mature student

I sat with a student today to discuss the prevention of the migration of a hydrocarbon plume in groundwater, or more simply how to stop a runaway petrol spill in water. He is writing a thesis on the topic and has chosen a site that I'm busy working on. The meeting was more of an interview than a meeting. Saying it was a meeting makes me sound important, which I'm actually not. We talked for about an hour. It was one of those roundabout conversations, but I think we did our best to understand each other. There was lots of eye contact. I even drew him a diagram. There are two interesting points about all this. One, the site is owned by BP and the dude is about 48 or 52 years old. I'm not sure of his exact age, but there were definitely some grey hair on his head. It reminded me of that Grey's Anatomy episode where Dr. Karev gets the 60 year old intern, Norman. Yeah! The result of our interaction was not a humourous, as much as it was inspiring. I think I would like to study again. Oh about BP, well they seem to have the worse end of anything spill-related these days.

driving the message

Today, while working in Wetton near Athlone, Cape Town, I took this picture of a pick-up truck with a "mirror sock" adorning a message saying Free Palestine. How creative is that for driving the message home? (Ha, lame pun effort, I know). My knowledge about of Palestine is limited. What I know hovers around the word "conflict". That's hardly fair and a harsh judgement. But how bad are things in Palestine, and why are people in Cape Town concerned? What are they even fighting about? Do we need more mirror socks or less?

table mountain

money going

I seem to be spending more money over this world cup period. I've been watching the games at a sports bar and it has become particularly expensive because I have to buy a drink or some food to get in. If I do this for every game, I'll be broke before pay day. I guess its ok because it only comes once every 4 years.

vuvuzela

Ok, the time has come for me to also weigh in on the vuvu-debate. Firstly, lets all admit; any monotone instrument being blown constantly and loudly for more than 60 seconds can be annoying. Come on...even animals would agree. Vuvuzelas are not traditional soccer instruments. If my memory serves me well, people started blaring them at soccer stadiums around the same time South African soccer started to suck (probably after 1996). The entertainment value of soccer has been so low that it had to take the use of horns to generate some excitement! The way I see it, for as long as South African soccer continues to be boring, the vuvuzela will stay and become louder.

2010 world cup

It has been 7 days since the world cup got underway here. The biggest issues so far have been the adidas soccer ball called Jabulani and the monotone trumpet horn called the vuvuzela. We have seen several low key first round matches, with one or two highlights, Germany thrashing Australia 4-0 stands out for me. Some people are blaming the new ball, but Germany have shown it is possible to score goals. Poor aussies! Someone please tell them this is not Germany and the year is not 2006.

I have been going to the Champs Sports Bar on Main Road, Rondebosch to watch the games. It turns out that I like big screens. Also I am inclined to watch the games on DSTV for better quality over SABC. The bar is a favourite among the UCT students and a number of Africans from the north. On any match day it is full to the brim, even rugby matches get impressive crowds. I think that has a lot to do with Cape Town being a generally rugby-mad city. But over the last 7 days soccer has invaded and blocked out anything non-world cup related.

Personally, I have enjoyed seeing so many South African flags being flown. And now that they have finished all the construction and upgrades, all the roads are great! The world cup stadiums are superb and of course the mood everywhere you go is electric!

I have been impressed when watching the US, England teams, Argentina has been awesome, so has Netherlands and Germany. Brazil has not impressed me yet. As I write this, South Africa is on the brink of elimination after starting with a 1-1 draw against Mexico and losing 3-0 to Uruguay. Honestly, I didn’t expect much from the SA team hence I’m not disappointed. On the contrary, I bet against them so I’m 100 bucks up! I'm going to hold back on mentioning any other African team, because they have a tendency of being unpredictable if not disappointing.

On a more critical note, there are some annoying things about the world cup. For one, seeing so many people doing the same thing (in the name of pride for country) is the ultimate evidence of how conformity can go mad (and politicians love this). Second, the vuvuzelas are a unique unique symbol of South African soccer, but truthfully they are annoying. Lastly, spending money on extra world cup activities is also annoying. Oh, and another thing I'm pee'd off about seeing so many empty seats.

But you know, at least we've done something for the children.