Forgive me, people, for I have sinned.  It has been almost a year since my last blog post.  The World Cup made me do it.  I am slowly emerging from a delirious funk and slowly my smile is coming back.  The relief is physical…palpable.

Was it worth it? No.  Was it challenging? Yes.  Would I do it again? Ask me next year!

In the end AfricaSoccer supplied a crew of about 140 people to various broadcasters including ESPN, Sky, SBS Australia, BBC, and HBS/FIFA.  It was an enormous undertaking which, on first examination, seemed entirely possible.  And it was.  BUT…when you’re working with human beings, there are always a few unforseen speed bumps on the road to riches.  Various people needed to be replaced at the last minute for all sorts of interesting and often dramatic reasons.  These included:
- Being arrested, jailed and roughed up in Angola.
- Death in the family
- Illness (stroke)
- Car accident (broken bones)
- and my favourite:  “I got a better offer for more days and therefore more money, so sorry, can’t do the job for you any more.”
- Also had one guy who just didn’t show up one day.  His phone was switched off, and everybody was worried sick.  Next day he arrived for work as usual, and seemed perplexed by the fact that he was summarily dismissed on the spot!

Here at home, Mike and I built 2 television studios on the roof of a Green Point hotel that-shall-not-be-named.  Between the extortionist hotel management, and the CT city council building department, we had just 6 weeks to finish the construction in time.  The lights arrived from the USA 3 days before our first live broadcast.  On the day that our Australian clients arrived, we put on our “everything is perfect” face, and hoped to god that it would all be ok.  Aside from a bit of a boardroom-reshuffle, it was!  They turned out to be dream clients and did a lot to make it all the more bearable.

I suspect that things went a lot better for the thousands of soccer fans that enjoyed the 64 matches.  The tournament was a huge success, visitors didn’t get robbed or killed, and Bafana Bafana didn’t embarrass themselves (or us).  Success!  For me, success is measured in how much money we DIDN’T lose, how many of my friends and relatives are still speaking to me, whether I can repair my broken body and release stress trapped in it, and the fact that Mike and I get to go to Mauritius for a well-deserved holiday.  Au  revoir!

My smile twinkles with mischief
My smile reveals a hint of sadness

My smile is seductive
My smile makes you smile

My smile is sometimes fake
My smile is sometimes shy

My smile remembers the good times
My smile hopes for the future

My smile is a reflection of my joy
My smile is a mirror of those around me

My smile is a glimpse of my spirit
My smile is filled with infinite possibilities

The aroma wafts towards you from 100 paces.  It’s the unmistakable scent of baking, mingled with the rich headiness of cinnamon.  I close my eyes and move blindly in the direction of the divine deliciousness.  Then I see it…it’s a sign…no, really, it’s a sign that says “Cinnabon”.

I move closer, lured by the aroma-induced euphoria and existential knowledge that something heavenly awaits if I follow this path. 

Inside the sacred temple of temptation I catch my first glimpse of this divine decadence and I know…I must have it.  Flavours of vanilla, lemon, caramel and chocolate offer themselves to me like vivid red roses to bees.  And like a cult follower, I point weakly at the one that begs me to take it.

I take out my purse and gradually everything comes back into focus.  I realise that I am in a shopping centre – Canal Walk – and that this is a little store selling cinnamon rolls.  My religious experience evaporates as I part with R12 and eagerly clutch my freshly baked bun.  I open the wrapping as if it were a diamond necklace and inhale the beautiful cinnamon. 

The first bite is utterly beyond anything I had imagined.  (These things always look better than they taste, right?  WRONG!)  Every bite was a thing of unsullied beauty and, as I took my time and allowed my palette to revel in its treat,  all was right with the world.  The hot rolls are taken from the oven freshly baked, and then filled with a cream cheese frosting which melts into the swirls of the roll.  A hint of lemon brings out the vanilla and cinnamon flavours.  This is heaven!

www.cinnabon.co.za

I am drying my eyes.  I always cry when I watch this movie.  Every time.  And always in the same places.  It’s a very unsentimental film too, so what is it that always tugs at my heart?  The movie I’m referring to is “Shall We Dance” starring Richard Gere and Susan Sarandon, made in 2004 and first released on the art circuit.  It also stars Jennifer Lopez, but don’t let that fact make you stop reading this.  At the heart of this film is pure, honest human emotions, failings and fears.  Richard Gere plays a (gorgeous) middle aged man who commutes home every night on the train in Chicago.  On his way home he notices a dance studio and spots Jennifer’s character, Paulina.  The hapless group of would-be ballroom dancers are wonderfully – sometimes tragically – entertaining.  But each somehow mirrors a facet of myself, and probably everybody else too.  Nobody is perfect in this film.  Gere doesn’t end up a champion dancer.  But the ending is more beautiful, more moving than you would ever expect.   And the dancing represents that repressed passion and fire that is within all of us.

Gere’s character hides his nocturnal cha-cha classes from his wife, played by Susan Sarandon, who then hires a private detective to find out if he’s having an affair.  After finding out what he’s been up to, she doesn’t understand why he would keep it a secret from her.  In a memorable scene the PI asks her why people should get married?  She replies:  “We need a witness to our lives. There’s a billion people on the planet… I mean, what does any one life really mean? But in a marriage, you’re promising to care about everything. The good things, the bad things, the terrible things, the mundane things… all of it, all of the time, every day. You’re saying ‘Your life will not go unnoticed because I will notice it. Your life will not go un-witnessed because I will be your witness…”

So why do I love this film so much?  Is it that scene where Richard Gere emerges on the escalator dressed in a tuxedo, holding a red rose?  Or is it the way that his voice falters and trembles when he says to his wife:  “The one thing I am proudest of in my whole life, is that you’re happy with me. If I couldn’t tell you that I was unhappy sometimes, it’s because I didn’t want to risk hurting the one person I treasure most.”   Or maybe it’s when he tells his wife that he was ashamed of wanting more, when he had so much.  The dance scenes make my muscles twitch and I long to be them, gliding so gracefully across the polished wooden dance floor. 

It’s about going beyond the mundane repetitive things we do in life and trying something new and exciting that makes you feel alive.  And it’s about Love, Friendship, and being true to yourself.