I am giggling a great deal over this website:

http://www.vuvuzela-time.co.uk

Now you can feel like you’re in the stands at the World Cup in South Africa from the comforts of your home or office Internet-browsing   Evidently, there’s an iPhone app as well that will turn your mobile into a vuvuzela horn.  But, of course, isn’t there an iPhone app for everything…

At any rate, if you’re able to skip out of work early on this fine, albeit chillier Friday afternoon, the U.S.A. vs. Slovenia match will be kicking off at 3:00pm GMT.  Germany vs. Serbia will be underway in an hour, and England will face-off against Algeria this evening at 7:30pm GMT.

I, for one, am lucky enough to be able to skip out of work in time for the U.S. match.  My American friend has rented space at the Duke of Wellington pub on Notting Hill’s Portobello Road, and I’m hoping for a more mild atmosphere than last Saturday’s U.S. vs. England match…oi, was that obnoxiousness incarnate.  First of all, not to overly diss a certain establishment on the Kings Road in Chelsea, but despite its phenomenal beer garden space out back that I do indeed enjoy, its interior is very American bar-and-grill.  I do not mean to likewise diss American bar-and-grills in that same sentence—I’m a Yankee and proud of it!—but it’s not exactly furthering one’s international experience by frequenting it.  And when you combine that atmosphere with a match of those competitive proportions, it raises it to American Frat Boy level, a Code Red that sends this former sorority girl running for the hills.  But it wasn’t just Americans…this was truly an event that united world citizens in pissy attitudes that was just not a climate I enjoyed.  But that’s just me.  I’m not a hardcore sports fan, and football is no exception, so perhaps I should reserve judgment; I just don’t particularly like when taking jabs that should be all in good fun loses perspective and turns into actual ethnocentric antagonism.  I don’t perceive the athletic ability of several men running on the field to actually represent an entire country anyway.

So there’s my editorializing because it’s Friday and I’m tired, and when I’m tired, I’m ornary and sometimes knock what I don’t truly understand   Hopefully this afternoon after a cool pint I’ll be able to embrace the more positive spirit of global community that does surround this game on its colossal scale and finally comprehend what all the buzz (and horn-blowing) is all about.