BWC2014 - 20th June (Day 37 - 19th Working Day!)

Petronio and empty stadium...

All Quiet at "SMC" Front!

Just like the day after the first match, it was very quiet again at the Centre. We just filled up the water bottles at the Media Tribute. There wasn't much to do even during lunch time as well. Many from our team already left by 3:30pm.

Fellow volunteers signed giant T-shirt!

Today, Xiner sent me so many voice messages. She was sooo cute. Reading an English passage to me. And then asked me to talk about something nice to her and she will do the same in return! Listen to her voice already made me melt.

This place is foreigner friendly!

I stayed behind to watch the next game between France vs Switzerland. It looked like a trend then to wear different coloured boots. And even gloves too. Spotted the French keeper and Buffon on that!

Every four years, the tournament seemed to have some new introduction to the game. And this year, another pretty cool introduction was the foam spray used by the referee to mark the wall line.

Bart................

..................Simpsons!

When the game ended, I met Antonio, Bart and Hector. We decided to go to a place


called Simpsons. Apparently, it was the best place in town for cheap food and more importantly cheap beer!  One liter of Skol was only $R5!! And the food was great too.  We had the Brazilian favourite, Carne de Sol (grilled beef) and some fried chicken that went perfect with beer!

Brazilian favourite beef...

Bom Jantar, gente!!

After a wonderful night, Bart and I walked to the bus stop together.  We met a local "escort" there. She even gave Bart a treat, flashing in front of him behind the bus stand.  I was jealous!  That was our first experience in Brazil!

BWC2014 - 19th June (Day 36 - Brasilia 2nd Match Day!)

Sunrise at Vicente Pires!

Today was the second match day in Brasilia between Colombia and Ivory Coast. I was a little too excited and woke up at 3:15am thinking it was time to get ready. Took a while to fall back to sleep.

Borges Eduardo, the future
World Cup superstar!

At 5am, my alarm rang. I was in hallucination but still managed to get ready.  Was surprised to meet my new housemate, a Colombian who arrived yesterday, so early in the morning. Not sure was it a hallucination or that guy have not slept all night!

It was not so cold. The leaves on the tree were as still as the statue! I was greeted by a stunning sunrise at my neighbourhood!

I wonder if the players have time for this

Not sure why it was so quiet with no buses. First one came and it was full! At 6:31am, I starting to feel a little tense. Worried the queue outside the Volunteer Centre will be too long for me to make it on time! A team member who was already there messaged that it was still quiet at the moment. It didn't help much to loosen the intense.

The spirit of holding hands should be
implemented to all the players too!

I saw a security guard at the bus stop because she was wearing her accreditation tag. She spotted my uniform and brought me along to take a different bus. Wine (her father loves wine too much) took the bus everyday from 7am to the stadium. This bus was better because it goes directly opposite the stadium, and hence I don't have to transfer to another bus at the terminal.  I thanked her very much and walked to the stadium together.  The excitement was building up.

Empty dressing room awaiting the
Ivory Coast's team.

The queue was pretty long. Started to panic. Ale was with me.  She was in a rush too.  We managed to get through the check-in around 7:15am and saw Tony immediately.  He was on the cart and Ale had already hopped on and leaving. Didn't know what was going on, I called out and chased them. After leaving my backpack to a fellow team member, we drove to the stadium.

I realised later that they were just going

Preparing for final round of rehearsal

through the morning tasks filling up the dressing rooms with snacks.  I could have stayed at the Volunteer Centre to enjoy my cup of coffee. 

Brazuca getting ready for
the "match"

Flavia told me the rehearsal would be at 8am. I was a little worried that I would miss it, since still mingling around the dressing room after eight!  But Tony reassured me all was well.  He sent me to the Youth Centre and at 8:30am, the rest of the volunteers involved in the rehearsal were waiting outside as well.

We walked to the stadium together with the kids.  After a short wait, all of us got into position at the alley, each holding the hand of a kid. Just like the professional players when they were about to walk into the field during a game.  Many were already busy taking photos.  I took the opportunity to snap one with Borges Eduardo as well.  He was a very shy boy.  I wished he would grown up

I'm stepping on the field!!!!!

as a successful person.  I was the "Ivory Coast" player.  The flag bearer went in first.  We followed behind.  The Ivory Coast's national anthem was aired after the Colombian.  The camera man would focused on the first few players at the side.  My head was down, occasionally closing
my eyes.  Trying to feel like the national hero, Drogba.  Towards the end, I even looked up into the stadium as if I were praying!  After the national anthems, we clapped hands and then moved to our right for the hand-shaking session with the "referee" and our "opponents". 

Interviews area...

All these ended with high fives with my fellow "team mates" and then "warming up" to get ready for.... obviously not for the game, but for the next round of rehearsal!  I told the volunteer next to me that, we probably should keep doing it wrongly to get into the field again!!  We did the same again two more rounds.  These times, I was with Gabriel Colt instead.  He was even more shy than Borges.  After the rehearsal was completed, we took more photos. 

Walking back to the Youth Centre..

I walked back to the Volunteer Centre myself.  It was almost time to help for lunch. Today, we were short of hands. There were only two of us at the drink counters with only one puncher!  

Cool Colombian fan!

Around 2, Bid brought the next four to Media Tribute area, including myself.  The second half has just begun when we were there. It was my first experience in such a big stadium.  The whole stadium was in yellow, filled with so many Colombian fans!  The atmosphere was just amazing!!  The screams were so loud.  I was carrying the water bottles walking up and down handing out the drinks to the media staffs, whom were busy catching the game.  Once a while, I would stopped to catch a glimpse of the game.  I was very lucky to witness all the three goals scored in the game, although I didn'

The amazing crowd in a wonderful stadium!

t literally saw the goals as they happened.  Colombia won two one that day. The fans went crazy!  Watching a live match is a must-do-thing before one dies!

Counting down to kick off!

After the game has finished, many fans were still lingering around celebrating.  Then, I saw a lot of Colombian fans gathering near a section of the Media Tribute.  They were trying to snap photographs and some of them even seemed to calling out for someone in the Media.  Eventually, a guy walked over to the fans and took photos with them.  Only did I realised he was Faustino Asprilla, the legendary Colombian striker!  I was a stone-throw away from him!!

After an amazing day, Bid sent me to the terminal to catch the bus home.  Something very different that I noticed today at the stadium as well.  There were not only parents bringing little kids and babies to the stadium, but even pregnant women, with a stomach like she was going to deliver any moment, also came to such a crowded place to watch a match.  This would never happened in my country!  Not at least when the kids are a few years old.  Asian also tends to be very cautious, often overly cautious, when it comes to pregnancy!

BWC2014 - 18th June (Day 35 - 17th Working Day!)

Pink cups.. so kinky...

I could be a famous go-kart driver!

It wasn't that cold this morning.  Probably because there was no wind.  The traffic was so smooth that I reached the Volunteer Centre at 8:30am.

I had a "tour" around the stadium today driving on the cart.  The speed was slower than I thought.  Though I could not perform my drift, I still enjoyed the ride very much.

In the evening, we had a meeting to plan on the work arrangement for tomorrow match between Colombia and Ivory Coast.  I was excited to be placed at the Media Tribute during the second half, where I would be serving the water bottles to the media staffs and get the chance to catch the game!! Live inside the stadium!!  For the first time, with more than 60000 spectators!!

Some other booths for the football
fans to visit during the match day!

Fan area outside the stadium!

If this is so-called hitting a lottery, I was the winner today when Flavia walked over and told me that I would be doing the rehearsal with the young kids tomorrow morning as well!!  I would be pretending as one of the player walking out to the field holding hands with the kids, singing the national anthems, shaking hand with the "referee" (in this case was Bart, another fellow volunteer!) and my "opponent players"!!  My dream to step on the grass would be materialised tomorrrow!!  I could not asked for more!

I left the Centre feeling ecstatic!  Have not been eating at the food court for some time.  I went again and had the craving for that shrimp rice with fried chips all mixed in tomato sauce. Happily enjoying my dinner with a glass of beer, someone tapped on my back.  She was the waitress from the opposite stall, which I have been eating all the while!  She doesn't speak English.  It was nice of her to come over and said hi.  I looked over to the stall and the other guy, a manager, met my eye contact. We greeted each other in a nod as well.  She was asking why I wasn't having my meal at their stall!  I promised her I would, the next time I came to the mall again.  I really did a couple of weeks later, but I never had my meal there!  I did not see the waitress nor the manager anymore!  Suddenly felt life is so special and precious. We should appreciate every moment.  If you have someone you like to meet but always have an excuse for yourself, I hope you do so soon because you will never know if that would be the last meeting!

BWC2014 - 17th June (Day 34 - Fan Fest Day!)

Walking to the Fan Fest from
Taguatinga Centre.

Reporter and I!

Brazil was playing their second group match today, against Mexico. I met Fernanda's dad in the morning and he predicted a 4-1 score line in favour to the host!

Bart, Leornado, Antonio and others were planning to the Fan Fest to catch the game this afternoon. It would be a pity not to join them.

The Fan Fest was actually at Taguatinga park, which was near my place. The Belgium game started at 1pm. I left home around 12pm but could not get any buses that Google map suggested after waited for more than 20minutes! Eventually I just took one that stopped at the town center and walked a longer distance there.

The Mexican masked men!

I still had time to top up my phone credit and bought a snack to survive the long afternoon. My 30 days internet access just ended this morning and it was perfect timing to renew my plan for just $R12. Glad that the subscription renewed automatically once my credit was sufficient.

Fan Fest at a glance!

Fan Fest's 2nd and 3rd (behind it)
screens!

Fan Fest's ......(fill in the blank)

On the way to the Fan Fest, I met two Ecuadorian who lives in the States. It was good to have someone to talk to which made the walk a lot faster.

Belgium, Canada, Argentina,
Singapore!

With my Mexican buddies, Antonio,
Leonardo and Beto!

When we reached, I was glad the security just stopped my water bottle and allowed my apple and other tit-bits to go through.















The Belgium-Algeria game has already started but the place was still pretty empty. The Fan Fest wasn't too big, with three huge screens and several booths selling beverages and food. I took a quick tour around the place and went back to the main screen to catch the game while waiting for the guys.

Soon later, I met Bart and Antonio. They came from the Volunteer Centre with a few other guys, including Marcus (another Brazilian volunteer) and his girlfriend.

A fan from Syria!

Father and daughter enjoying
the game under the sun!

Bart was wearing his Belgium flag wig and carrying a Brazilian flag in Belgium's colour! He was definitely the main attraction of the night! Inviting two radio stations and one TV station interviews! Because of him, I got myself an interview too with a reporter, Lucas Neto, from a local radio station. And thanks to Marcus's girlfriend helping to the do the translation, Mr Neto started the interview by saying "We will only ask you 50 questions!". I replied to him in Portuguese, "Brincadera?!" He laughed, surprised that I knew this word.

Same hair style, just different
colours!

Shortly later, Leonardo reached with his friend, Beto from Mexico as well. We all cheered for Belgium together and were happy that they won 2-1 against the Algerian.

Let's football unites the world!

After the Belgium match, more and more people were arriving. There was some performance on stage while we waited for the Brazil vs Mexico game. Everyone was dancing and cheering!  The atmosphere was great! Bart and my Mexican friends in their masks were catching all the glim light, attracting interviews and photographs from reporters, not to mention those Brazilian and foreigner fans as well. I was also having a moments or two, being asked to have a photograph.  There was also this young man asking if I liked to exchange my Singapore jersey with his.  I felt a little bad to turn him down, because I noticed his jersey was pretty old of poorer quality too!  Bad me... =p

Later, more volunteers from the Ticketing team arrived in their Brazilian supporter's attire as well. Antonio even saw Kobe Bryant on TV catching the game live at the stadium!

I'm on TV (with Bart's prominent flag)

Leonardo, the new FIFA
World Cup mascot!

As the match was getting closer to kick off, the atmosphere got more intense. A group of fans were yelling the country of other supporters from different countries. "Colombia, Colombia...". They were many Colombian around that day too. Then, I heard them shouting "Syria, Syria Syria...." And when they saw me and asked where I'm from, we started to shout "Cingapura, Cingapura!" together!

The guys were divided into to two groups. Bart was with the ticketing team supporting Brazil while our Mexicans friends were with a group of other supporters from their home country cheering at another end.

Happy ending for both supporters!

It was a great match indeed and the Mexican keeper was probably the crowd's (at least the Mexicans point of view) Man of the Match. He made so many incredible saves that somehow the match ended in a goalless draw! I guessed that was the best result after all for everyone to be happy.

We stayed on after the game for a while to enjoy the performance on stage. The singer was a Brazilian favourite from a singing competition.  After that, all of us walked to a nearby restaurant to have local food for dinner.  They were talking about a Mexican TV show called Don Ramon and I'd mistaken it as Doraemon, making a mockery of myself!

After dinner, Beto who rented a car, stopped me along the EPTG main road.  It was a fun night.  I bid them good night and walked home happily.

BWC2014 - 16th June (Day 33 - Additional Rest Day!)

Acommon beverage
order form!

The great goalkeeper!

It was a great rest day. I slept a lot. No plan for a run at all because I had an appointment with Aldo for lunch around 1pm.

So I made full use of the morning to stay on bed. When I finally woke up, I was still feeling sleepy until I noticed my first strain of white hair, which fully wake me up! Had my breakfast and left house around 12 to meet Aldo at the bus terminal. 

The bus terminal wasn't a place many of the local I knew would like to go. But surprisingly, there were at least clean toilets with soap and even paper to dry your hands!

The famous soda, Guarana,
with Neymar's signature!

Aldo picked me up at the usual spot and drove me to a restaurant where we had lunch and watched the Germans trashing the Portuguese 4-0. I finished off a draft beer, but our lunch were still not served after more than 40minutes! We rushed the waiter only to find out that our order was not available!! The match was almost over when we finally get to eat our meal.  The food was good. Probably because we were starving!! I had another big bottle of beer. Aldo's wife came to join us too. We chatted till around 4pm. 







When the bill came, they charged us the earlier order which was not available too! After that was fixed, I noticed they also charged two bottles of beer when I was pretty sure I drank just a bottle. There had this custom here where the waiter will replenish your empty bottle without asking. So, Aldo believed I had two instead. Maybe he was right, I didn't feel right and started to get very tired shortly. 

Cheese with "dulce de leche"
(sweet milk) for dessert! 

I was walking around the shopping mall near the terminal looking for my contact solutions but only managed to get a couple of overpriced toothbrush! 

This farofa changed
my opnion forever!

Felt really sleepy all of a sudden and quickly took a bus home. Reached at 6 and dropped onto my bed immediately for 2 hours straight!! Totally missed the USA vs Ghana game!

Cooked some noodle for my dinner, checked some flights online for my trip to Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paolo and Iguazu and it was already 12am . 

Neglected my blog for a long time, I did some update before going to bed. 

BWC2014 - 15th June (Day 32 - Brasilia 1st Match Day!)

Long queue at the check-in
counter

Another long queue for the Spectator
Service volunteers!

The first match day at Brasilia between Switzerland and Ecuador!  And we were supposed to reach the Centre by 7am!  I woke up at 4:50am feeling stunned.  It was still dark when I left the house and the guard wasn't around yet as well!

I was lucky to get a bus immediately and reached right on time.  Many volunteers were already there. Some of them had to start work at 5am!  On match day, we got a special sticker on our "passport" instead of the usual date stamp.  Also got my first lunch bag (the Catering team hardwork) with a grape juice.

Team countdown procedure
inside the dressing room!

More than 6 teams would be in here
and the first was the Swiss!

Bid and I walked to the check-in area. At 7:30am, the queue was really long!  There was also another check-in for the STS (Spectator Service) to collect their armband.  Tony then asked me to join him instead to the SMC where the snacks were being prepared at the cafeteria.  We waited for a long while before the food was ready.  Tony shared that Jurerê beach and the beaches at Fortaleza were amazing!  Met Leornado there and we helped to send the food to the dressing rooms, referee room, medical room and the LOC room around the competition area.  Joao joined us later at the dressing room.  While leaving the Swiss camp, I had a slight glimpse of a team member and possibly a player as well, walking into the room!  We were running a little late and finished the setup just slightly after 10am, 3 hours before the kick-off.

Leonardo showing his
stacking skills

The three of us walked back to the Volunteer Centre ourselves after that and waited for lunch hour.  With at least 800 volunteers working today, the lunch crowd was huge indeed.  I stayed to help throughout the whole lunch period, which ended later during match day at 4pm.  Around five, there was a discussion for all the Catering team members but unfortunately I don't understand any of it. It was a little discouraging not being able to contribute. 

A full-house Volunteer Centre!

Right after my lunch at 12pm, my stomach didn't feel good at all for the whole day.  Went to the toilet thrice since then.  Apparently, many other volunteers and staffs were having the same problem!  Most of them had their symptoms last night, but I was a little late with the effect.  In fact, while I was having my lunch, a fellow volunteer came over and warned me about the chicken.  Probably it was the culprit but I didn't pay attention to that.  Later, some reports suggested that the problem was with the spaghetti and the sauce!  We were also asked to fill up a form indicating our symptoms and the food we had.  When Bart was filling up his, it was really funny.  Because he didn't understand Portuguese, he made up his own questions and asked "Sim" (Yes in Portuguese) himself!  Leonardo was almost ROFLHAO (rolling on floor laughing his ass out!)

Bid in the famous wrestler's
mask and this trademark pose!

Guess where I sign my
name on the shirt!?

This morning, I also met Mario, Tony's boss.  In the evening, I got an extra lunch bag from him! 

The guys were planning to go to the Fan Fest tomorrow for the Brazilian game against Mexico as well as the Belgium's.  So, I asked Tony for a swap on my schedule.  Instead, I got an extra holiday!  It was perfect as I was longing for a break actually. Felt like I had been waking up early in the morning for many days.

My stomach was still not feeling too good in the evening.  Bart, Hector, Antonio, Leonardo and I stayed on to have our dinner at the Centre while catching the Argentine's first match against the Bosnia.  After which, Bart headed home and the rest of us continued to have a drink (literally just one bottle of beer) at the Brasilia Shopping mall.  It was a nice guys-only outing to end the day although just a very short one.