No weekend, all weakened.

Toba Beta.  Oh, now I'll have to look him up. WHY can't I just be content to cite names? Curiosity killed the Caroline.

On second thoughts, curiosity actually keeps my brain alive so it's a Good Thing - just rather time-consuming sometimes...

Toba Beta...Indonesian author chappie. Find him here...

Good quote, Toba!

I do love Sundays. My lie-in. Which may be until 8.30ish. I love all the other days, getting up at 6.30 to go to the yard, to be with the horses, but I DO like it on a Sunday at 6.30 - because I inevitably wake up at that time - thinking 'aaaaaah, more time under the duvet.'

I think that people who have what they consider to be 'Real Jobs' - that's to say, of the 9-5 variety, in an office or factory or anywhere that's not at home, possibly involving a frustrating commute - think that the week and the weekend blur into one for people who work from home, like me. For people 'who swan about, pleasing themselves.'

(That quote is an actual quote. Three guesses...)

Actually, the weekends ARE different and I need a break from work routine just as much as anyone else. No clients phone calls or emails (mostly). No guilt feelings if I don't work. A feeling a smug self-righteousness if I DO work...

See, just like a real job.

“The best cure for an off day is a day off”

says Frank Tyger, editorial cartoonist, columnist and humorist for the Trenton Times (New Jersey)

and says Caroline Coxon, as well.

It's actually quite hard to take a day off if you work from home - all you people who think working from home is mostly spent, well...NOT working. Swanning about, as Peter describes it. (He has a REAL job, remember?)

My work is always in my face. It's why I end up very often slogging away in the evenings and at weekends...

So - yesterday was my Big Day Out in London with my school friends

I was really looking forward to it but my Work Ethic Demon was sitting on my shoulder saying 'You haven't got the time. You should be getting on with things. You'll only regret it."

Excuse me, Work Ethic Demon. I DON'T REGRET IT!

I didn't think about work. I had a wonderful time. I got back late but I slept very well.

So there!

Today, I feel as though I've had a fortnight's holiday.

Note to self: Must do more often.

On writing screenplays: "I never know whether to pity or congratulate a man on coming to his senses."

Thus said William Makepeace Thackeray, 19th Century English satirical novelist, most  famous for Vanity Fair

 Ha! Spot the deliberate mistake. Somehow, Hugh Jackman in a vest  is more appealing to look at than Thackeray. Just my opinion...

ANYWAY...here's how I've come to my senses. (Don't worry, I'm sure it will only be a temporary state of affairs.)

I've been trying to write my screenplay in my...

The trouble is, I don't HAVE any spare time, with all my various commitments with work, horses, family, visitors, coaching - listed in no particular order.

One of the things about working from home is that if you ARE at home then, effectively, you're AT WORK. Since I rarely go away on holiday that means I'm always on the end of a phone line or email-accessible. Great for my clients. I have lovely clients, without exception, and it's my pleasure to go the extra mile for each and every one of them.

HOWEVER...it means that my own writing time is always being eaten in to. Either that or I work such long hours that my brain has died before I start.

It was setting myself up to fail (thanks, John Bourne, for your insight) to think I could write three pages a day and achieve everything else.

SO - I declare that I AM TAKING A HOLIDAY from close of play this Friday, August 10th until Monday, August 20th.

In that time, I'm going to write my socks off!

I don't think I'm needing pity for coming to my senses!

Day 8 Update
Zero and utter exhaustion

I reckon being ill as one of the great pleasures of life...

...provided one is not too ill and is not obliged to work till one is better. (Samuel Butler, The Way of All Flesh, 1903)

Let me find a picture of Samuel Butler so I can print it out, stick it on the back of my study door and throw darts at it.

I HATE being ill. Absolutely HATE it. I'm not very good at it. The thing is, I'm very strong-willed about it and think that if I pretend I'm not ill and carry on as normal, then I'll conquer it. (I don't want to make myself out as some sort of heroine. I'm not. I'm just explaining how I behave when I'm ill.)

I have flu. Not a nasty cold that I've labelled as flu because it sounds better than saying I have a nasty cold. I have flu. Compounded by the fact that sneezing and coughing is excruciatingly painful with a cracked rib.

I'm just back from seeing to the horses. (The fresh air DID make me feel marginally better) When I left, Peter said 'If you're as ill as you say you are then you wouldn't be able to go to the yard.'

WRONG. I just did.

Samuel Butler says it's a pleasure being ill provided one "is not obliged to work till one is better." I have to say that if I had what Peter calls 'a proper job' I wouldn't be going in to work.

Working for myself, working from home, being freelance, depending on commissions, working to tight print deadlines...am I 'obliged' to work?

Yesterday, I thought so. A very tight deadline for a holiday brochure about Florida.

It took me 7½ hours. I don't know how I did it. I don't know if it's a pile of rubbish. (I must check in the clear light of day)  I DO know that I have developed an abiding hate for Florida. (Sorry Florida)

I'm sure, however, that my brochure will encourage zillions of unsuspecting Brits to take a holiday there.

I'm good at pretending.

If you want something done, ask a busy person

At the moment, that busy person is ME.

(Cue hoots of bitter laughter from Peter, who is at a loss to understand how someone who 'plays with horses' every morning and finds time to go running, and circuit training in the evenings can call themselves busy, can say they've been working very hard.)

I know I haven't a traditional 9 - 5 job and I know I'm SO lucky to have the life that I do, but I DO work hard at everything I undertake (including keeping fit and taking care of the horses.)

This week, I've been working on:

• an animation script for a pharmaceutical company
• a re-branding exercise for a building company
• a travel brochure for Virgin
• website proof-reading and editing for the Commonwealth War Graves Commission

...then yesterday, I was asked if I'd consider writing material for a company who run private psychiatric hospitals (BIG job, quite a bit of travelling) - meeting in London next Wednesday...

(What an extraordinary week it's been!)

THEN there's my own writing...

THEN there's the greeting card business I'm hoping to set up, as a result of so many people loving my Alfie card at Christmas. I'm flying off to a meeting about that as soon as I've finished this.

Working hard? Busy person?

I'm just going to check my e-mail and go on Facebook for a bit. Ergo, I CAN'T be.

Think what a better world it would be if...

...we all had cookies and milk about three o'clock every afternoon and then lay down on our blankets for a nap...

 Barbara Jordan quoting Robert Fulghum. (Who are they? Sorry, don't know and don't particularly care. Except they are the people who said the above, so now my conscience is clear for acknowledging them.) 


That's what I did this afternoon (well, minus the cookies, milk and blanket.)
Is the world a better place? I'm not sure. I haven't woken up properly yet.

Knowing I work from home, many people assume that all my days are the same, that one blurs into the next and there's no differentiation between weekdays and the weekend.


WRONG!


During the week, my puritan work ethic won't allow me to have naps in the afternoon.

Very often.