Day: January 23, 2017

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A Promise Kept

It was minus one when I woke up. BRR. The house here is surprisingly well insulated and I don’t have to heat at night at all (and by that, I mean I’m sleeping in short and a tee-shirt!). So when I wake up to the room being chilly, I know the temps really dropped overnight.

It was super foggy when I drew the curtains in the sitting room:

I had a manageable workload today and had sort of thought to go into the village for coffee, but let me remind you that it was cold.

But the day warmed up a bit and by 3:30 or so I was getting antsy. I reminded myself that I had promised to ignore the weather and just get out while I was in England. So I bundled up and headed out into a slight drizzle.

I like how colourful this street is, a rare treat.

This bumper sticker made me laugh.

I wasn’t too stylish, but I was comfortable.

I took a different route that took me on the other side of the old bridge. I can’t believe how old it really is!

Near the supermarket, I passed a store with interesting jewellery made of old coins. It was heartwarming to see supporters of Standing Rock out here!

I thought coffee was going to be challenging, but one of the bags of the store brand dark roast had a leak and I could smell it. OMG. It was so wonderful! I then spent quite some time selecting three beers (1.5L) for £5 and something to add to my leftover pasta for dinner (hint: the Brits know how to do sausage).

I was amused that the temperature was almost balmy when I got out of the store! And I thought temps changed quickly in Canada.

The walk home was slow as my knee has really been bothering me for a few days. That’s the only thing I don’t like here, the very long steep climb home and the stairs I have to go down at the end, on top of the surfaces being so slick. But I love walking in the village as it is so pretty and quaint. I’m starting to know my way around despite the haphazard layout. Today, I noticed a Middle Eastern grocery store (!!!!!), so I am going to check it out when it is open to see if I can get some hummus ingredients as what I’ve gotten from Tesco hasn’t been great. Get this, the owner of the house has the exact same food processor I have back home! It’d be nice to put it to use. 🙂

So that was all the excitement from my little corner of England. Riveting stuff, I know, but, hey, I’m getting used to crossing the street her and looking the correct way first so that’s something newsworthy! 🙂

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Balancing Act

Another very full working day has come to a close. This past week has been exceptional. I have nine active clients at present. I have regular steady work with two of them, a few check in several times during the month, and the rest tend to appear right around the time I archive them as inactive. I’ve never had to balance orders from more than four or five clients in a week, and those were exceptional weeks.

This past week, I have had large orders from all nine! And as if I didn’t have enough on my plate, one of those clients took a look at my skill set and shipped me off to another part of their department to have me do a test to see if I’d be any good at doing QA (quality assurance) for their web designers, something I’ve been wanting to get into for some time. So between the typing, I’ve been doing my homework ahead of the test, which I hope to complete satisfactorily tomorrow…

Let me tell you, after a solid month of almost nothing, it’s good to be this busy! But moreover, I love that I continue to move forward as my business continues to grow and new opportunities present themselves. I’m at the point where I’m starting to think about hiring a virtual assistant. Unfortunately, most of my contracts don’t lend themselves to being farmed out, ie. in my letting someone else do the grunt work while I manage the project, but that’s something I’m serious considering getting into, especially if I continue to get movie projects where I’m working directly for the client. If my Mexico plans work out and I settle down for a bit, it’ll definitely be time to start focusing on work more instead of only taking opportunities that work with my travel schedule.

It’s funny that I haven’t taken the housesitting into account as a job when it really is, but, really, so much of the work part of it is stuff that I would have to do if I was living in my own home. I certainly don’t consider making a cat breakfast or having to contort myself to write a blog post because the cat is hogging my lap and I have to put my computer at an odd angle a chore. My next sit will definitely be more work. Yes, I’ve lined up another one to replace the one that got cancelled and the dates are actually better as they will take me to just a few days before departure for Canada. With this one, I will try my hands at… puppy sitting. It’s going to be a huge responsibility, but I’m excited about it!

Well, I supposed it’s time to turn off the fire, coax the cat off my lap, and turn in so that I can start all over again tomorrow. It’s going to be another busy week, but one of the projects is ending on Friday and unless something exceptionally exceptional happens, I should have the weekend free. Who knows, I might get away to Leeds for a day. It’s really a balancing act, this peripatetic lifestyle, sometimes all play, sometimes all work, but I’m never bored!