The world is getting back to normal - well almost. And we have the World Cup organising committee to thank for that!. For the first time, in perhaps 20 years, security - and the elaborate means of attempting to guarantee same - is no longer a top priority for those presenting the sporting extravaganza.
A fond farewell to the body searches and the endless queues at stadiums and press centres where elderly men were mildly flattered to be identified as potential terrorists.
No more standing in the rain, as we once did outside the Rossiya Hotel in Moscow, while 20 minutes or more passed to trace the bleeping of a metal detector to the wire support in a bra.
Gone, too, is the fixation for identification. And for sniffer dogs substitute the toy poodle, which one of the 10,000 volunteers recruited for the championship had somehow managed to smuggle into the main press centre in Paris.
Old customs die hard, however, and in the quaint little town of Lens we discovered evidence that policing football games still demands an element of realism.
At first sight, the impression was of friendly village policemen all too willing to share in the carnival atmosphere as Danish supporters, colourful as ever, drank their way down the main street en route to the game against Saudi Arabia.
Closer inspection, however, revealed that their apparel included leather shinguards strapped to the outside of their trousers. An eccentricity of fashion? Or a trial run for the visit of England on June 26th? A female Irish journalist of my acquaintance, en route by road from Paris to Marseille for the South Africa-France game, decided to stop off and visit the Iranian team quarters just outside St Etienne.
One of two male colleagues accompanying her decided to telephone ahead to ensure that when they eventually arrived they would be made welcome. With the well documented pragmatism of the family, she decided to dress suitably for the occasion and covered every part of her body, except her face.
Muslims from Howth are not particularly common in these parts, however, and when she presented herself at the gates of the country retreat where the Iranians are based she found them firmly closed against her.
Worse still, her male colleagues were also refused entrance. The secrets of the camp, where some of Iran's most senior religious leaders are said to be assembled, remain as mysterious as ever.
South Africans from the townships of Soweto and Umlazi had a less eventful, but even more exciting, journey to Marseille. The great majority of them, who had never previously been outside Johannesburg or Durban, knew the world outside only by word of mouth.
Now, thanks to a South African brewery and their good fortune in winning pub competitions, the most wide eyed fans of all were heading for France. Sadly, for them, Bafana Bafana were unable to deliver the result they coveted. But, when you get to the core of it, there are other things in life a lot more important than winning a football game.
Language problems abound and a hilarious cameo at half time in the Brazil-Scotland game made the point well.
A vigilant, and suitably excited, Chinese television crew spotted a former England team manager mistakenly walk into a women's loo. And, moving at the speed at light, they had their camera in position to film the embarrassed man coming out.
"Ah, Mr -," said the man with the microphone. "What were you doing in the women's toilet? To which he got a muffled two word reply. An hour later, our English friend was walking down the same corridor and almost flipped when he discovered that the crew were still filming the toilet door. Guess what appeared on Chinese television screens that night?
