Brazil beat North Korea 2-1 at Ellis Park and it felt like winter was definitely here after all. We've got away with it weather-wise until now, with some very pleasant conditions to attend football matches. Not so today.

We arrived in Johannesburg about 3pm and were met at a rendezvous point - a Shell garage - by our host here Martin. We will be staying at his place tonight, before returning on Friday for a good six night stretch that will allow a little relaxation in our schedule. His house is situated in a secure private housing estate in the Bryanston area near Sandton. To get past the security gate, we needed to tail his car in. Martin suggested we get to the ground early and was good enough to offer us a lift. This put paid to watching the Portugal v Ivory Coast game, but not really having a clue about how to get to the venue, we were happy to head off with a local at the wheel.

Traffic was bad on the way, with a slip road onto a main road being reduced to a single lane and later on, an accident. It was the beginning of rush hour to boot. Still, eventually we got fairly close, driving through a notorious area (for crime, one of the city's no go zones) called Hillbrow. Before we were really out of it, cars were not allowed to get any closer to the stadium so Martin dropped us and arranged to pick us up at the same spot after the match. I could see by the close proximity of the Ponte Tower (apologies if mis-spelt, I'm not able to check on this stuff online at the moment) that we were certainly not out of the woods in terms of reaching a safe area. It was surreal that Ellis Park - an international sporting venue - was situated in such a rundown area, but when that, and indeed the tower, were constructed, this was obviously not the case. The tower is a cylindrical block of flats that is hollow in the middle. People access their front doors from walkways on the inside, but once the more affluent moved out of the area, it was overtaken by squatters. Those on the higher floors used to throw their rubbish out of their front doors down into the hollow centre of the tower, so much so that there came a time when those that lived on the bottom two or three floors could no longer access their flats, due to the rubbish piling up. Still, as they were squatting, no-one was going to clear the rubbish for them. Martin told us it was full of Nigerians these days, which doesn't suggest that much rent is being paid, although I think the rubbish in the centre was cleared some time ago.

With three hours to kick off and the temperature dropping, we had time to kill and certainly didn't fancy sitting in the stadium that long. We found where the entrance was, but turned away to have a stroll to see if there was anywhere we could sit down and have a drink, but such places tend to be found in shopping malls and not on the street. However, we walked past an internet cafe and at ten rand an hour (£1), it was a good way to kill some time indoors. The door was locked as a precautionary measure - they sold a few other things in there - but they opened up to let us in. Given the area, I am fairly confident that white faces entering were something of a rarity, but custom is custom. They were glad of it, and for about 55 minutes, we were their only customers. The connection was slow, but we were able to check email and the like. The equipment had certainly seen better days. This was the fag end of this society, at least as far as Johannesburg was concerned, but the people were fine - aside from the guy on the door and the one manning the cash till, a couple of others were just sitting there doing very little, occasionally watching a TV with an appalling picture. 'Come back again,' they said when we departed.

The area was also choc-a-block with street hawkers selling football souvenirs - hats, scarves, flags, vuvuzelas. Some were just selling ear plugs. Given the cold, I bought a woolly hat for 30 rand. When I checked my email there was a request from home for a vuvuzela! I bought one of those on the way out. At some other stadiums, I suspect street sellers would be cleared away on FIFAs behest, but the police in this area had bigger fish to fry ensuring everyone got to the game and away from it safely. When Brazil play at World Cups, there are normally a few modestly attired girls who dance the samba to the accompaniment of drums. If there were any here, they were well wrapped up. The forecast said it would be minus three degrees and I think they couldn't have been far out.

The Ellis Park stadium, sight of the 1995 Rugby World Cup Final, was apparently built in the early 1970s. With the doors to the hospitality boxes on walkways visible from the exterior, it looks like a council block with a football stadium roof. Once inside, there was a powercut and darkness for about 30 seconds before the stadium's generators kicked in. This - I assume - was the reason behind billows of thick black industrial smoke pouring out of a pipe straight into the lower councourse behind one of the stands. It hung thick in the air as people queued to buy food and drink. This place was not of the standard to be hosting any major sporting event. There was a large videoscreen at each end of the pitch, but only one of them worked on this night, meaning the set of supporters at the end of the working screen either had to crane their necks or do without.

However, our seats were a row from the back in the upper tier pitchside and the view was fantastic, so no complaints on that front. It was a bit cramped, but the closer we were, I guess the warmer we were. It certainly felt even colder when we left after the match. Brazil had the ball most of the time, but when North Korea did manage to gain possession, they looked tidy and capable. The 2-1 defeat was no disgrace at all given the opposition. Brazil certainly took long enough to finally break through and all credit to their opponents on that score. I will admit though that the sheer cold had me watching the clock a little in the second half. Having watched the Confederations Cup on the box a year ago, I knew there was a chance it could be like this. However, warm as I was up top, I wish I'd worn an extra pair of socks and brought some thermals. I hope this will turn out to be the coldest game we attend, but I've a feeling it might not be. Brrrrrrrrrr....