Euphrosene Labon

Wednesday 12: Up at 4:30am, and scraping ice from the windscreen at an ungodly hour reminded me of those many, many years when that was the norm. Each day. Every day. No wonder I enjoy the freedom of being my own boss.

Unfortunately, the pinched nerve returned (yes I know the reason), so it was probably not the best start to the day. Then I got to Eastbourne, for the business workshop, and they too had a few hiccups. Ever the optimist though, I can see additional potential to my main books target of volume sales.

One of the hiccups was not having any breakfast and there only being bacon butties. Contrary to the usual yawn, not all vegetarians are turned by a bacon sandwich! That meant finding somewhere to grab some lunch en route to see Ma, and then home.

The traffic was moving too fast for the first choice; I followed a signpost to the second and ended up in the middle of nowhere… and then I spotted The English Wine Centre Shop and Delicatessen, next to Drusilla´s.

Luckily for me, the restaurant was open. In fact, it is only open for lunches. And mine was surprisingly good (locally sourced and seasonal)… as was the English red wine. Wine-tasting is in a dedicated barn, though fret not, I did not check them out!

When I got to Ma, she was up and looking rather well. Amazing. On Saturday I thought we might need to arrange Last Rites! Probably for me as I was exhausted.

Finally back home with pinched nerve still playing havoc, not helped by an incorrect delivery (although they were very responsive when I eventually managed to get through). And a deeply annoying person who never misses an opportunity to puff themselves. In their eyes, they are the centre of the known universe and probably a few undiscovered ones too…. and bloody annoying to deal with, tired or otherwise.

Definitely no bandwidth tonight for even a 5 minute cartoon. A very hot bath beckons and liberal quantities of Vick Vapour Rub.

Buy my art at Imagekind!

vegetarians, cartoon, Vick Vapour Rub

Tuesday 11: What exactly is public service broadcasting? That is what we are supposed to be paying for with the BBC TV licence. Yet, if a couple of comments on this thread are anything to go by, Eastenders is `public service broadcasting´. Really?

I thought it was just another rather dreary soap and there are plenty of those on every channel. As for programmes about nature and history, both Channels Four and Five have come up with some excellent ones. So what´s the differentiator? Apart from the licence fee that is.

In the past, the main differentiator was the depths they would plumb (and still do), …. with the BBC a beacon of higher morality. Now, of course, that is no longer the case. So, again, why exactly are we paying nearly £140 a year?

Meanwhile, I must praise Iomart Easyspace for their polite and responsive technical support.

To save emails on the server, they changed my settings to IMAP and did not charge me. Unfortunately, my btinternet ISP account does not appear to verify IMAP accounts so we then had to forward all emails to gmail. Sigh. But, all praise to them for their patience.

With one thing and another, I did not finish the article I was meant to be writing and it won´t get done tomorrow either .

In a financial downturn, I believe we should be open to all creative solutions in finding work. More than a few freelance writers do not agree with me. What´s new!?

Supportive words of the touchy-feely kind are the recommended medicine, with most clawing tightly to their contacts and any leads, regardless of whether or not they can do justice to the article.

If a lead is passed on, it is for karmic brownie points. So when I suggested being a little more entrepreneurial, and sharing the financial moolah, the responses ranged from the pathetic to the more intelligent (empathy but not real agreement).

Forum words are cheap, folks. (Except my forum, of course!!!).

In this parlous economic climate, karma is best gained by being entrepreneurial and financially creative. ‘Thank you’ is good, but it does not pay the bills. And, if you do not trust the person in question in any way at all, don´t work with them.

Now must try and finish my piece!

Buy my art at Imagekind!

public service broadcasting, BBC, TV licence, IMAP, btinternet, freelance writers

Thursday 16: Happy Birthday Sarah - and H

Well guys and gals, especially gals, it seems, I will not be shaking hands with y´all any more! It will be Namaste and that´s it. Just remember, cleanliness is next to godliness, folks.

Note to flat-earthers: More success with magnet therapy (transcranial magnetic stimulation) or TMS cf New Scientist. Yes, it is small scale, but then I never believed magnets would have an instant effect. That would be as frightening as all desires instantly manifesting.

It´s good to laugh - credit crunch jokes here.

Finally finished three of the writing tasks on my To Do list. Now have to knuckle down to some art-related ones. God knows how I managed to cram in so much today as Ma fell over and banged her head and I interrupted myself several times to check up on her. She is looking forward to a little person´s birthday now so all is calm on the home front - for now.

Namaste, flat-earthers, magnet therapy, New Scientist, writing tasks