The World Cup is here!

I remember sitting in my bedroom at my parents house all those years ago and hearing on the radio that South Africa had won their bid to host the 2010 FIFA World Cup. With everyone else I was excited that we'd won the bid, but it was so far away...

And now it's here! Tomorrow is the kick-off. The country has been counting down since 1 000 days to kick-off, and it is finally here. In some ways it really is quite unbelievable.

But as I look around me I really am proud to be a South African today. There is such a spirit all around! I can't think of any other event in our country's history that has brought everyone together in this way.

Everywhere you go you see the signs - the flags on everyone's cars, the soccer jerseys that everyone is wearing, the vuvuzelas that you hear all the time... I personally really don't like the sound of the vuvuzela, but yesterday at 12:00 they had asked everyone to show their support for Bafana Bafana, and I must be honest that when I started hearing the (thankfully) distant vuvuzelas being blown I did feel a real pride in my country come over me.

I do think that this World Cup has done more for us as a country than anything else could possibly do. There are some things which will leave definite lasting legacies, and others which we will still have to see if the legacy is effective. But it has shown us as a nation that we can be united behind something, and that is probably the most important legacy of all.

So again, today I am really proud to be a South African, and when I hear our national anthem being sung tomorrow I know that I will join with the millions of South Africans who all feel the same!

Here's to us as a nation!