockey. the sport of hockey was developed by the motts applesauce company as a secret plot to knock everyone's teeth out so they could sell more applesauce.
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hotaka said on Oct 30, 2007....
Hey, jadestar, you came back. Good to see you blogging again! Funny, I once read that name "spring bok" and from time to time it just pops into my head. That last time was about four or five days ago. Isn't there an animal with the even more intriguing name "dik dik"? -
silverwhisper said on Oct 30, 2007....
jadestar, it's good to see you again! :>
ed -
jadestar said on Oct 31, 2007....
no7 - witty as usual......well now I'm just a Barbie so I can't get too technical...but the way I see it, it's kinda like chess...well, not really, except that each team has their territory - in rugby speak it's their 22 (pretty impressive huh?), the object of the game is to defend your territory & attack your opponents territory & the other similarity is that there's a lot of 'taking people out'....so yes, lots of crunching, smashing & when the adrenaline & testosterone is high - boxing......I used to think that it was asinine but now that I'm into it - there's a lot of skill involved...professional ball handling & passing & kicking that's quite poetic to watch really................of course it helps that we have a really good looking team :-) -
jadestar said on Oct 31, 2007....
hotaka............I'm back but back out again too...............kind of a revolving door thingy happening.....I don't have time to hang around & check people out....there's been issues at work etc blah blah....so this is it for nowBTW, I have NEVER heard of a "dik dik".......I'll have to 'google' & see what I come up with..I'm definately NOT going to ask the Afrikaans people I know - I've already been the brunt of peals of laughter for my attempts at Afrikaans....so.......unless google or polar can help us out, I'm clueless :-)Ed - thanx & thanks for stopping by.... -
hotaka said on Oct 31, 2007....
I understand the in and out thingy. Now I'm in. Later I'll be out. We'll meet again. -
crybabylu said on Jan 06, 2008....
nicely written story, thanks.