Stuff lately

Lately, I’ve been struggling a bit with life outside of work.  Work has been something I’ve looked at as a constant, and I’m fortunate that work has been and continues to be something that has brought me happiness.

I’m fortunate in that I control my work: where I do it, who I work with, what I do for that work, etc.

That said, I do find work very challenging, and this is because I want to always change up what I do.  For years I’ve worked in Affiliate Marketing.  It’s a wonderful business and I’ve been fortunate (again) to work with people who work in big, clever organisations, and still understand and value good business practicies, which can often get lost in the detail.

I’ve done some good things lately and enjoyed it. Here are some of those things:

- Easter – went home to Wales and saw my Mum, my Brother and his Family.  They’ve got a big house, loads of land, hens (eggs), and my two nephews Thomas and William are great boys, I think they like me, I like them, we’re all god friends, it’s a real citadel from London.  I think Phil (brother) and Susie (sis-in-law) think that because I’m in London I’m automatically successful and in London because of it! Nothing could be further from the truth! I’m living invoice to invoice and I’m in London because that’s where “we do business”, i.e. it’s not something that’s so easily transferable to other parts of GB outside the M25 (with exception of anywhere South (East or West) of the great Orbital. I’m also in London because I came here on a dream in 1995 on the advice of a great Friend Paul Izzard.  He got out along time ago, now to be found in NZ, running a very successful interior design business. So 15 years in I love this town, I love the friends I’ve made and the work contacts that we’ve made as a company and the little niche that we’ve carved.  That occasionally, and often enough the phone goes and it’s someone who’s got an itch we can scratch. I like that.  On the website I will add: “the scratch to your itch”… if I can work out how to do that…

I’m a fan of this Facebook group: Tired of London, Tired of Life, which I love.  Then on Twitter I follow TheLondonStone which is a hilarious take on passers-by life from a stone at Cannon St.  Londonist is also very interesting.

I like to walk the streets of London, and get lost a little bit, take photos of stuff I find interesting and just get a buzz out of it still.

- Gadget Show – Rob Berrisford, my good friend and mentor (I wanted to be his, but he’s way ahead of the game. We went to the Gadget Show last week – lots of 3DTV – which is amazing – motorised scooters, flying stuff.  The thing that got me was the ‘Hall of Fame’ or whatver they called it.  Stuff from the years gone by.  Heroic products of yesteryear.  Plenty of Apple iterations of the Mac as we now know it (and I type on currently). The things that took me were: ZX SPECTRUM!! Bless you Spectrum – the days of Manic Miner, and The Hobbit in particular, the buzz and whirr as the tape deck picked up the connection, the dark room next to Mum and Dad’s bedroom, the Rest Assured (which I still have), was it the Den? Who knows? I can’t recall… -

Simon – blue red green yellow. blue red blue blue yellow… where did it end? Merlin – you clever little handheld beauty – 6 games each of a different delight, the simple red pulses exchanging hopes of a youngster to win your clever little games. I can remember the feelings of those times circa 1978… Astro Wars- damn you! And Defender too. You’d keep me up for hours playing the sale sequence over and over and over again, faster and faster and faster. Clever tech huh?

- Weekend – what Sun! All weekend pulling, pushing, cutting, dragging, burning, painting, clearing, cleaning, all with Radio 5 Live on – Blue Square Premiership, crucial Premiership matches, Heineken Cup quarters, FA Cup, Championship, La Liga, and on into Sunday, back out there, back tingly, even painful, sweeping, planting, sheltering, neting, burning – US Masters, FA Cup… top weekend, even squeezed in a trip to Arundel for dinner with a friend.  Top.

- Work – oh work yes, this week is crucial for development of Hatmatic clients.  Shicon are about to launch on Quidco, and on a number of voucher code sites if I could only get a response from them! Hotels4u need more volume – more love, more attention – more partners possibly.  Picked up a brief from Skive, and from Awear and next week got a few irons in fires which should be just about right temperature for branding.  Ha geddit?

- Cornwall – off to Bodmin Parkway Friday to see the  ladies of FY Associates for weekend. Clay pigeon shooting apparently, and yarns, ales, laughter, hopefully some sunshine.

All in all I should be happy and I am filling my life with good happy moments – little moments – socially and workwise.  Trying not to think about stuff that gets me down on a personal level, though I have reeled in my suicidal references and bad language on Twitter. I was getting the wrong kind of publicity with that.  The temptation to write down how you feel to a wider audience is an interesting one, but content remains king.  That said the gallows have been erected in the garden just in case.  Now where is that huge block of ice..?  Drink plenty of water, exercise, get sunlight, don’t eat too much red meat. Try to get to bed before midnight, 5 a day, glass of wine now and then.  Flaxseed, nuts, fruit.

Done.