Ok, let's begin by dealing with the hate email in advance. 'Why the f*** do we give a damn about what you get up to in your leisure time. Write about Arsenal instead - or even better, go to hell and stop writing period.' Or words to that effect. Er... this is a free website for which you pay nothing to access the content of, and you have the choice to stop reading right here and now. 'Good, I'll do just that, then.' Thank you and maybe see you again at the beginning of August. Additonally, apologies to my old mate Bernard Azulay, author of the ‘A Gooner’s Diary’ blog. My title’s a little close for comfort, but I know he’ll forgive me. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery and all that.

For those still with me, I'm off to the World Cup for three weeks, returning home before the quarter finals (when the tickets start to get seriously expensive. Until then, I will catch 12 group matches and four last 16 knockout games. And as I have the luxury of a notebook pc with me, and access to wi-fi, I thought I'd record something of the trip, as much as for my own benefit as yours. Pure self-indulgence? Undoubtedly. I thought of setting up a dedicated blog to do this, but what the hell, more people are going to read it here, so I am going to abuse my position as editor of this here website to relay my World Cup odyssey right here. Those who have an issue with this can refer to the opening paragraph.

I am typing on an Ethiopian Airlines flight from Heathrow to Addis Ababa. There, I (and i suspect half the other passengers on this flight) will change to an onward flight to Johannesburg. Many will end their journey there, going by the number of Mexico fans on the plane, but I will then catch an internal flight to Cape Town. I will travel the country to catch at least one game in every one of the ten stadiums by hire car and the occasional plane, accompanied by fellow Gooner Adam, who arrives in Cape Town about 14 hours after I do on Friday morning. That I am flying Ethiopian Airlines should give you the impression, and rightly so, that I am trying to do this trip as cheaply as possible. We have arranged to stay with a number of South African Gooners, who I have managed to hook up with purely through my involvement with onlinegooner.com and The Gooner itself. Undeniably a perk of the job. Mea culpa for the abuse of position, but wouldn’t you?

I booked the match tickets long before I even knew who qualified. The aim of the game was to see a match in every venue, and this I have managed. Due to the far flung nature of the venues, this took quite a bit of planning with the aim of trying to avoid too many internal flights. Although (now especially) it is possible to pick up flights at reasonable rates, once you don't have a car, it does make getting around in the actual venues pricey, as taxis are the safest and quickest option. I imagine there will be some special buses laid on between airports and city centres, but at some point you have to get to the place you are staying. So in the end, you are using taxis.

There are a few long drives, but nothing that should prove too much with both Adam and I able to drive. My travelling companion is a little concerned about safety, in spite of having visited the country a good few times. We want to avoid driving long distances looking for places we haven't been to before at night if possible, and there are obviously some places it simply isn't advisable to go. I think, given the amount of security there will be in the vicinity of the stadiums on matchday, the biggest fear is carjacking. The doors will remain locked in town, red traffic lights will be approached very slowly to avoid coming to a complete standstill and the hope is we never see the barrel of a gun pointing at us through the window. FIFA refuses to replace lost tickets no matter the circumstances, which is good of them having chosen a country that is notorious for violent crime to the extent that many residences are surrounded by high walls and barbed wire. There has never been a World Cup like this in living memory.

I think, for starters, there are a good few innocents on this flight. There are some England fans, a large contingent from Northern Ireland for some reason as well as the aforementioned Mexicans. All were checking in their hold luggage presumably unaware of the reputation of baggage handlers at Oliver Tambo airport in Jo'burg. I have been to the city a couple of times previously and rarely recall seeing much hold luggage that wasn't wrapped in so much cellophane (a preventative measure to stop the handlers rifling through the suitcases) that shares in Clingfilm can only be a must buy on the South African stock exchange. With all these naive tourists arriving en masse, you can be sure there will be no industrial action amongst the baggage handlers for the duration of the tournament. Not when the pickings are so easy. I have managed to travel with hand luggage only out here.

The return from London to Jo'burg on Ethiopean Airlines only cost me £475. And after travelling on so many budget airlines in the recent past, it is a positive relief not to have to pay for food and get some free alcohol. I am currently quaffing my second 187ml bottle of red wine. It helps relax my mind, a definite asset given that the combined flights mean I will not arrive at my destination until 21 hours after leaving London, although that might actually be 20 on the body clock due to South Africa being an hour ahead of BST. The final leg of the journey from Jo'burg to Cape Town is a criminal £200 one way. As soon as flights became available for the World Cup period, the minimum cost rocketed from the customary £40 for early bookers. Worse still, for yours truly, in the last couple of months, lots of extra flights have been laid on which are a damned sight cheaper than the amount I have paid. Oh well, I guess £675 return all in, isn't so bad, so I am philosophical about being ripped off for the internal flight that gets me to the venue of my first game - France v Uruguay on Friday evening.

The kick off times in the UK for the first round games are 12.30, 3pm and 7.30 in the evening. I don't know why there is such a huge gap between the second and third games. The local time is an hour later. But people working normal hours in the UK will only be able to catch the evening matches live from Monday to Friday. In a sense, it's positive that the games are not being scheduled for a European TV audience, although a bit of me suspects that actually, the earlier kick offs are geared towards the Asian market. One advantage of there only being one 'after dark' game per day is that it is winter in South Africa, and when the sun goes down the temperature can sure drop. Nine of the games I attend will be 8.30 kick offs, so I've bought layers of clothes to keep warm. As a sop to my other half, I had to do a week in Egypt recently with the family. After suffering 40 degree temperatures there, frankly I will welcome a bit of chilly weather, even if it seems anethema to a World Cup.

On family matters, the missus was a little upset about me departing for three weeks earlier today. Strangely quiet and obviously a little choked. I just can't get my head around it. I behave like a cantankerous git at home, the kind of individual you wouldn't give houseroom to, given the choice. And she is going to miss me! Bloody hell, in her shoes I would be turning cartwheels at getting shot of me for an extended period. Women. I just can't work them out. The worst thing is that this kind of behaviour gives me licence to continue in the same vein, although being a sod at home is not something I consciously work on, it just comes naturally.

My host in Cape Town is a legendary SA Gooner named Harv. I've received a good many emails since striking up contact, many of which lay into Arsenal's current manager. It will be interesting to meet and exchange views. I suspect the underlying questions for all Arsenal fans reflecting on the seasons since the stadium move are firstly, could Arsene have done anything differently? Did he or did he not have money to spend that he chose not to? Is he the best man to take the club forward now? There's a lot of soul searching to be done on that one, but when a player like Cesc Fabregas wants out, frankly, it's tremendously worrying, in spite of the huge transfer fee he will command from Barcelona before Arsenal relent.

Enough of this for now. We land in Addis Ababa in four hours. It's 1.20 am UK time and 3.30 am in Addis Ababa. We'll get breakfast in about three hours, so time for some shuteye, or I'll be falling asleep during the France game.

PS - I have spares for the last 16 (first knockout round) games in Port Elizabeth, Ellis Park and Pretoria (June 26th to 29th) in case anyone is in need. Just get in touch via the editorial contact email address on this website.