Football world cup holiday

The football world cup in South Africa is a major distraction. So much so, that I believe it’s best to give in gracefully and expect to start writing again after July 11th.

Firstly, let’s look at the hours available for writing this month. I do the school run twice a day; this takes around 45 minutes each journey there and back and that’s five days a week.

Each football match lasts around two hours allowing for the game itself, half time (time for a cup of tea) and the post match analysis listening to experts who appear to either totally agree with me or be completely wrong (note: who is wrong?) With three games a day for the first round, that’s a clear six hours off the writing schedule, which is more than the writing schedule was anyway.

Food takes time to prepare and eat and without reverting to fast food or eating in front of the television (a habit I do not wish to start) it’s a given that I must allow some time for keeping my strength up.

Of course by sitting down so much (much like a writing day) I need to find time for exercise. I’ve cut down the gym visit to 45 minutes while the football is on and if I time it right I can be in the gym for the second half of some matches thus killing two birds with the one stone.

While the late, great Bill Shankly said something like ‘football is more important than life or death’ I do have to pencil in some important time with my family each day. I can’t just say hi in the morning and good night at the other end of the day.

The great and the pain of life is looking over one’s emails. This takes time. The emails I want often need a reply and I’m sorry if those replies are shorter during this sporting month, but there are just so many and mostly about the football world cup.

Having sourced my computer calculator, it tells me I’m left with one hour a day to answer emails and complete any writing without totally ignoring my important family, especially if I want to maintain seven hours sleep a night and remained married while remembering my daughter’s name.

Here’s looking forward to the second round when it’s down to two matches a day. That should give me time to write for two hours a day or will I just be catching up on everything I’ve fallen behind this past first round period? There’s the grass to mow and a trip to the beach would be nice.

I’ll just give in easily and revert to a proper professional writing schedule once the football is over. That way my family will still be talking to me in a month’s time. Shall we call this a holiday, then, because there won’t be any work happening here any time soon? Got to go, there’s another game on in a few minutes.