Sunday, February 17, 2008

Explanation of Absence

Okay, back to mid-2007: here I was happily engaged with my design business, Parlour. Self-employed for over 5 years. Sharing an office with two friends. I get an offer from one of my print suppliers, totally out of the blue, to come and work for him as creative director of a small design company he owned. My immediate reaction was “no way”, but I started thinking about is his offer, and after about a month’s worth of negotiations, and a month or two of getting Parlour sorted, I moved across, winding up Parlour and taking my clients with me. I made a pretty sweet deal and am now on a pretty substantial salary.

But there are some BUTs - I miss working for myself. I've given up a great deal of autonomy. It feels different - I don't feel the ownership I used to feel about my work. But there are some pluses for sure. The people here are great - it's fun to work in a team environment again. It's nice to hand work over to my designers when I get really busy. I'm looking forward to taking holidays (in fact, I'm heading off in a week's time to my first proper holiday in 6 years). It's good to know there are sick days there when I need to take them. I don't have to deal with the stinky IRD any more (big big plus!). The cashflow is easier, of course. Salary paid weekly. Nice.

So, life is quite different these days. I only have one kid left at home - my two girls have moved out and are now in the adult world, working and flatting. My son is at university and has a girlfriend so I don't see much of him. Dave and I are together (for those that don't know) but we live apart now - seems to work for us. All in all, things are pretty smooth. I work some silly hours still, but then, I always have. It's part of me, and I recognise it's of my own making. I probably need to change this. I will. In time. Right now, I need to make this new job work, and to make this design studio a success. It's a bit daunting really. Design and print are competitive industries, and I'm pretty much left to my own devices. Fingers crossed I can make this work.

Oh, and I'm hoping to buy my own house by the end of the year. Sick of renting. Time to grow put down some roots.

Friday, February 15, 2008

Surprise Post

Well hello there. I have not died. No. I've just had my life taken over by my new job which I started back in August '07. About the time I stopped blogging.

Okay, this is just to say that I'm alive.

Next instalment soon. Very soon.

Watch this space.