Nothing more than pure unashamed jealously

It's not often that I'm really envious of someone.  Sure, sometimes I'll spot a desirable material item of someone else's and feel the resulting pangs of jealousy but only in passing.  Generally I accept that I'm pretty fortunate in life.  I have a fantastic wife, a wonderful daughter, a brilliant dog, a supportive family, a comfortable house, a good job...ok I drive a Ford C-Max but you can't have everything.

Occasionally though I hear of someone landing a dream career, winning some kind of amazing prize or being given the opportunity of a lifetime and be consumed with envy.  Today at work I became privy to someone's summer plans which I can safely file in that category. 

This morning when checking some Facebook updates I noticed a status message from a work colleague essentially counting the days remaining until he left work for the delights of South Africa and the World Cup 2010.  Upon my arrival at work I immediately sent this colleague, Garry, an email to get the full details, find out what games he's going to see and just generally call him an utter bastard.

It transpires he's spending a total of three weeks in South Africa and is going to take in seven group stage games in Cape Town, Durban and in and around Johannesburg.  His itinerary is as follows..

11/06, Cape Town, Uruguay v France

13/06, Durban, Germany v Australia

14/06, Johannesburg, Holland v Denmark

16/06, Pretoria, South Africa v Uruguay

19/06, Rustenburg, Ghana v Australia

20/06, Johannesburg, Brazil v Ivory Coast

23/06, Nelspruit, Australia v Serbia

For many years now, I've wanted to save up and attend a World Cup, it's certainly more difficult when you have a child to prioritise but I'll do it one day.  It looks as though Scotland aren't going to qualify for a major finals any time soon so I may just bite the bullet and do what Garry's doing.  That said, my immediate goal is attend one of Scotland's away games during the forthcoming Euro qualifiers.  I'd love to do the Lithuania/Spain double header  (Lithuania on the Saturday, Spain midweek) whether I get away with shirking my responsibilities to swan off across Europe watching football, drinking beer and singing banal songs about wallpaper sticking to the wall (google it) is another matter, but I'll certainly give it a shot.

This World Cup jaunt really is the trip of a lifetime he's assured me he'll take plenty of photos throughout the excursion so I'll try and post a few as many as possible on the blog as and when I get them. 

So the real question is would I trade my fantastic wife, wonderful daughter, brilliant dog, supportive family, comfortable house, or good job for a World Cup trip?  Probably not but I'd have to think about it, I'd certainly trade the C-Max.

I wish Garry all the best and I hope he enjoys it, the lucky, lucky bastard!