Pre-Copa Mayhem

Well, the deadline is looming, the tension is mounting and the financial backers are getting nervous. With just 35 days to go, everyone is asking themselves same question: Will it be ready on time? Well I’ll tell you – it had better be ready on time or I’ll be in big trouble.

Wait, what? What were you talking about? I was talking about my first proper writing job which has to be delivered before the start of the World Cup. You were talking about the Copa itself? Well yeah, fingers crossed for that too I suppose.

Yes, just a few short weeks ago I was thrust into a situation that (for me at least) has made the World Cup pale into insignificance. I’ve been tasked with writing a guide for the whole of Rio, covering hotels, restaurants, shopping, night life and activities. It’s a massive job and has completely taken over my life (hence the lack of posts recently), but it’s also kind of exhilarating.

I’ve found the switch from writing occasional blog posts (for fun) to writing all day to a brief (for money) pretty interesting. For instance, I’ve rediscovered procrastination techniques that I haven’t used since my days of revising for university exams. One part of my brain knows full well that I should be working on that section about Zona Norte, but another part of my brain insists that I should tidy the whole house, or rearrange the bookshelves into alphabetical order (seriously, I did it yesterday morning).

I’ve also been suffering with irresistible urges to cook. On Sunday it was kimchi and a loaf of bread, then out of nowhere on Monday I felt the need to make tortillas. *edit* properly make tortillas – flour, water, salt, rolled out into circles and cooked in a dry pan. Killed at least 90 minutes on that little essential project…

I made these when I should have been writing about hotels in Santa Teresa. Not bad for a first effort – just don’t tell my editor!

Another thing about totally absorbing yourself in a task like this is that when you finally do find some time for your blog, you find you don’t have much to say.

So maybe you guys out there in the real world who have time to read newspapers and keep up to date with current events can fill me in. How are things looking for the World Cup? Is it going to be a resounding success or an unqualified disaster?

OK, I’d better go – I just been overcome by an urge to clean the fridge…