The beginning of the week has plenty of frenetic activity but unfortunately nothing productive towards the business of setting up the spoken word website or my own writing. Most of it is spent driving Teen 1 back to university with enough clean washing for another term and chasing Teen 2 to get her homework done on the last afternoon of her 3 week holiday. Half the morning is spent turning the house upside for a missing English project.
On the work front, unread e-mails have reached 351 and the number of tasks on my ‘to do’ list seems insurmountable. Then there is a hospital scan and a consultant appointment which takes another whole day. By Tuesday evening, I feel so thwarted in fighting for time that I’m ready to throw the towel in. Rather tired and low on motivation, I reluctantly turn up at a Business Support Programme run by Crossover Labs which in fact turns out to be a very fruitful event with new ideas for working and networking opportunities.
Wednesday is spent at Core Music, Hexham with Richard who painstakingly edits and puts the sound effects on Oranges and Lemons. This is just one of several sessions we have spent on the audiodrama and it still needs some fine adjustment but I am feeling very pleased with what has been achieved so far. Richard is working within Core and setting up his own editing business after qualifying as an audio engineer at The School of Audio Engineering in London. Phil, my IDI mentor is waiting for me to write content for the pages of my prototype website but after spending most of my day at Core, this still isn’t started.
Wednesday evening, panic as I realise that I only have 2 days to register as self-employed in accordance with the conditions of my DigitalCity Fellowship at The Institute of Digital Innovation, Teesside University and realise that I feel very unsure about the whole process and unready. So I hit the hmrc website and register online – surprisingly straightforward, even I can do it. I feel strangely different – I am now the proud owner of my own company, now I must expect results and hopefully sooner rather than later.
The next day is not spent writing content for listenupnorth.com as planned but refreshing myself on all the documentation, record keeping and regulations around being self employed. My nemesis cash flow records rears its ugly head. I start to make some sense of it but will I be able to understand software programmes designed to make life easier rather than harder? How will my poor brain manage more complicated accounting concepts?
Friday and I get up very early to at least get my home page design and content sent off to mentor Phil to look at. Then it’s on to Durham and at another Crossover Labs event I look at multiplatform innovation and its relevance to digital media which basically means how can you take a project e.g. my spoken word website and exploit the various digital outlets to get your work out there? Quite intense but worthwhile and plenty of ideas in a field where everything seems to be groundbreaking and there are no blueprints to follow. I come away with a greater awareness of how I can attract finance to my website. All very well in theory now I’ve got to put it into practice.
On returning home, there is a message from poet Keith Armstrong on the answer machine asking how the editing of his recording is going. There’s always someone to keep you on your toes! Quick e-mail to Richard to make sure Keith’s poems are moving through the system. Keith is soon to contribute to a programme on BBC Radio 4 on Wednesday 27th January at 11am called Bridging the Gap which is a sound portrait of The Tyne Bridge. I am also looking forward to hearing Keith and other talented poets at The Northern Voices Annual Poetry Event at The Bridge Hotel Newcastle on Sunday 24th January at 7.30pm. And of course I soon hope to feature recordings of Keith’s poetry on this blog and also the new spoken word website www.listenupnorth.com when it is up and running