I was this close to having heart attack...

Portugal not in for SA yet, they have to play with Bosnia for the play off. I watched the repeat of the first leg few days before and Bosnia did give a good run for their money. Man, they were almost on the verge of getting an equaliser at the very last minute.

There was one attempt when the one Bosnian player shoot, it hits the post bounce back to another Bosnian player, tried the second shot, only to be saved by again, the post. I almost had cardiac arrest watching that. Portugal won 1-0 but the second leg will be tough, and they will be playing in Bosnia. As much as I want to support fellow Muslim (if at all the Bosnian players are) my heart goes to Portugal long long time ago. Enough about the qualifiers, lets talk about my planning.

My first choice for accomodation is Penthouse on Long. The pics looks very nice, but I have been procrastinating the booking, they are not able to accomodate 3 of us for the one week. So I have confirmed my booking with the second choice, Zebra Backpackers, although the name is not at vogue as Penthouse on Long, the pics are quite OK, and the price was good too. So I book the 3 bed/ room for the 3 of us.

Tentative date is from 28th June to 4th July. I have confirmed tickets for :

• 29th June 2010 : Match 56 20:30 and
• 03rd July 2010 : Quater final 16:00

Am so excited, am praying hard I can go there, no hiccups InsyaAllah...
Flight is a bit of uncertain for now. One month back I surveyed, MAS still the cheapest, but then last week when I re-check the flight is no longer there...wth??? I am hoping next year, there will be MAS travel fair and I can get good bargain.. Insyaallah... :)

SA 2010 planning update

Raya is over, so is kenduri and my SA fund has been affected quite badly because of the celebration. So now my immediate action is to re-fill the fund so that I can enjoy SA as I planned!! Updated budget to set aside for a month is freaking RM1000!!! banyak tu.. I would have to forgo a lot.. (new novel,DVD,karaoke session..new furniture for SP house have to be put on hold jugak ni..)

Haish..tu la raya tak ingat, spending not so wisely and now paying for the consequences. Shaz and Ija ape cite? I'll follow up later. Am finalising the accomodation places. So far there is 2 or 3 places that offers the price within my budget. But some still have not published the World Cup season price yet.

Check this out!!!
http://www.mountainmanor.co.za/BPack_about.html - awaiting the WC rate
http://www.penthouseonlong.com/index.php - confirmed WC rate already, and I thought the place looks good and decent
http://www.zebra-crossing.co.za/accom.htm - confirmed WC rate, another decent place
http://www.catandmoose.co.za/home.html - awaiting WC rate.

So now finalising among these 4...

I think this looks better.

Although the font is not really my favorite and at some it is not clear, but I like this look. What has it got to do with me planning to go to South Africa? I don't know.

How far am I so far in the planning? Well, I have narrowed down our accomodation and activities options. Yes, we do other stuffs apart from watching the game. And all the price estimate I hike another 30% (just to be safe). If it turns out to be more than that, we just have to suck it....yup.

Airlines have not opened any ticket sale yet for mid June 2010. So keeping my fingers crossed that they will not hike up the price more than I anticipated.

I thought I screwed it

And here I am, could not stop feeling excited about my ticket reservation. It is confirmed, at least I have made my payment. Lucky I checked in time to proceed for the payment, else I will miss it again.

I actually tried to book for Shaz, but it is no longer available!!! Now I have one tick for match 56 and another one for round of 16. Not sure who I will be watching. Portugal is not qualified yet. I don't mind, as long as I'll be there.

South Africa, here I come!!!!

Booked!!

I did it!! I've place my bookings for the tickets, so far I just booked one ticket. I know that Ija and Shaz was excited to follow, but I do not put high hopes :). Am going to contact Danette, the lady that I met in the course the other day. For now am booking for Q-final, am thinking, to book round of 16 as well.

But I could not secure a ticket for Portugal because group stage not concluded yet, therefore whether or not they are in finals are still a doubt. Man....USD300 for one event. serious?? yes I am.

Budget Estimation

I have been doing a bit of research and here goes;

1. Flight ticket : RM5000 (surveyed few airlines..MAS among the cheapest compared to others, once date are set, go to MAS fair and potentially can get 40% discount.
2. Football Match ticket : USD 150-200(RM 450-600) -- Subject to preference, for sure I am trying to buy, no matter how much it is...well RM 500 is my ceiling price, I mean what's the point of going there if not watching one of the games right?
3. Accomodation and food : Not sure the exact ones, lets target around RM1500-2000, to be on safe side
4. Others : to shop for souvenirs or for safari tour fee..etc..etc
5. Total : RM8000 , give some margin, say, RM10000.
6. For RM10,000, if we start saving now till May 2010, we will have 18 months to save up.Which comes down to 10,000/18 = RM 555.6 per month..

So am I up for the challenge? Hell ya.....:)