I know it’s customary to write up ‘year in review’ style posts at the end of the actual year in question, but I think I’m only just getting over 2020 enough to write about it. How do you put into perspective a year that has simultaneously seen the lows of a loss of a parent,… read more →

It doesn’t feel right to title the next post in this ‘series’ as Tales from Lockdown, but it doesn’t exactly feel like normality is restored, so Tales from Limbo it is. In the last post from waaaay back in May (er, how did we get to October?) I was a little bit worried that more… read more →

Each year I try to make small improvements to my life, my work, my fitness, my well-being etc. Small incremental improvements are much easier to maintain in the long term than large overhauls (although I’m no stranger to those either!) 2019 has been mostly about making grown up decisions to improve my financial standing &… read more →

New Look! Yes, as you can probably see, I’ve changed the way the site looks again. I’ve been tinkering about with this one for a while between work projects. The theme is based off the lovely Storyteller by Mauer Themes. I paid for the theme (fair’s fair) then completely re-created it so that it would… read more →

One of the things I realised quite rapidly when I first started freelancing — and it’s an obvious one, really — is that you’ll have good weeks and bad weeks. I say weeks, not months, because with the up and down nature of freelance income it really can be that volatile. While everyone else is… read more →

I don’t think it’s possible to have a perfect year. 12 months / 52 weeks / 365 days: all too big a time-span to guarantee 100% wellness and positivity every hour of every day. Nonetheless? 2018 has been “my” year. I’ve not avoided conflict and drama. People close to me have still suffered pain, been… read more →

I’ve been stressed again lately. The ups and downs of hormones, the DOOM of summer holidays, the move, the kids, the usual shit. When I get stressed I start to ponder what I’m doing with my life and whether I should get a proper job. Unfortunately, I’m basically unemployable; there’s no way I could go… read more →

In my last post about our recent house move I expressed frustration about a series of relatively minor but annoying problems that we’d had so far. The two main issues were the lack of hot water, and a mystery leak. Shortly after posting I started pulling out wood cladding in the downstairs bathroom (part of… read more →

Search for how to be a successful freelancer in your favourite search engine, and there’s no end to the list of tips and tricks people have. Some of them are useful and actionable, but most are generic; regurgitated from someone else’s “how to be a great freelancer” list. Always willing to buck the trend, I… read more →