We made mention some time ago about the fact that South Africa is a great holiday destination for Brazilian grandpas. As we well know, us South Africans are prone to dealing with what we see as the absurd with our sense of humour, which I think can be described as ironic, deprecating and typically, very funny. Take this purported exchange gathered from the Interpipes, a fictional (but possibly highly likely) exchange between our old coach, new coach, and old new coach who is now the new new coach (apologies to www.mg.co.za/zanews the inspiration for that bit of verbiage):

Parreira: Joel, stop sitting around and starving in Brazil, there's a place in Africa with plenty of moola and the football association is a bunch of people who will pay you whatever you want and believe whatever you say.

Santana: How much are we talking about?

Parreira: Around R1.5 mil a month....

Santana: You lie....get out of here! I thought Africa was a third world continent?

Parreira: Yep that's what I thought too, but hey, these guys are crazy. And they think they are rich.

Santana: You're getting me excited now, but how will I get my hands on this dough?

Parreira: mmmmm..... How well do you know soccer, cousin? Because, I was thinking you can come take my place as a coach of their national team, I miss home and I've had my share already...

Santana: Er, soccer? I watch it every now and then.

Parreira: Ahhhh, that should do. We can even say you've coached a small local team before...and I'll recommend you, too.

Santana: But we are talking about a national team here, not just any local team!?

Parreira: Don't worry, leave all that to me...

Santana: But don't you have a contract with them already?

Parreira: So what? I can always say my wife is sick and needs my support.

Santana: Fair enough. Oh one last thing.... I just met this woman and I really like her, I just can't leave her.

Parreira: Can she speak English?

Santana: She watches Santa Barbara and she said to me this morning 'happy morning'...

Parreira: Perfect! She can go to SA with you. We'll say she's your interpreter so she can also earn some money from SAFA.

Santana: You're kidding me... will they fall for it?

Parreira: It won't be a problem...

Santana: What if I want to come back home before my contract expires?

Parreira: Don't worry you will not stay there for long, no one ever does. The team loses all the time and the public blames the coach...

Santana: Hahahahaha... let me go do my visa and passport right away.

You've got to admit, that's pretty amusing. Anyway, we now see that Carlos is whisking the team away from the place where 2010 will be played (here, of course) to Brazil for 'training camps'. Maybe his wife is still ill and he wants to kill two birds with one stone. Who knows? One thing is for sure, the preparations for the team are getting weirder by the day. Let's just hope that some concentrated effort this late in the game delivers some sort of performance from the team which goes beyond inspiration for good jokes.