Joburg gets very quiet

As usual, Joburg is almost empty of its population, who have been leaving the past week to visit family in other provinces/have gone on holiday.

For those who don't know, the majority of South African companies (except retail and hospitality etc) shut down between the 12 -19 Dec, or have skeleton staff until the 5 January.

To tell the truth, this is the part that I like best about this city - you can drive anywhere, anytime, go shopping etc, and the streets are quiet. There is no traffic to speak of, and there are no harried drivers. Also, wait staff in restaurants have time to give you proper attention.

My family is coming up for Christmas, and we're going to have a big celebration. But I'm working flat out until they get here just before Christmas, and between Christmas and New Year.

Intrinsic Media, a communications company I write for, landed a big contract to develop an online community for a non-profit organisation. The portal launches in January, and yours trully got the assignment to write / source the copy.

So I spent the past week or so gathering as much information as possible ( research documents, interviewing people, sourcing pictures and videos and audios etc) so I can get on with the reading and writing process while everyone enjoys the silly season. It gives me the time and space to write without being hassled to meet short deadlines.

I can't tell you about the organisation or the new portal we're launching right now. Further details will come when the portal launches mid-Jan, accompanying a big media launch of a campaign for the client and some interesting things on TV and radio.