The World Cup fever is on!

The virus was spreading in the country already since a few weeks: the last days at school all school children seemed to have a red jersey as a new uniform, flags are flying everywhere, etc.  At the start I had been successful in avoiding getting the infection.

You must know I'm rather allergic to over confident teams and supporters that are all convinced their team will be the world champion.  A few decades where the Red Devils truly didn't make a chance for the title and a few decades of irritation of the arrogant Orange madness at our neighbours, makes that the underdog position has rooted well in me.  Preferably I hope for the best but never with too much confidence in a certain good ending. Never without having awe for the competitor.

While the group phase didn't draw too much focused attention in our home (normally soccer is never on, but I watched the games in the background to keep track of score), colorful props entered our home.  Anything you buy seems to come with a tricolored gadget at this moment, much to the joy of the children who goof around with those. At work we also did an effort to dress in black, yellow and red.

But the fever spread previous Monday.  Things were getting serious.  It was all or nothing now.  Our children got some of the many tattoo stickers that are laying around in the house.

I had to spend 2 days with management on seminar at work offsite.  Since the hotel wasn't too cooperative to provide us with a big screen for our scheduled evening BBQ, my colleagues dragged a full tv instalation, extention cords, speakers etc etc to the garden location and we set it all up so we could watch it together. 

We face painted each other (incl a full flag on the head of a bold colleague) and started watching together. We ignored the BBQ until half time when we quickly rushed to get some food, although some colleagues were too nervous to eat.  The tension was contagious. The bar tender stayed with all his bottles at our tables, ensuring he kept filling every cm constantly, to validate his presence in front of the tv screen with us. The game was a rollercoaster of emotions. The ending was totally insane. WTF!?! We screamed, we danced, we jumped, we partied ...we won.  We have loads of pictures not for publication :)

Today half of the camp kids had a red jersey on again. Even a baby in the daycare!  And now I am infected by the fever as well.  And for once I hope the fever grows and lasts for another 10 days.  But I fear I'll be cured in a few hours.  The underdog, remember. Tonight's game still feels like David-Goliath.