Some weekends pass by without too much happening, and that was particularly common during the thick of the pandemic.
But when it rains, it pours.
It’s just past 6am on Monday morning as I write this. Yes, I have been up all night, writing. Why? Well, the weekend which has just passed has been, to say the least, epic.
It all started on Friday at 12:16pm, when we heard the Macau government announced the end of quarantine for visitors to Macau – something we had been waiting nearly three years for. But in a way, it was a once in a life experience. I mean, who heard of quarantine for humans before this covid thing came along? That story was worthy of an IAG special “Breaking News” email. In a mad rush we got the story on staging.asgam.com at 12:46pm, after researching, writing, translating, editing and uploading it in 30 minutes flat.
Next, on Friday at 4:15pm, the six concessionaires finally signed their new contracts with the Macau government after 20 years of the previous concession from 2002 to 2022. Arguably a once in 20 years event, and another special “Breaking News” email from IAG. This time we managed to get the story uploaded at 4:32pm – just 17 minutes after the event began.
Having a story worthy of an IAG special “Breaking News” email is quite rare, but two momentous ones like these in a single day? Unprecedented.
But the weekend was just getting started.
Saturday 10am and then again at 11:30am saw two press conference sessions consisting of six separate pairs of executives – a pair for each concessionaire – with each explaining how they intended to spend billions upon billions of dollars in the upcoming decade. In fact, a total of around US$26 million a week – every week – for the next ten years. It was the culmination of decades of experience, years of planning and months of budgeting and documentation. Arguably another once in 20 years event.
And that is when the writing began. Immediately after the press conferences, I started writing. And writing. And writing. And editing too. By the time the dust had settled (just now, around 6am on Monday), I had written no less than 13 stories totalling precisely 11,111 words (we kept track of the word count for each story, and yes it honestly came out to be 11,111!) I have never written so much in a weekend in my life.
To give you an idea how much 11,111 words is, the average master’s degree dissertation is around 20,000 words, and that usually takes six months to research and write.
So how much more action-packed could this weekend get? As Big Kev used to say (Australians will understand), “Don’t answer, because there’s more!”
As if all that wasn’t enough, we also had the World Cup final. What a match! Somehow in the middle of this writing frenzy I was able to catch the game, which was without doubt the greatest, or at least the most dramatic, World Cup final in living memory – maybe ever!
Argentina annihilated France for 80 minutes, up 2-0, with France not even having taken a single shot at goal. Then France scores two goals in two minutes out of nowhere, we go to extra time, another two dramatic goals to take us to 3-3 at the end of extra time, to be followed by the cutthroat horror of penalties. A fairy tale ending for Argentina’s Messi, and France’s Mbappé scored four goals including a hat trick between the 80th and 118th minute of the game – and lost! Another once in a lifetime event.
Imagine someone from under a rock asks me later today, “So how was your weekend?”
I’ll be able to honestly reply, “Oh, nothing much, just three once-in-a-lifetime events and two once-in-20-year events!”
