Have been in Accra for a couple of days now and am loving it (apart from some obnoxious bloke from Northampton who tried to start a fight with me last night!)Everyone is very friendly and I have been made to feel very welcome.

One thing that has surprised me is that there is very little visible to suggest that Ghana is going to be in the World Cup. I was imagining loads of flags and banners to be displayed everywhere and loads of Ghanaian footy shirts and colours being worn. I had thought that perhaps I was wrong and that football just wasnt that important after all. Thank God when people kept telling me that wasn't the case; it was just because the government and the GFA were just disorganised. I have been assured that it'll get crazy by the time the tournament starts. Everyone I've spoken to so far is adamant that Ghana can beat Italy and the USA and maybe even draw the Czechs, yet only two people have said that Ghana can win it. Getting as far as the 2nd round is the general consensus.

Most of the women that I've spoken to aren't as passionate about the tournament as the men. The best quote so far has to be "It's for the menfolk. We women will have to suffer for the next month or so." Yet for all this, many have also said that they will by supporting Ghana and there is definitely a level of pride there.

Numerous Premiership football shirts are worn here with Chelsea the favourite one (more so than Ghana shirts at the moment) although I did see an old Swansea City shirt. It is a little bizarre to see the South Wales Echo being advertised here!!!

Have been to see the Heart of Oak (Accra's premier fooball club) training ground, which was nothing more than a dirt pitch. Watched a game for a little while; instead of using the goals, they had to hit a big stone pot. With no goalkeepers and no discernable defenders, the emphasis was definitely on attack and individual flair and skill. If this sort of thing is the case elsewhere, it could partially account for the lack of accomplished defenders from the continent at the intternational level (although the emergence of Ivory Coast's Kolo Toure and Emmanuel Eboue at Arsenal may have discounted this idea?).

There are many (fake) England shirts around. People have come up to me and started talking about how good the England team is and Rooney's bl***y metatarsal. It seems that I'm finally in a country that likes England (apart from England) so am wearing my England shirt to the matches! One drunk bloke at the bar last night was saying how the relationship between Ghana and the UK is much better than that between France and the Francophone countries, due in part to the Brits leaving much state infrastructure at the time of independence, unlike the French. Don't yet know if this view is widely shared or not. Maybe it will be visible when Togo play France?

Getting my visa for Togo tomorrow and hopefully going over on Wednesday for a couple of days. Off to watch Ghana v South Korea on the TV. Such is life...