Procrastinating...

According to the Collins English Dictionary, procrastination is to put off or defer (an action) until a later time. Meanwhile, the Urban Dictionary offers three pragmatical definitions:

• I'll put up a definition later -brilliant-.
• A similar experience to masturbation, it feels good while you're doing it, but it sucks afterwards when you realize that you just fucked yourself -true as life-.
• What you're probably doing right now -innit?-.

I couldn't have put it better myself. The thing is that procrastinating is what I have repeatedly been doing for a long time, even while writing these first words on this brand new English version of my beer blog: Birraire.com.


Roughly 30 months ago I felt that I was missing some of the fun. The fact that I had been able to attract some regular readers to what I wrote pleased me: I've always enjoyed putting my feelings and stories into words. The possibility to have a tiny little audience is always special for someone who wants to spend his old age simply writing novels and drinking beer.

Still, a strange feeling of universality along with my passion for foreign cultures was asking me for an expansion of potential readers: not only regarding contents, but also for language. An ambitious project that required enthusiasm, sacrifice and planning.

For the time being, I have been thinking the idea through, considering how to carry it out. I've procrastinated over and over, put the idea off temporarily, recovered it back from the dusty shelf. I've done lots of things, actually... but not the most important part. Just as it happened when I first started blogging, I realised that the only thing I had to do was to post the first entry.

The 2014 European Beer Bloggers Conference (EBBC) happened to be the trigger I needed. It all started with my following of the past Edinburgh EBBC, hoping to make it to the following edition. I read lots of posts and discovered some new beer blogs I didn't know, and I also sistematically followed all the news about the next conference and where it would take place.

It looked as if I had finally came across a definitive reason to start writing beery tales from Barcelona: sharing with fellow beer enthusiasts, pintfuls of new experiences, interesting lectures and a fine city like Dublin, which I had never visited before. All in a single weekend. But my excitement faded as soon as I became aware that I wouldn't be able to attend the event, as it did my determination to start blogging in English. "Next year", I told myself. Procrastinating again.

Thankfully, due to unexpected circumstances, I have finally been able to book my trip and register for the current EBBC. Expectations are high: meeting new people and learning from their ways to understand life and beer; just what writing in my blog has brought me locally, but with an international range and scope.

It is also a great opportunity for me to keep on spreading the word about the new beer scene in Barcelona, 9 years after the first microbrewery was founded. This was one of the main reasons that first made me regularly sit on my writing armchair to post personal experiences with beer, which is still a huge motivation and irrefutable prove of my profound selfishness: I have always wanted local brewers to grow in quality and resources, 'cause I want good local beer, and as cheap as possible.

More specifically, the agenda of the Bloggers Conference looks really good. Every session has its incentive, for sure, and I'll try to make the most out of each one. But as of now I'm really looking forward the Evening Party with Carlow Brewing Company. I'm very fond of their brews, so meeting the guys mixed in a festive atmosphere with traditional Irish music looks like a real treat.

Now that I've kicked off beer blogging in English, I feel happy to have another worthy thing to do when procrastinating from imperative duties. So expect me to keep attending these pleasant duties from now on.


I'll see you in Dublin. Salut i birra!