Heh! Now there’s something I bet you thought you’d never see on this blog! But can you see why it’s here?
In fact, I just used it as a post for Text Pixels, my poor old work-based-PR-based-copywriting-based professional blog, for which I commissioned the most wonderful logo & banner last year… It’s had a rough ride, that blog, because of me being unemployed “freelance” all this time, and increasingly losing the drift of what I was trying to do with it; there have been various fits and starts but essentially what I found was that unless you have some concentration free for playing you can’t play. And writing about professional expertise is, in its own way, play.
Anyway, I just thought I’d flag it all up over here too, and I’m crazy about the picture. I practically commissioned it, in that I tried to take one like it on my iPhone and then cadged this one instead. Much better. I love it.
Er, so my new job starts tomorrow – the point of this past two weeks has been to clear the decks of detritus to enable me to concentrate with a crystalline clear mind, and I’m kind of on top of that, except that there’s always more. The entire day I spent writing poems made of spam emails didn’t help. And of course I collected up lots of others to write more poems out of. Then there’s the extra book review I undertook to write: that has to happen today, too. And of course there’s the sore throat, the antibiotics I’ve been on, I was frankly a bit out of it for several days with swollen glands and all the rest of it. What a waste. And now that my book manuscript is 99.9% ready to send off, thanks to herculean efforts made in the midst of all the rest, my printer has packed up! Yes. The little sod. So, before going to the GP today to see if my throat really is better – I’m not sure, it still feels too weird – I will have to go, while writing my book review, and get a new printer. Most of yesterday was wasted downloading drivers and all the rest of it. I should have just thought “sod this for a game of soldiers” and gone to Tottenham Hale immediately.
I even texted the cleaner, unseen for lo these many months, to see if she could come back and get me on track before I start work, but no reply. So I’ve been mopping and hoovering, too. She may be in Poland, I suppose; I hope she hasn’t given up on me… And in the course of tidying up yesterday I made a neat, pretty pile of books “to have blog posts written about them.” It’s surprisingly big. It wouldn’t be such a big deal if you didn’t have to read the things first.
Mind you, although I’m in this fever of pre-emptive activity, like the one you have before having a baby (and before realising that even after having a baby you can still do things – after all, up and down the land, people do), the truth is that I will probably become more productive. Everyone knows that if you’re busy you just get more done.
Anyway, I have bought a black wrap dress: very “work.” It’s what we used to call statement dressing, even if it is from Gap.
(Photograph ©David Secombe, by the way.)
Dear Katy
Good luck for tomorrow! I’m convinced that Arsene Wenger has managed Arsenal for so long because he almost shares the team’s name. (It would be a bit like me managing Simon United.) Speaking of having babies, yesterday we went to Worcester to pick up one of Rusty’s paintings from an exhibition. On the train home we found ourselves sitting next to an underclass family with five offspring. The mother looked on admiringly as one of her brats peeled all the rubber seal off one of the windows. I was just about to tell him off when his father gave me a look and I decided not to. The decibel level was beyond belief and we both eventually disembarked with acute earache. The Chinese haven’t got everything right but their ‘one child’ policy has an awful lot to be said for it!
Best wishes from Simon
That’s a great story. I’ve got similar ones about over-entitled Stoke Newington families…
Mr. Arsenal-fan Signs is going to love this photo.
Here’s hoping your new job is just the ticket.
Signs – thanks. Hope he did like it!
I love your comment that you can still do things after having a baby – I have been hearing a LOT about how I won’t have a moment to myself ever again and it’s a relief to hear otherwise. Have just gone back to fulltime work too after trying the freelance thing and frankly, it’s better. Stressing about money is not good for creativity, and the new black dresses that come with a regular pay cheque are good for the soul.
Hey. I waited till I had three kids under five and then started a novel. You can do anything. And as my mother always said, if you have one baby it’s portable.
Ah, thank you for that. Three kids under five and a novel is awesome. I was thinking if I could just have time to read novels I’d be happy, but what the hell, I’ll aim higher!