Let Me See You WORK It!

As I already mentioned, the weather here in the UK has been sweltering which really does make a change cos it's usually like Greenland here. It's usually all kinds of weather here actually but we normally only get a snifter of sunshine - which we sort of like cos then we can moan about it.

Because it's so lovely at the moment and I'm a freelancer I've been getting up early each morning (7am which is early enough) and taking a stroll down the beach. My main intention was to accidentally get a tan as sunbathing is boring, but seeing as my body is repelling UV rays like white blood cells destroy viruses it's lucky that I actually love Brighton beach as much as I detest walking cos that suntan 'aint happening baby.

As well as seeing all the sad faces of people dragging their heels on their way to work, what I really like is watching all the people killing their knee joints running like sweaty bastards along the seafront. In fact I'm amazed at how many people spend their spare time running and leaping about; it looks like torture to me and in this heat I'm amazed their heads don't explode.

I live very near to a big park and I often pop there of an evening to take a slow stroll round with my headphones on. I am always blown away by how many people spend their entire day at work then go to the park to exercise... for fun I was sitting with my new fella having a little picnic and a couple of gin & tonics the other evening and all we could see were people hard at it.

The view of some punching boxercisers from my bench

On one side there were the very hot rock-hard young studs (my eyes kept straying in this direction) with their weight jackets on doing pull-up reps on some wooden structure, boxercise people running and punching like loons in one direction, military bootcamp people close to death in another direction, and lots of other runners struggling and schlepping around in between - and none of those people looked as happy as we were with our ice-packed drinks, meats and cheeses. Each to their own though I say. I'm sure they were happy inside.

When I go for a stroll there in the evening I do like to take a bench near to the boxercise people so I can watch them stagger around. I never have any desire to join in but I do like to see them suffer. I know a woman who has been going to these sessions for most of this year as well as hiring a personal trainer - I saw her last week and she is much fatter than she was before she started so clearly she's not doing it right.

I was going to write a post about my morning beach walks but I've managed to stray off course there somewhat. I'll write another post on the walk as I have some lovely photos. Brighton is very photogenic anyway but the beach at half 7 in the morning is just wonderful.

I'm Sizzling Baby!

Things are going really great in my life at the moment. Loads of brilliant things are going on, or are in progress and I have to say that I'm pretty excited for my future.

* Both my businesses are stellar and, although I nearly had a burn-out breakdown yesterday, I can see the light. I'm just about to start selling paid downloads on one site as the traffic has just peaked at 14K hits for the last 30 days. You heard right - effing amazing huh? Basically I wrote a couple of helpful blog posts and they score so high for certain search terms that I had to expand my band width. I didn't even do it on purpose!

So the paid products I've spent ages developing (well 2 weeks but intensely) should be live in the next day or 2 and if all goes well then I hope to be making money while I sleep baby! With that cash I'm going to hire a business developer to help me see how to make even more money by expanding all my businesses. I know I'm doing something right cos people contact me all the time to say how impressed they are with my business models.

* I've seen that the guy who pays for my flat (if you're new here it's a long story but he's an American client who needs a place in the UK but I live in it cos he's never here - nothing dodgy or saucy, just business) has sorted out some post that was being redirected from an old address to this address - which is not something you'd do if you were not about to renew the lease in 3 months... I hope. So it looks like I'll be staying here another year which makes me very happy.

* The weather in the UK is marvellous at the moment. After the longest Winter known to man, Britain is sweltering. I'm not one for really hot weather (really hot weather here is about 30 degrees max by the way) but I do like it to be warm at least. My favourite time of the year by far is Autumn actually but the Winter we've just had was a right malingerer.

When it's too hot though it can be a bit uncomfortable. I work from home so I'm indoors or in a cafe anyway, and I get a heat headache if I'm out in the sun too long. Plus you get a bit sticky and uncomfortable as the UK has no systems in place for extremes of weather. We have hardly any air conditioning for the heat, we can't handle snow, if it rains too much we flood, and the trains will stop running whatever the weather.

* My love life has picked up a bit and I've been getting some rumpy pumpy for the first time since last August. A guy I've dated twice before (another long story but we decided to leave it both times as he was going through a messy divorce instigated by him) so he could focus on his main priorities. Anyway, he's been asking me to hang out for 7 months now and I hadn't really even noticed.

Turns out that he thinks we're right for each other so has been persevering each week to see me again and again. Who knows what will happen there but I'm so glad to be getting some that I'm not thinking too hard about it - that's what kind of a tramp I am.

Bizarrely he said he wanted to be with me 2 days after my best friend and I made a list of the kinds of attributes the kind of man I need should have in order for it to work. And he has all of them so the cosmos was sure paying attention that day. His main fault is that he does talk a hell of a lot (and I can really go on) but he shuts up between the sheets, so if I keep him busy we're both happy.

Overall the thing I'm most pleased about is my business. I get a great deal of pleasure from work but I've never been very good at sniffing out the money. Helping people and doing the work yes, earning a load of money - not so much. But if I get it right then I might finally start to reap the rewards of my hard labour. Eeeeeek! 

Summer Pulls Its Finger Out

We've been having some gorgeous weather here in Blighty over the last few days. It seems that Summer is trying to make amends (C- for effort this year) for what has been a pretty pathetic attempt.

Boinging squirrel

I've never been a fan of Spring or Summer personally. They're both very flaky seasons with big wide blurred edges - you never really know if they've made an appearance or if they're just flashing their knickers. All mouth and no trousers in my opinion. I like warm weather but not very hot weather as I just get a bit flushed and get banging headaches, which is why I love Autumn so much.

Autumn and Winter on the other hand take their roles seriously and always deliver. The leaves turn into the colour of flames, the coldness creeps in and we descend into a season that knows what it's supposed to do. No mistaking Autumn and Winter that's for sure - they're always on the ball.

So after the weather had started to turn and the nights started drawing in, it has been a big surprise to us all to suddenly be having a bit of a heatwave. Walking in flipflops over crispy golden leaves past Christmas posters is quite surreal! It's been 29 degrees here which is saying something for England and it's been the warmest September since 1895.

Because it's been so lovely, today BBF and I went to hang out in the local park. We lay on the grass reading and eating ice lollies whilst the parks' many grey squirrels (we don't have red ones any more as the American grey ones killed them all) darted and boinged around us. It was a really nice way to spend the afternoon.

Someone's dog on the right

According to the forecast it's going to be like this for another few days (which is a bitch as a freelancer as you don't want to do any work!) then another little heatwave near the end of the month and then snow in November. Hard to believe it's the first of October. Not that you care if you live in another country of course, but I just thought I'd try to reinforce the stereotype that the English are obsessed with the weather!

Next Stop - Square Festival

Tomorrow morning I leave for Wales for the third of the five festivals I'm helping at. Square Festival is on the West coast, just by the beach (see photo) and looks like it should be fun.

Our license is until 3am this time so I will be working from around 5am until lunchtime; having a break then coming back for a couple of hours around 6pm. I get different sleep patterns at each event, but luckily I have ear plugs and a talent for sleeping!

The rest of the time I shall be able to have a good look at the event which has the Solar Cinema (looking at the forecast it'll be on pedal power!) a comedy night on Friday, a classical orchestral concert in the nearby church, a 'human zoo' where you have to wear an animal costume to enter and a clothes-swap area. It also appears they are attempting to break the World-record for mass skinny-dipping... which I will NOT be taking part in, but I may have a gander for 'research purposes'.

Bit worried about the weather forecast as it does not look very sprightly. I have decided to leave my flipflops, suntan lotion, bikini and sunglasses at home, but I will however be taking my black purple-spotted wellies, brolly and fleecy jamas instead! Luckily they are having lots of drum n bass so I can dance myself warm.

Slightly annoyed about this English Summer washout frankly, as I had made an executive decision not to bother with much sunbathing earlier in the year as it was supposed to be a lovely long sunny summer. I thought I'd have plenty of time and now I only have a sniff of a tan (lovingly assisted by Johnsons) and am left feeling solarly short-changed.

As usual, I will give you a full run-down of the event when I return next Tuesday - they'd better have adequate catering and showers... fingers crossed!

Not an Altogether Unpleasant Experience

Well I must say that I've been LOVING freelancing! Unless I have a meeting or a networking event then I get up when I like; I stay up until the early hours (I've never been a morning person so nearly 3 years of starting work at 8am wasn't that fun) and I arrange my life how I want it.

I have actually been working many more hours than I would previously as it's now my business; although I often put in 10 hours or more, it doesn't feel like work when you're loving what you're doing. I spend a lot of time in my living room whilst the sun streams through the open door from the garden, and if I'm working on something routine then I'll even have the telly on!

It's been a new experience to have to organise my time actually; like most people I worked set hours but now I can choose to work all night and sunbathe all day, I can work from a coffee shop, the park or the pub, I can wear what I like, and I can schedule my own time - it's taking me a while to get used to it, but I have to say, It's not an unpleasant experience!

I'm freelancing at 5 festivals this summer; I'll be working from around 2 in the morning until midday so I'm hoping to get a brilliant tan. I don't think I've had a tan since I started working in an office (previous to that I worked in hospitality and mostly worked evenings as the hours suited me) so I haven't been too worried about getting out in this heat - plus I've seen all the red-faced idiots walking around... sunburned is not a good look!

I've been surprised at how quickly my business has taken off actually; I have quite a bit of work already - although I don't believe in having too much! Come mid-September, the festivals will be finished and I'll need to have enough work to support myself entirely. I also have to move at the end of August so there's the additional cost that comes with that.

Overall though, it's started off well, I've had a lot of interest, more work than I'd hoped for at this point and if it carries on like this, then I'll be fine!

Smorgasbord Day

Phew! It's already been a really busy week and it's only Wednesday! Work is really picking up and I have lots to do; I've even had to juggle some around so I can fit in more. Although I've been working hard, I've also had some brilliant lie-ins and late nights since I left my full-time job.

A training company want to take me on as their resident Anti-Chaos Technician (which is how I describe myself) another one has me doing calls for them, another one wanted me to meet with them today; I also have my regular old-school client, the 6 Summer festivals, and yesterday my friend at Sussex County Cricket Club wanted me to come in and help them on the phones as they're ringing off the hook whilst their Sussex v Australia doo-dah is going on.

So I happily spend today saying repeatedly "I'm sorry, I'll just find out the answer to your question" - tomorrow and Friday should be easier though as I now know the answer to a lot more things - for example; 'Stumps' is when the match is over, and the teams do not take turns to bat like in rounders!

I then had to get myself to see a client out of town, and on the way back I was standing at a (seemingly disused but apparently working, according to the outgoing driver) bus stop - I had only been there 5 minutes but I had an instinctive feeling that there was only one bus a day or something similar, so I went into the petrol station across the way (a nice one with Marks and Spencer food and everything - not a pikey one) they didn't seem to know about the buses - but a lovely man offered me a lift back into town.

Ordinarily I would not accept lifts from strange men, except that he said he had his daughter with him and would I like a lift? He did indeed have his daughter in the car, and this lovely man gave me a lift right back into Brighton. We were saying that we couldn't remember the last time we saw a hitch-hiker and what a shame it was that people just can't offer assistance any more without being suspected of something sinister. It was a really nice act of altruism and left me feeling all community-spirited and warm.

I'm now off to have a fabulous evening with some girly mates, where we will be watching some chick flicks, eating snacks, drinking Gin and Tonic and gossiping - I'm loving this freelance business, and this truly is shaping up to be a lovely Summer!

Counting the Days to Freelance Freedom

It's been a plodding along 'doing' week this week; strange phrase I guess, as surely every week consists of doing stuff? This week however has been a series of events that are leading me to one event that which change my life in 10 days - going freelance.

I get through my job each day, then I spend all evening on my laptop researching business articles, freelance advice, marketing or reading Tweets - in fact I have become such an expert in social media, that I'm going to offer 3 packages to clients offering this service; I think Twitter is an amazing business tool and every company should be using it. You can discover and spread information unbelievably quickly - I think it's brilliant.

I'm really looking forward to spending my Summer at 5 festivals; I'm not really a festival kinda gal as I'm not too fussed about bands, am not really into slumming it, hate crowds and like my own bed! I do like working though and doing different things. When I worked at The Big Chill Festival in 2006, I barely saw one band but I really enjoyed the experience. I like the cinema tents and I'm hoping to get an outstanding tan!

So all in all, it's been a bit of a continuity week leading to this event; therefore I image next week will be the same as I prepare for financial instability and the unfamiliar place that is the World of freelance. I can tell you though; I couldn't be happier.