Rugby at Wembley

In my first year at University,  I made friends with Paul, the captain of the University Rugby Team, the Impis. He was a 5th year medical student, and it was pretty cool to be seen with him and the rugby team - hunks-all of them. Whenever they were going for a game, they would come first in their coach to Box (my student hall) to pick me up. Paul said I was good for the morale of the team. Owing to my exceedingly loud and piercing voice, I am a natural cheer leader. I was also very good at rounding up some of the girls from Box to come for the games. We didn't know the rules, but our enthusiastic shouts of 'Go Impis" always got a good reaction from the boys. I even had a (very) brief fling with one of them. Paul soon put an end to that by giving the guy a Serious Talk along the lines of "Stop messing with my little sister". The guy gave me a "It's not you, it's me' speech, which broke my heart.

My broken heart didn't stop my love for rugby though. Or rather should I say.... rugby players. They are sooo HOT! Those big chests and shoulders, tapered waists, big arms and legs. SOLID! Real Men! Recently during Rugby World Cup, I was going on to Yati about how much I loved and supported the England Rugby team. She commented wryly "It's not the England team you support, really, its Jonny Wilkinson"

I don't really follow national rugby, but Rugby World Cup, Six Nations, Rugby Sevens, I am THERE, glued to the TV set, yelling on my own, in my living room. I was quite pleased that my neighbour Jon is keen on his rugby. He even has a Season ticket for local rugby club, The Saracens. Last weekend, we went to the new Wembley stadium to watch a Saracens versus Harlequins game. The atmosphere was great. Before the game, there was entertainment including 'Right Said Fred' who wrote the song for the Saracens called 'Stand Up'. There were cheerleaders gyrating in front of him- British cheerleaders have a long way to go compared to their American counterparts who are wayyyy superior. I mean do they not watch films like Bring it On?

More entertainment came in the way of a big brass band, acrobats and then a tight rope walker

Saracens Won! Absolutely 'slaughtered' the Harlequins! You know, I just might become a Sarries fan - I like their strip - black with red, and little Fez hats and the whole north African thing going on there.... yeah... I think I'll officially declare myself a Sarries fan!
STAND UP!!

Simple Economics

In the March 2010 issue of Internal Auditing magazine, there’s an article about South Africa’s competition watchdog investigating domestic airline operators for alleged price fixing to exploit travellers during the football World Cup.


I couldn’t help the involuntary snort. Here in the UK, it is generally accepted that airlines, trains and tour companies push prices up to EXPLOIT travellers during peak periods.

It’s simple economics. If demand is high and resources limited– prices will go up!

In early February when booking a trip to visit my sister in Scotland for the Easter weekend, I found that all the train fares were astronomical!! This was a whole TWO MONTHS before I was due to travel. And all the train companies were charging the same exorbitant prices –price fixing?

Why shouldn’t domestic airlines in South Africa make a buck out of a situation that is to their advantage? It is what we expect. Which is why as soon as England qualified to play in the World Cup there was a stampede by fans to buy tickets before the fares went up.

But just because something is generally accepted, it doesn’t mean that it is a good thing. I am all for Fair trade and protecting consumers. If a company can convince me that the prices that they set are fair, then I have no problem paying for them. After all it’s a business and they need to survive. I do respect businesses that see opportunities and make the most of them, but cannot reconcile this with deliberate exploitation just for greed.
Perhaps our UK Competition Commission should take a leaf out of South Africa’s book and start looking into the train companies