Whoever invented holidays?

Whoever invented holidays?  It’s the same every year – all that frantic tying up of loose ends and leaving them in a nice bow.  That’s why it’s 11am on the morning of my holiday, I’m still in my dressing gown, on the laptop, and not a thing packed.  I don’t want to think about all the 1am  mornings I’ve spent this week tiptoeing to bed and all the lists I’ve made from lists.

Thank goodness for ‘Wonderhubby’ who constantly wears his underpants on the outside of his trousers and as I type, puts a washer-load on and irons what’s in the basket and packs the car with hiking boots and waterproofs. 

 

It didn’t help that I had 3 days out at various business-related events this week - all very worthwhile, just not very convenient.  A pre-application seminar at DigitalCity, Teesside University, with talks on Presentation Skills and ‘Have you got what it takes to run a business?  An essential principle learnt for business – ‘Cash in the bank is King’.  There were about 60 at the seminar, mostly young guys – fresh from graduating and hoping to make their fortune by designing games, but more reassuring: one or two around my age – and female. This session was prior to applying for a digital fellowship which I hope would take my idea to the next level and would mean lots of opportunities e.g. appropriate networking,  the right people to advise me on technical specifications and a mentor to guide me in making my website into a successful business.

 

Then there was a workshop on ‘Selling Your Creativity’ with Steve Dougan, looking at the best techniques to get that important meeting - a brilliant session with lots of relevant role-play.  I also made a lot of potential contacts for the website including a performance poet and publisher and others whose role was somewhat less defined but still may be very useful.  The next day, another meeting given by NE Business Link, aimed specifically at writers wanting to set up in business. This was organised by New Writing North and held at their headquarters in the ancient  Holy Jesus Hospital, Newcastle.  Only the planners of the 1960s could have had the arrogance to envelop such a jewel of building in a maze of bleak concrete flyovers and subways which haven’t stood the test of time.

Problem was, after all the other engagements that left me with just one day to complete the application form for the DigitalCity Fellowship before I go away on holiday.  If I am fortunate enough to get an interview I have just one day after returning from holiday to get a presentation ready.  Bring on Teen 2 –a whiz with Powerpoint and all things digital see Revenge: 7 Dwarfs vs. The Deadly Garden Knomes

 

So a very fruitful few days, just the timing not ideal, but still you just have to carpe diem whilst you can in between family dental and hair appointments and music exams.  Oh yes, in and amongst all this, I’ve been trying to find about 100 sound effects for an audio drama which I recently recorded, get another set of recordings off the ground, set up a shared platform for co-workers on listenupnorth, arrange to see my bookkeeper and set up a business account with a bank.  Along comes an angel in the shape of Teen 1 fresh from her first year at University and looking for some extra pocket money. She helped me get all my receipts in order and entered on a spreadsheet and somehow managed to type up my illegible workshop notes into readable documents.

 

Even so, I still feel like a naughty schoolgirl who hasn’t done her homework.  The Cash Flow  Forecast – source of all funding and indication of a viable business (so I’m led to believe) has been jumping out at me from behind the settee like a bogey man; ethereal and purely theoretical, I have struggled to pin it down psychologically as well as on the page.  Well at last I’ve plucked some figures out of the air, they may not mean much but at least it’s a start.  

It’s so easy to feel overwhelmed with everything that you need to do to get a business up and running and I sometimes wonder why I’m doing it, especially as it takes so much time away from my creative writing.  Then I think what it would mean if I didn’t do it - my work never reaching an audience, so that drives me on.  But I must also try to redress the balance – make time for the creative as well as the business side and time for exercise and earlier nights and relaxation and of course time for family.  So perhaps that means time for a holiday.