BWC2014 - 13th June (Day 30 - 14th Working Day)

Since the last three days, the weather was getting colder. Although just 6 hours of sleep, I felt fresh after waking up today!

A very quiet day at the Volunteer Centre.  I was the only one from Catering this morning. Leonardo was with me but he was in charge of the Cafeteria at the SMC (Stadium Media Centre).  Later, Kate came to help just before lunch.  Laura, Livia and Otto joined later.

Just realised that Kate speaks very fluent French and Spanish as well.  She mentioned about the Festa Junina (June Festival) party which was a very famous party usually held at church in Brazil, with great food.  Although named June Festival, this party was common till August every year.

Coca-cola!! Water!! Coca-cola!! 

When the lunch hour was over, we walked to the stadium to bring the bottle carriers to the storeroom at the Media Tribute area. These were used to serve the media water bottles during the match!  After that, Otto drove all of us to the McD and treated us an ice cream cone!!  He also got for each of us a McDonald pin from the manager!

We came back to the Volunteer Centre just on time for the 4pm matches.  We ended the day with a tour to the SMC again, following Bid the actual way we should be taking on match day according to the access we had.

Stadium Media Centre rows of TV...

Back to the Volunteer Centre, I enjoyed my free dinner again . Helped out a little during the dinner session and then watched last game with Hector, a Peruvian and Bart from Belgium. There were 26 volunteers from Peru and at least 2 from Belgium and Singapore!  When Bart told me about the other Singaporean volunteer at Natal, I was a little disappointed indeed, since I would not be the "Special One" from Singapore anymore!  =]  But of course, I couldn't wait to meet him at Brasilia when he is coming for the quarterfinals.  Bart also told us about his amazing meeting with Pele, the great soccer legend at Sao Paolo's Unique hotel!  He was surrounded by bodyguards and could not get an autograph.  Another legend, Cafu, was there too!!  He highly recommended this place which has a beautiful pool at the top with a wonderful view of the city!  Just like Marina Bay Sand hotel in Singapore! 

The guys left earlier and I waited for Bid who drove me to the bus station. When I reached home, I met the Ecuadorian friend who just arrived at Fernanda's place. Unfortunately, he doesn't speak much English, but he mentioned that Ecuador has a lot of volcanos, and many of them are still active!  Reminded me of Miguel whom I met at Rome last year!

BWC2014 - 12th June (Day 29 - Happy Valentine's Day)

Interesting Brazilian way of
counting to 5!

No it was not a typo again. The Brazilian indeed celebrate their Valentine's day on the 12th of June! And today was also the beginning of the World Cup 2014 at Sao Paolo! 

Bid, our Catering Team
assistant coordinator!

Every morning, the bus that goes to Cruzeiro passed by the stadium. I took one today that went to the other direction instead!! No big damage done, I just had to alight at the first stop and walked back to the bus terminal to catch the right one again. 

As a result, I was late by 30 minutes and many of my colleagues were already waiting with Bid. No time for coffee today, I moved to the stadium immediately with Tony, Laura and Bid on a cart just like those used in the golf course. 

Tony showed us the dressing room of the teams, LOC General Coordinator (GC) room, Medical room and the Referee room where all would have a break area with snacks and coffee (not for referees and players though). He said we just need to take photo while the work is done by the Caterer. All these must be prepared on match day 3 hours before kick off. 

Nothing fancy about the rest, but the dressing rooms were big! The names of the teams were already printed on the door. There was a big jacuzzi too!

Brazilian supporters cheering their team
for the first match of the tournament!

Watching the opening
ceremony at a different
stadium!

After the usual lunch work, the final moment has finally arrived! At 3pm, the TV were already showing the crowd, getting ready for the opening ceremony. All the Catering team members walked together to the stadium to watch the opening which started around 4pm, and then the first half of the World Cup 2014 first match between Brazil and Croatia! The game kicked off at 5pm. For the first time, I watched a match without commentary! Felt a little weird. But the feeling was special to watch a big screen inside a stadium!  Croatia took the surprise lead and the first goal of the tournament was an own goal! 

The guy which is seen every where
in Brazil nowadays!

Everyone was tensed.  But, the wait for equaliser was not long.  18 minutes later, Neymar squared things up.  He netted again on penalty in the second half and Brazil eventually won the match three nil. Right after the match, there were messages circulating around with Marcelo's (the Brazilian player who scored the own goal) head pasted on a Croatian jersey, and the Japanese referee in a Brazil uniform because he awarded a dubious penalty to the Brazil team!

We came back to the Volunteer Centre to watch the 2nd half. After which, Tony invited me for dinner at the centre. Actually, Jansler, a good friend of Eder invited me to meet up tonight but I wasn't sure if we were having dinner. Feeling a little hungry already, I had some anyway. Around 7, I walked over to the accreditation centre to wait for Jansler to pick us up. 

Eder welcoming me in his
own way!

An "interesting" place
indeed

They brought me to a famous Arabian restaurant with great super chilled beer! (Very famous indeed for some reason which I only found out a couple of weeks later.  This place was a very popular joint for gays and lesbians that even Lonely Planet has record on it). Met Ismael another friend and had a long chat. Only Jansler speaks English and he was really kind and nice, translating almost all our conversation in English and Portuguese! He also told me a lot of things about Brazil and the culture here, from the latest songs to the famous snacks. He taught me a very cool way of telling others you need the loo!  Instead of the usual boring "I'm going to pee", the Brazilian guys like to "let the water out from my knee!" instead or "Tirar agua do joelho"!

Delicious Kibe!!

We tried a food called Kibe which taste really good with cheese. A popular Lebanese-style snack, it contained deep fried "croquette" of beef and bulgur wheat, seasoned with garlic, onions, mint and cinnamon.

Drag Queen from Brasilia!

After a great night, Jansler said I am could be "com leite"! I was puzzled because I am guy with no milk! Literally, "com leite" means "with milk"! Usually referring to a kid which is inferior to the other, and in this case, it means I don't have to pay for the bill!  I thanked Jansler very much for the thought but insisted to fork out my share as well.  Ismael stayed along the way and was very kind to send me all the way back to my house.  We took some pictures together before we said good night and promised to have another session again soon!

BWC2014 - 11th June (Day 28 - 13th Working Day)

VIP Area...

Overpriced snacks & beverages!

I always saw this 946 bus which goes to the bus terminal every morning and timed its arrival around 7:45am outside my house.  I looked at my watch, which said 7:38am. Just another 5 minutes wait. So why not give it a try! Truly enough, the bus came at 7:45am sharp! I was a happy man since I didn't have to walk for 20min today! Unfortunately, the happiness only last for 20 minutes too. After more than 30 minutes, I was still circling around Vicente Pires!! Only 45 minutes later did the bus exit to the main road!! Obviously I was late for the day.

Field access required for
those planning to run naked
during the match!

Saw a lot of fire engines outside the stadium when I reached. Perhaps all were getting ready for the opening day of World Cup 2014 tomorrow!

Portable air-conditioning!

Insider news from Colombia!

Started to feel chilly and sneezing! Sign of a cold coming!! I kept drinking lots of water to make sure that didn’t happen.  The wind was getting stronger.

It was another quiet morning. Met Dilson and Thiago who were on their first day of work. After lunch, Laura brought us for a tour because there were two new guys around. Thiago was actually from a city 200km away. He drove here all the way just to participate in the event.

Two visitors checking
the field!

I love sun tanning....

Very well-decorated stadium!

Initially, I thought it was the system
which captures all the players'
statistics!

Past World Cup posters at the
Volunteer Centre

We all went home doing nothing today. I Ieft early around 5:30pm to get a lift from Thiago. He was going to Taguatinga. He was new with the roads in Brasilia. Marcus gave him some direction which I realized later that it was actually going the other highway parallel to EPTG. And, it was too far to stop me half way along the road at Vicente Pires. Hence, I had to follow Thiago all the way to Taguatinga and that was really a pain. We were stuck in the traffic for more than 2 hours! 

In the end, I was directing a Brazilian back to his destination instead, using the Google map. Finally I found someone who has lesser sense of direction than me!! (Sorry Thiago if you happened to read this. I was just teasing you) Making sure Thiago was safely "home", I walked to the main road and caught a bus back to EPTG. Eventually, I spent 3 hours to get home, feeling conned by Marcus for suggesting to Thiago to send me along. (Sorry Marcus if you happened to read this. I was just teasing you)

Quickly showered, I went to bed exhausted as usual.

BWC2014 - 10th June (Day 27 - 12th Working Day)

The gates were decorated too..

I have been seeing this 946 bus that also goes to the bus terminal every morning. But each time, it just passed by me. This morning, I almost caught it if I were 20 seconds later or 10 seconds earlier. 20 seconds later so that I could run back to the bus stand to catch the bus. My breakfast didn't allow me to run any further than that.

Shuttle buses for the staffs!

We have a big group of Catering team today. Met Ana who is an athlete! She won two times volleyball and handball championship in college level and also teaches dancing!!

The gates were decorated three..

Because there were many of us, me and some others started the packing of the lunch bags earlier, before the lunch ends.

When the rest came to help, we have two persons packing the same snacks together! That made things moved much faster and we completed all the lunch bags that we needed to prepare and boxed them up all nicely! We all took pictures together as celebration!!

Ever since the "pão" incident, I became the laughing stock for everyone again; this time mispronouncing the word "grande"! Language is amazing! If you are not careful, trying to order a "big bread" (grande pão) in Portuguese could end up getting something more exotic from the male organ!

Last batch of lunch bags
completed!

All lunch bags were cleared!

During lunch time, Ellen said something about pregnancy and I thought she was referring to her sister or relatives, but it was actually herself. Pregnant for 3 months now, she was still working as a volunteer. That was unbelievable! And she was not the only one. I saw another volunteer at lunch and Ellen said she was in her 5th month pregnancy!!

After we had cleaned up the place, most of them left except Ellen and myself. There were a group of transporters coming to shift all these lunch bags to the dry container! And the toughest task to handle so far was to do nothing while "supervising" the mover to do the job! Met Romario, the movers' coordinator instead of the superstar footballer!

We completed about 6400
lunch bags of 5 different
colours!

All the boxes were moved to the dry container except the last colour because there was no space left. Tony invited me for dinner again and this time, we had it inside the Centre just like our lunch.

Today, our TV and Playstations were ready too. Two of the TVs were near the dining area and one big projected screen above the exit/entrance.

Again, I didn't spend a single cent today and went home happily. After shower, I was so worn out that I slept just slightly after 10pm!

BWC2014 - 9th June (Day 26 - 11th Working Day)

My most luxurious
breakfast so far!

Surprisingly, people still ask for the time nowadays. Today was the third time I was asked! And I thought everyone would at least has a mobile phone!

My favourite corner, the
"Break Area"

I did not have breakfast at home this morning.  It was one of those days that you craved for something different.  And today was Mac Donald breakfast!  I reached the bus terminal and went to the McD at the food court, but it was not opened yet!  Didn't want to give up so soon, I walked further to the drive-through McD outlet, which I used to walk passed all the time on my way to the stadium. Glad there were breakfast served, and for $R10.50 it was my most luxurious one so far, but yet not the best!  There was no hash brown!!  And the tiny little Brazilian version of Egg McMuffin and a small glass of orange juice could hardly fill my stomach wall!  Hungrily, I cycled to the stadium looking forward to the biscuits and coffee in the Break Area!

We switched from blue to
yellow!

Another colour "light blue"
completed!

This morning was really quiet again. There were only me and Carol from the Catering team. We met Isabella who were only 18 years old! She told us about her role in the security, dealing with players, which really made me envy! 

At lunch time, I finally managed to put a name on some other Catering helpers whom I frequently met. Telma is the vibrant lady who always cracks a joke with me, asking for a coke, knowing they are not allowed one. Bianca is the younger lady who really looks like my ex colleague in Singapore! Natalia, the quiet one, who hardly speaks during our "conversation". And a colleague of Pedro, who speaks the most English, helping us with all the translations!  (Sadly, I forgotten her name while I was updating this!)


They told me about a famous card game played in Brazil called Truco. I thought to myself that I must learn how to play from someone when there is a chance! Telma said she loves this game!

Army ready to march into
the "Lunch Bag"

Moises from the Ticketing!

Then somehow our "conversation" brought us to a famous Brazilian dance fight, Capoeira! When I asked where could I catch the show, Telma replied that weekends at the TV tower would have. Bid also told me later that there were such performance at the City Park too in the weekend morning. 

Then, Bianca showed me how to dance samba! Didn't realise I have some hidden talent on this! There was even applause from the "audience" while enjoying their lunch! 

Finally there was another Asian volunteer besides myself. She is a Japanese girl. But, when I spoke Japanese to her, she looked at me like I was from Mars!!

Also met a lot more foreigners from Venezuela, Ivory Coast, Colombia, USA and Costa Rica!

Add caption

After lunch, Debora came. So, there were just the four of us to continue packing the food bags. Later, Tony brought a new Catering member, Leonardo, who just arrived from Mexico. He gave us each a very beautiful Mexican pin and every volunteer was dying to get a hand on it later! I felt bad for not bringing these pins from my country because many were asking for one from me!  There was a trend to collect these pins here.

Cathedral in green & yellow!

We finished packing the light blues and ended the day at 6:30pm. By far, the latest.  Tony invited us for dinner at the Centre. Only I stayed back for it. Met Leonardo again and some others from the Ticketing. 

After meal, Bid drove me to bus terminal. But before that, we took a short ride around the ministry district where every buildings were beautifully lit in green and yellow! We stopped at the road sides and took a few pictures!


I went home, showered and slept soundly!

BWC2014 - 8th June (Day 25 - Paranoa Lake Visit!)

The famous JK Bridge!

The signage says it all!

It was great to have an off day. But glad I didn't over sleep. Woke up around 8:30am and started my run at 9. Went for 5km again and planned for some workout after that. But Fernanda's mom was watering the grass and cleaning the exterior area. So, I had my shower and breakfast earlier. Strawberry jam goes well with banana too!

Forgotten it was the Roland Garros men's final this morning! I missed the first set where Djokovic won 6-4. Second set was thrilling. Nadal leveled it at 7-5. After which. Djokovic lost steam and eventually the final in 6-2 and 6-4. I didn't catch the last set because I had an appointment at 2pm with Aldo for SOP (Stand On Paddle) at the lake.

It was a wonderful sunny afternoon indeed!

A great place for picnic and a swim!

I was really looking forward to the activity this afternoon.  Seen people doing SOP at Bali and Taiwan and would very much like to try it myself too.  Caio also contacted me this morning and would like to join us later as well.  So, I “dressed up” for the event and went to the bus terminal myself.  I reached the meeting point just on time. Unfortunately, Aldo couldn’t make it in the end and we had to arrange another day for the SOP! 

Third Stand On Paddler!
 (No, I'm kidding..
don't strained your eyes!)

Two Stand On Paddlers!
 (Yes, I'm serious!)

Caio came to the bus terminal to meet me and brought me to the lake instead. It was one of the many spots around the lake where there is a Saint John Bosco Chapel. There was a huge open area, best for picnics. Many were chilling around. Some was playing the game of balancing on something long and elastic. There were also many people swimming too. We tested the water and found it pretty cold! Reminded me of the icy sea water when I was at a beach at Bilbao, Spain. It was such a hot day but the water was so cold that my toes froze in 4 seconds!!

We walked further up the path to see where it led too, and chatted about Monash University, Springvale, Chadstone and many familiar places in and around Melbourne. Oh.. it brought back so many fond memories!

Wonderful Ashai!
(my keyboard could not

Pineapples! Reminded me of durian!

The walking path goes endless. We turned back and returned to the car park. Caio then drove me to this stall for Açaí and it tasted so much better than the one I had before at the mall.  After that, Caio had to send his girlfriend to the airport. So, he dropped me along ETPG where I could catch the bus home. I thanked him a lot for the day!

Today, I decided to cook at home again! One more Penang curry laksa gone and I was left with two only! Added two sausages, some cabbages, and an egg! Wow.. it was yummy!  Later, Fernanda's mom threw in some fish slices and my soup tasted just like fish curry!!!  

After the wonderful meal, I stayed up to watch the NBA final game 2. Spurs missed 4 free throws in a row at the final minutes and it came back to haunt them, losing the match 98-96. The series tied at one apiece.

I managed to finish the game and went to bed happily!