Great Ball of Fire

I haven't posted in some time. Reason? Glorious recovery from illness and gorgeous 24-degree sunshine. So yes - berate me for wallowing in happiness.

So Germany has made it to the next round. There were celebrations through tiny Aachen, resulting in most people not sleeping till the wee hours with all the noise ... see pictures below.

Of course before the match there was enough security stationed all round the town square ... assumedly to 'contain' any possible adverse reactions in case Germany decided to go belly-up.

But after the matches were won - it was party time! And thats when you're most happy you're in a walkie-walkie town, so that you can simply bypass the screaming teenagers and go back home.

Its been a fairly topsy-turvy World Cup with hot favorites being thrown out at regular intervals. I guess we all expected France and Italy to actually 'get up' at some point and do their job. If by some chance Spain also doesn't make it, I guess along with Greece, this would complete divine retribution for Germany's handouts to Europe's financial defaulters :-)

Not that I think Germany has bright chances either - I definitely feel they along with England have just wobbled their way into the next round. And anyway, one of them goes out in the next!

Not particularly excited about today's matches ... I know I'm supposed to do cartwheels and exclaim over how cool they are, but somehow Brazil or Argentina have just not done it for me this time. They're good - but they're just boring. I find myself hoping that one of the random countries ... Slovakia ... or maybe even Portugal actually make it all the way this time. Especially for me, I'm super convinced Brazil is not going to lift the Cup. Hell, they may even make it all the way to the finals - but they're not going to win. (Take this from someone who knew the Mumbai Indians were not going to lift the IPL trophy right from match 1 - I forsaw them in the finals, but not doing that final jig ... much to the derision of my entire office)

Will put up pics next of how to watch matches in Aachen. They've set up a massive screen in the middle of the town square and people just plonk down with their shopping, beers and dogs to watch the match. Super fun. I really do think watching the World Cup in Europe comes the best close second to watching the match in South Africa :-)

Cheers ...

Sush