{"id":1249,"date":"2023-10-28T17:00:25","date_gmt":"2023-10-28T17:00:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wilde-diaries.org\/?p=1249"},"modified":"2023-10-28T17:00:25","modified_gmt":"2023-10-28T17:00:25","slug":"my-heart-beats-green-gold","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wildediaries.org\/index.php\/2023\/10\/28\/my-heart-beats-green-gold\/","title":{"rendered":"My heart beats green & gold."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

On my way to gym this morning I quickly popped into the local Checkers. We call it Checkers-in-die-gat because it is situated in small complex that resembles a hole (somehow).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I had my 2011 Bokke jersey on. Man, is it hot! I think the material they used was from Jan Van Riebeeck’s time it is so dense but for the sake of supporting our team I was wearing it. As far as my eye could see I saw green and gold. The staff, the car guards and the shoppers, everybody had dug their Bok jersey out and we were united in our cause. Support shown in so many ways for a squad of 23 players that are playing in Par-Hys tonight. As I walked down the isle Toto’s Africa was blaring through the speakers. I noticed because it’s one of my favourite songs and I still thought how apt it was. That song finished and the next song came on Under African Skies by Paul Simon. Scatterlings by Johnny Clegg followed and then I knew that the playlist had specially been chosen to show support and build “gees” for tonight’s game. It didn’t stop there as the gym had green and gold balloons up, the vendors on the street corners were doing crazy business selling knock-off rugby shirts and there is just an air of happy all over. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What a privilege to be alive in a time like this. I love seeing people so supportive and excited. It is contagious and although I am sweating all the caramel condensed milk out that I ate yesterday I am still in my Bok shirt as I am writing this. I will persevere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is late afternoon and my neighbours are preparing for tonight’s game. I think everybody in the neighbourhood has lit a ‘braai’ fire. I can hear the roar of thunder in the distance but that’s not going to deter the South Africans. Tonight is braai and rugby night. We are only two at home and one of us is a ‘non-braaier’ so we don’t braai but that doesn’t mean I don’t love the smell.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last week’s game nearly undid me. Half way through the game I said to Christopher: “I can’t, I am going to bed”. I took my dogs and left the TV room feeling very deflated and sad. I got into bed, put out the light and just lay there thinking that should the Bokke score the neighbours cheering would alert me. I heard nothing and knew that time was nearly up when suddenly the entire neighbourhood exploded. There was cheering and screaming and then I heard the pitter patter of my husband’s feet as he ran on the tiles to get to the room: ‘They scored!” he shouted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is the most animated I had seen him in a long time. He left. Within seconds the neighbourhood erupted again and I heard feet on the tiles: ” Conversion!” he shouted and then disappeared. Now I knew things were tight so I just pulled the sheet over my head and waited…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The screams from the neighbourhood and Christopher screaming told me something had happened. Once again he came running into the room:” Penalty conversion! We are ahead with a point and only a few minutes to go!” then he disappeared again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The final whistle as heralded in by the neighbours and Christopher’s feet on the tiles as he made his way towards me again. ‘WE WON!”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We danced round the room and the dogs ran away. They hate it when we watch rugby there is just too much emotion going around. I could hear the celebrations in all the houses around us and it made me feel so happy. What a game, what a night and how awesome was that win? Dad certainly got his steps in with being the bearer of great news and it took us a long time to convince the dogs that they could return to their beds later on when we had calmed down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The next morning I woke up and saw that Christopher was on You Tube, watching Rugby for beginners. This made me laugh as my husband is nor a sport enthusiast and has not shown any interest in rugby throughout our married life. I was brought up in a home where sport was part of our foundation, my dad was a rugby and cricket fanatic. With a background like this I know enough of the sport to get me going but Christopher knows nothing. The result is that whenever the ref awards a scrum or a penalty Christopher keeps turning to me and saying: “Can he do that?!” Sometimes I know and other times I don’t but I always make like I know everything answering him with confidence and making my own rules. This has lead to conflicting answers coming up and my usually organised and meticulous husband is very ‘deurmekaar’ because of my rugby lies and loftiness. I take full responsibility here but it has given me great enjoyment to ‘confuckulate’ him so. Sadly this has come to an end because he has been studying the rules all week long so my superiority and knowledge will no longer be called upon. Oh well, I will just have to find other ways to amuse myself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am going to take a nap now. Soon I will be scrumming and jumping for the ball in line outs and I need my strength. I am excited and scared at the same time but one thing I know and that is that I am not alone. We are a nation of 62 million that will be playing tonight. Can you all just throw the ball in straight and kick between the goal posts?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thank you. See you on the other side.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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On my way to gym this morning I quickly popped into the local Checkers. We call it Checkers-in-die-gat because it is situated in small complex that resembles a hole (somehow). I had my 2011 Bokke jersey on. Man, is it hot! I think the material they used was from Jan […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1256,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1249","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-todays"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wildediaries.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1249","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wildediaries.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wildediaries.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wildediaries.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wildediaries.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1249"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wildediaries.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1249\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wildediaries.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wildediaries.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1249"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wildediaries.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1249"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wildediaries.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1249"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}