Back in the saddle

Ooops, it’s been a while. Things have been a little quiet on the work front. I had a very strange couple of days at the beginning of the month with a short-notice gig over in Farringdon. (I am so used to not commuting anymore – an hour and a half each way in rush hour, hellish). It was through a designer I used to work with a few years ago who remembered a status update I did on Facebook a while ago which mentioned I’d gone freelance. Woo yay for Facebook.

Very odd but interesting company, not really an ad agency, but more of an ideas agency. My brief was to come in at the end of a very tight timescale and help create some new alcoholic drinks. But weirdly, it was all conceptual. So rather than know if something would actually taste nice, or it would actually be possible to create something ‘dark, sweet with smoky undertones’, it was more a case of well… just making it up really, and then trying to tie it to specific demographic groups (mainly within US males aged 21 – 24).

The lady I was working with had been flown in from San Francisco and just would not loosen her grip on the overall presentation document, which was riddled with typos and spelling mistakes. However she was really stressing about 10 mins before the client presentation, so I swooped in with an offer to proof it and hopefully got all the howlers out. Frustrating and challenging but also interesting. Would definitely like to work on another project although possibly with a different team…

Since then I’ve had an unexpectedly large monster of a tax bill which, although I can claim a lot of it back, I have to pay up front which is going to be really tight. Thankfully I have negotiated paying it in 3 installments over the next 3 months (first one went on Monday morning) and will just have to cross my fingers that my next 3 invoices get paid on time. Can just about manage it but it's wiped out my financial 'cushion' - and the tax I was saving for next year. First signs of the wolf at the door nipping at my heels.

I’m now filling in for the excellent Peter Kenny while he’s on holiday in Guernsey. It’s for a healthcare agency in the building I used to work in with PK and Him Next Door (HND). And it turns out the brief I’m working on was written by… HND (he works for a sister agency on the floor below) although he's on holiday at the moment, thus depriving me the opportunity to disagree with his proposition in person. It’s a funny old world.

Also means I can cycle to work along the river which is just ACE and a great way to start the day.