World Cup Diary June 30: Goodbye to Rustenberg and some pretty average food

World Cup Diary / Jonathan Wilson / 30 June 2010 / Leave a comment Free £25 Bet

Rustenburg: Low on good restaurants and where planes land on motorways but great people

Jonathan Wilson on why malls are evil, rubbish restaurant managers and the aeroplane that landed on a motorway whilst he was stuck in a traffic jam...

"But I wonder also if the mall is attractive in societies as economically divided as South Africa’s because the poorest section is automatically disbarred from going
there, by dint of not having cars. That may or may not be the case, but the thought strengthened my belief that malls are evil."

So it's time to say goodbye to Rustenburg. This is my last full day here, then it's off to Johannesburg for two quarter-finals. Will I miss the place? Probably not, but I will miss the people. The England media-centre, as ever, was an antiseptic hell-hole, stinking with
tedium and paranoia. The sandwiches were rubbish and overpriced, and although Mars, which sponsors England, provided free Planets and Mars bars, they a) ran out after the group stage (somebody, evidently, was not taken in by the hype) and b)do not constitute a healthy diet. If only England were sponsored by Waitrose's deli counter.

Food, actually, was generally a problem. It's not unfair to say there are no good restaurants in Rustenburg, and only two adequate ones. One of those, Hartley's, on a farm a little way out of town, soon gave up on any notion of service, leaving the Cape Town Fish Market as by far and away the best place in town, and even that is erratic. Dros, the other hyped steakhouse, presented deeply average food with abysmal
service, while the gurning buffoon of a manager rolled his eyes and blamed staff shortages (but took no money off the bill); the clue, perhaps, was in the name. Elsewhere, there was a lot of chewy meat and steaming mountains of melted generic tasteless cheese, and very few vegetables.

The town itself is nothing special, a couple of streets of rundown shops, many of which sell tombstones: "Tombstone Palace: for all your budget funeral needs," proclaims one. To an outsider the effect is slightly comic, but the reason is tragic: the death-rate here from AIDS is shocking, and despite countless campaigns, the disease is still so stigmatised that few people will even have an HIV-test. In a promiscuous society, the result is that the infection rate remains appallingly high.

Away from the centre, the main hub is the Waterfall Mall, scene of the infamous Gary Bennett coincidence. It's there that the Cape Town Fish Market is, along with a host of other, lesser restaurants. Driving up there for lunch yesterday, I got to wondering just why mall culture is such a big thing when malls are so patently horrible. I
know they're a fairly natural development in cities built and growing after cars became the main means of transport, and that the "authenticity" we tend to seek in European city centres is only of value if the centre is authentically quaint or bustling or
sophisticated or attractive in some other way (the centre of Rustenburg is none of those things). But I wonder also if the mall is attractive in societies as economically divided as South Africa's because the poorest section is automatically disbarred from going
there, by dint of not having cars. That may or may not be the case, but the thought strengthened my belief that malls are evil.

And while we're on the subject of driving, on the way to Bloemfontein on Sunday, we suddenly came upon a traffic jam about 30 miles short of the city. As we got closer, it appeared there was a small aeroplane stuck on the central reservation, but this seemed so implausible that I decided not to mention it in my last diary piece, reasoning that I must have been more tired than I thought and hallucinated the whole thing. But further research (OK, flicking through a local tabloid) reveals that the plane had made an emergency landing and somehow missed every car on what is an extremely busy road.

Having seen Spain and Paraguay's last-16 matches yesterday, you suspect it will take a similar miracle for Gerardo Martino's side to make it through. The Betfair market says Paraguay are a [5.6] chance to make the semis but you could add another couple of points to that price and I still wouldn't be interested.

Tags: football bets, Paraguay football manager, Paraguay players, Rustenburg tourism, Spain betting odds, World Cup diary, World Cup food