I KNOW it's stupid, but the truth is I cannot blow the damned thing.

I KNOW it's stupid, but the truth is I cannot blow the damned thing.

And I found it amusing last week when some people said the people's favourite music instrument, the vuvuzela, should be banned.

Amusing because everybody assumes that everyone can blow this instrument, and so noise levels were going to reach gigantic proportions during the games. Not so.

The reality of my inability to blow the vuvuzela was brought home to me when a I received one as a gift at the office. Beautiful and gold-plated, the gift was supposed to make me the envy of my colleagues.

I took it home and gave it to my son, who is a few months short of turning two. He took it and just started blowing . I felt really embarrassed.

Calling for the banning of the vuvuzela is disingenuous. It might be alienating to some visitors, but please do not call for the banning of this instrument, come the World Cup next year. I will be one of the people blowing this damned thing. I am busy learning how to blow it, and my main teacher is my son. So please, hands off.