Cape Town Stadium , Stadium Media Center

The hospitality tents in the old stadium area

and the big tent park on the Common have electricity/lights now

and a "Stadium Media Center" sign was hung up today

(the lit tent bottom left )

 

Lunch in Guardian Peak in Stellenbosch on Freedoms day

In the middle of vinyards mountains and a big blue sky lies Guardian Peak restaurant in Stellenbosch

Awesome views delicious food and an endless supply of yummy wine

makes it difficult to leave

I was there for 3 and half hours !

It was a National holiday in South Africa 

 Freedoms day

Freedom Day commemorates the first democratic elections held in South Africa on 27 April 1994

                          

Theses were the views from my table

I do not get a sense of autumn yet in Green Point but here it definitely looked like autumn with the russet colours of the vinyards Just so beautiful

This is the time of gorgeous sunsets as well

and the tents are steadily growing

Construction of new foot bridge between old GP Stadium site and the Cape Town Stadium

This road is closed off now

So you can not drive around the stadium anymore

                                     There are many men sitting around the edge at work like this

                           

An evening drive by our new Cape Town Stadium has become quite popular

Two of my blogposts featured on ZIMBIO an interactive magazine which has 20 Million readers a Month.

Jeez if so many people look at my posts I better watch what I write and check my spelling more often :)
 See them  Here and Here

Btw about the above photo :
 This is the original straight from the camera un-edited :

Click images to see large

At first glance you might think I did not get the horizon right here but I have a tripod with a spirit level

and I checked the image its level The stadium podium is tilted

I assume the reason has to do with  it having been build on hard rock

I came home at 7 pm and had no images for my blog

which is not that unusual..but I am never worried since they always somehow materialise :)

just as they did tonight

while I was eating dinner outside on the terrace at sunset

I saw the lights come on in the stadium and I never know 

 how many and which lights will be switched on

and then...OMG the "Ring of fire" was switched on too !

I hastily finished dinner and jumped in my car :)

Yes :( I admit ...sadly I have become a true stadium anorak

yet if you see me, you would never guess lol !

BTW as I write this and look outside ..

there is such a heavy fog outside, I cant see past the terrace

Main Entrance Fritz Sonnenberg road

The ring of fire was on for about an hour

I got some shots

will post them tomorrow though

A dining table with a view of Green Point, Sea Point, the new stadium and the Atlantic Ocean

GREEN POINT

I finally had dinner in the revolving restaurant of the Ritz Hotel after an earlier visit of

 Design Indaba Expo 

in the Convention Center

I took all these shots with my new ultra wide angle Canon 10-20mm Lens apart from the last one

SEA POINT

The view is to die for ..

Be prepared though.... the whole place seems to be in a time

warp, the decor, the food, including the music of the lady pianist :)

Still....I enjoyed it , the food was not bad and the staff is friendly
I had Chicken and prawn sate from the grill and
grilled line fish in a piquant papaya sauce
oh ok I do not reallywant to admit this...
 but I also had vanilla ice cream and hot chocolate sauce

The Convention Center against the backdrop of Table Mountain and Devils Peak

Design Indaba Expo is a 100% local-is-lekker celebration of South Africa’s ingrained creativity.
 Advertising, architecture, craft, décor, film, fashion, graphic design, interior design, jewellery, new media, publishing, product design and visual media, are all presented shoulder-to-shoulder

Shot from home, late afternoon

Cape Town Stadium at night, close and personal from the top of Signal Hill

Tickets for the World Cup semi-finals and final,

 as well as two of England's first round matches in South Africa, have sold out, FIFA said on Friday Febr 5 2010

Click on image

Extra large

Hosing down the 27.000 m² facade of the Cape Town Stadium for the upcoming Soccer Festival

You can clearly see the big difference This is how far they got today

If you are curious as how it looks inside the 

Cape Town Stadium in Green Point then look here

Soccer Festifal 23 January 2010

Tickets are available from Computicket and cost between R30 and R50. Parking tickets, of which there are 3 000 for sale, are priced at R20, and are only available from Computicket. Fans will not be able to buy match tickets or parking tickets at the stadium on the day.

 Free shuttle service from the Civic Centre in Hertzog Boulevard to the stadium and back. To use this facility, all fans need do is present their match tickets.
Tickets here
The schedule for the day is:

14:00 Gates open

Roving podium entertainment

15:20 Official blessing of the field and opening of the stadium

15:30 Musical performance by Freshly Ground

16:00 Ajax Cape Town vs Santos game 1st half

16:45 Vuvuzela orchestra performance

17:00 Ajax Cape Town vs Santos game 2nd half

17:45 Final whistle

17:55 Official trophy ceremony

19:00 Gates close

Even at night you notice the difference !

Cape Town Stadium A rose coloured bowl at night

Cape Town Stadium the closest I can get without jumping right in

I wonder what the view is like from those seats near the "port holes"

or whatever you call those openings to the outside, it must be amazing

Click on images to see large version

BTW the green lights in the foreground are really that green
and the reason the roof is not blue like here
is that only the inside lights were on and not the 350 spotlights in the roof which make up the "Ring of fire "

You have no idea how annoyed I get when the photo is blown out like here ..

so anyway the well lit :) white road is the new Granger Bay Boulevard which gives access to the stadium

that is where I stood when I took these shots (the last 2 images)

And this is a close up of the V&A Waterfront
it is very busy now with  tourists from other parts of South Africa and abroad

Note the Aqua Festival sign, you can see the seating area and the floating platform

An aerial view of 2010 World Cup Cape Town Stadium which was recently hit by theft

Click image  to see large

Apparently the PVC mesh sheets were torn last weekend during the storm due to theft of aluminum "caps" which attach the PVC sheets to the facade read more here
and the thieving headache here

The stadium is practically ready but not quite...There is still a snag list to attend to + the 4 torn sheets and other small details still need finishing touches The pitch also still needs a few weeks of growth before it's ready for its opening game on January 23 2009 when Ajax Cape Town take on Santos.

This evening while I was shooting on Signal Hill, I met the owner of the cherry picker company (the small serving platforms you see on the right in the photo)

He asked me if I had ever been inside I said No I had not.
He promised me to ask his site manager to contact me via my e mail adress

 Capetown_sa@yahoo.co.uk and he would then take me

 So please keep your fingers crossed for me !
I would love to go up on the roof to shoot !

Also today.... the colours were so beautiful I couldn't resist posting this

Seen many times before but I get never tired of it I hope you do not either isn't it awesome ?

Look at it this way My blog is like a webcamera

except that it is not able to stream :)

I took this shot before I went up Signal Hill this evening

the famous Tablecloth was just forming, it was such a beautiful evening
and such special light

Still working on the Facade of the new WC 2010 Cape Town Stadium

FIFA Executive Committee holds historic meeting on Robben Island

South Africa's Dream is about to begin... 1 day to go to the Final Draw

I happened to be on a boat when the Fifa Executive Comittee returned from Robben island around 5 o"clock

on 5 different boats

It was an eventful trip this is Sol kerzner's  "One and Only" toy

While we were waitng for our turn to enter the V&A Waterfront basin

I was so excited to spot this fish

I have no idea what its called but it was huge !

I have now been told that it is the ocean sunfish, Mola mola, or common mola, its the heaviest known bony fish in the world. It has an average adult weight of 1,000 kg !
(2,200 lb)

And then there was almost a disaster happening in full view of the Fifa Commitee, the "Sarah Baartman" had a pilot on board but she almost rammed the quay, our own skipper saw it coming, even from the angle we were at, it was obvious that she wasn't going to make it through the channel
All thrusters were going full force and she just stopped short of the Quay

 There was tremendous activity in the skies above the Common today
Lots of helicopters.. I assume some VIPs were shown the night lights of Cape Town
and what a sight it was again with a red rising moon this time
and by the way the facade on the Sea side of the Stadium is finnished
its just a few more strips on this side and a halfstrip on the East side
Pity they didn't quite make it for the FianlDraw but who cares its a beauty at night and so imposing during the day !

Oh and there was a big military helicopter which kept circling around,
then at 10 PM the military jet flew over a few times
and there was a Navy ship patrolling between Robben island and Green Point

Ok Guys ?
Let the party begin !
The "Sea Princess"  as you can see doesn't care too much about the environment

4 days to go to the "Final Draw ", 2010 WC Cape Town Soccer Stadium on the last night in November

Click image to see large It was full moon ..

On Dec 4th at 7 PM local time the "Final Draw" kicks off in Cape Town, the start of the World Cup 2010 event

The world will turn its attention to the Mother City like never before. The 2010 FIFA World Cup™ final draw show will be broadcast from the Cape Town International Convention Centre (CTICC) to millions of viewers across the globe. Many high-profile visitors from all corners of the world will attend the event itself. Celebrities, sports stars, world leaders and dignitaries will sit amongst the audience, eager to hear the draw results.
Read on :
The "Final Draw"

An interesting story about South Africa's 10 Stadia here
Live on Fifa.com
FIFA.com will have extensive coverage of the Final Draw, including eye-witness stories, interviews and features. In a similar vein to the extremely popular EMIRATES MatchCast used for the 2010 FIFA World Cup qualifiers, there will also be a live DrawCast on FIFA.com. Using the DrawCast, users will be able to follow live commentary and also interact through Fanchat as the drama begins to unfold.

View of Granger Bay Boulevard between the new Green Point Stadium and the V&A Waterfront

As preparations for the 2010 FIFA World Cup move into higher gear, construction of the new Granger Bay Boulevard (linking Green Point to the V&A Waterfront) and the new traffic circle adjacent to the Green Point Stadium are at an advanced stage.

The raised Green Point circle will allow on-foot access to the Stadium and Urban Park precincts underneath it, without walkers having to contend with heavy traffic The new road, Granger Bay Boulevard, runs from the circle and comes out on Mouille Point's Beach Road, between the historic Somerset Hospital and Fort Wynyard buildings.

See photo below

A new Integrated Rapid Transit (IRT) system bus station is also planned for the centre island between the new traffic circle and the Portswood Road intersection on Western Boulevard, to meet public transport requirements for the World Cup 2010 event.

This is was what the weather did in Cape Town today

It kicked up massive waves in the Atlantic Ocean, so I first headed to Camps Bay
He got soaked a little later, by a massive wave which caught me unaware too. Frankly he was foolish to stand there, if he had been swept away he would have been gone forever !

Sea Point. Looking upwards along the avenue, from the promenade towards Lion's Head

I then followed the coastal road back to SeaPoint.

This is the view along the promenade toward Three Anchor Bay and Green Point where the new 201 Green point Stadium is being build

The yellow cross on image shows where I was shooting from and

I walked from the parking bay across the road to shoot Lions Head

Sea Point with its olympic sized seawater swimming pool

Alongside the southernmost urban centre in Africa, separating city from ocean, lies an unusual strip of land. The Sea Point Promenade - and the public swimming pools at its centre - forms a space unlike any other in Cape Town. Right here, slightly away from the hustle and bustle of the business area, life is paraded, most unapologetically in all its forms… Over-made-up power-walkers, speed past homeless persons, kissing above the rocks and rent boys waiting for the next pick-up. Trendy teenagers eat ice creams, as elderly ladies parade dejected pet dogs on elastic leashes. Black, brown, white, young, old, locals, tourists, rich, poor, Jews, Muslims, Christians, stylish, tasteless – they are all here, arriving from apparently nowhere to join the ritual of walking a man-made path along the sea…