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.

BWC2014 - 14th June (Day 31 - 15th Working Day)

Today was my first day of the afternoon shift (and also the last)!  Made full use of it to catch up on my sleep!  As a result, I lost the fight of determination and skipped my run this morning. Just did some exercises to make myself felt better.

Swiss team, the first to train at Brasilia!

Swiss team testing the field...

Left the house around 10am. The buses were not that many at this hour. Reached the Volunteer Centre at about 11am.  Tomorrow would be the first match day at Brasilia, between Switzerland and Ecuador.  On each day before the match day (Match Day minus one), the teams would have a training session at the stadium, and depending on the kick-off time, the training also starts at different time.

We went to the Media stand with Tony and saw the Swiss training session.  There was only time for a few pictures before the field was closed from media.  We moved back to the Centre to help out on lunch. After that, we went back to the media stand again to catch the Ecuadorian practicing. This time, there were more people around and was too obvious to snap any photos. Again, it was only 10 minutes or so before we were asked to leave the area.

Media catching the team training.

TVs at the Media Tribute...

Met some volunteers from the Media, including Carol's sister, Vanessa! Didn't knew she was her sister until we met again with Carol at the Centre. 

The rest of the day were just to shift the juices from the cold container to the machine at the check-in counter for the volunteers tomorrow.

During lunch time, I met a Brazilian whose name is Alfrodite, which means Goddess of Love!  What a name it is indeed!  Earlier, I also met another Brazilian girl with the name of Iaradine.  She said it is a Greek name and would test me if I could pronounce it correctly every time I see her!  In fact, I just found out from Leornado that Mexican also has their mother's name in their name as well!  

Sorry.. no lunch for you today!

Juices for the volunteers on Match Day!

After the end of the third match between Italy and England, Leornado, Jose and I walked to the bus terminal together and met Bart with his friend from South Africa.  This made us a group of five different countries from five different continents!!  A Mexican, a Belgian, a South African, a Brazilian and an Asian!  The meeting was too perfect not to have a picture together! (but yet I don't have the picture with me! What a shame!)

I reached home and the Ecuadorian (I always felt bad for not remembering names!) was cooking some food for all of us.  Everyone was around except Fernanda's dad.  Had a beer and only slept around 12am!  With less than 5 hours of sleep, I was a little worried that I could not wake up at 5am tomorrow morning for the big day!