Projects Update
Funny how quick the time goes! I had great intentions of updating here weekly about my adventures in freelancing but (haha!) haven't had the time! I had almost three months off before getting a part-time job, which has given me a really lovely balance of time to do the things I love, and money to pay the bills.
Here's a quick run-down of what I've been up to:- Translation - my freelance project is nearly finished! Yup I've almost translated a whole book!! It's been a really brilliant experience and very interesting.
- Music - Still writing and recording, I wrote quite a bit of new stuff early in the summer and some of it is on myspace. Hoping to finish another album this year - I have more than enough material but I want to find songs that go together well rather than just plonking down everything I've written, so there's still quite a lot of work to do. I'm also building a new website which should hopefully be finished this month.
- Creative stuff - following an extreme splurge at Hobbycraft in Crawley, and taking advantage of the world cup, I challenged myself to make 100 items - cards or jewellery. The cards are for sale on Etsy in sets of five - there's quite a good range for different occasions. Just this week I've started working on Christmas cards, which seems early but in order to produce enough to sell in time for people to write and send them... now is definitely the time! Here's a picture of the card army invading my desk:
Study: I'm still working towards the seemingly never-ending series of exams required to upgrade my CAT qualification to an ACCA one. Latest textbook arrived this morning - it's hard to imagine something more opposite to songs and cards than accountancy, especially Tax, of all things!
I think that's it at the moment but I WILL be back to update as things develop!
Living the Dream!
I realise this blog has been dormant for a long time but to be honest I have been just doing the usual - going to work, having the odd holiday, hanging out and working on a project or two here and there.
Now, though, I actually have something reasonably interesting going on in my life: today I left my full-time job and I'm hoping to make a break for it, temping, freelancing, and maybe even having a bit of success with one of the projects that's close to my heart. I'm taking a break for a few months and the challenge during that time is to work out how to support myself by other means, so I can avoid going back to full-time office work. I'll come back and talk about those plans a bit later.
Right now I'm just enjoying the feeling of freedom and relief - I learned a lot in my job but it got very stressful towards the end. I'm going to enjoy this weekend and enjoy the reality kicking in even more on Monday morning...!
Recent London Wanderings: popped into The Photographers' Gallery
and snapped this guy taking his ferret for a walk in Leicester Square!!
and found a little alien lurking on a wall
Then I went for a wander around the British Museum
31 January 2008
Ooooh it's a horrible murky old day today! Days like this are so depressing, it's impossible not to feel tired and wiped out when there's no light and the weather's awful. Last day of January today - I'm pretty happy with how this month has gone (and how fast it's gone!) I've made progress with all the things that are most important to me and laid the foundations for what I think is going to be a fantastic 2008 - can't really write about it all here yet but keep reading, big changes are in store! On the whole I think I've reached a point where I just have to get out and do the things I really want to do, stop just preparing and actually get out there and make my life the way I want it - it's all a bit now-or-never.
30 January 2008
I've been having this repeated flashback recently. I'm in the car, driving, on the roads between Hirosaki and Aji. It's sunny, must be spring I think, everything is green and blue and yellow, and the mountain is still snowy on top but bright and clear in the sunshine. I've got the windows down, so it must be warm. I'm driving home in mid-afternoon, which is odd as usually I would be driving away from home in the afternoon. Maybe I am coming back from Russian on a Saturday, or back from staying over somewhere on a Sunday afternoon. I feel like I have all the time in the world and the space I need, and full of hope, and everything is about to start going just the way it should. I feel content. I've concluded this is a good flashback to be having! I suppose it's either a mirror of what I'm feeling now, or it's not how I'm feeling now but I'm striving towards feeling that way again. Maybe it has something to do with how mild January has been this year and how I'm looking forward to an early spring - I saw crocus leaves yesterday for the first time.
29 January 2008
I'm making a renewed push with the Japanese - I think it must be something about this time of year! Actually, thinking about it, it's 5 1/2 years since I started learning Japanese now, and I know recently I have settled into a little trough - a mixture of enough to get me by at the office, and enough to communicate with Japanese friends. It's been a long time since I really studied for the sake of it. Now, however, I seem to have a fair bit of time on my hands, and it would be nice to crack on towards a slightly more versatile level of communication - particularly at more formal levels. I'm going to be focusing on three main areas:(1) 敬語, my beloved. I have always slacked off about this but really it's just like a language of its own, with certain patterns for certain situations. I can learn these, and be confident about using them in situations where everyone else is! I have a really great textbook and CD set to start me off. (2) 語彙 - my vocabulary is just far too limited, and my talent for using words I already know to explain things (so useful as a second year JET!) means I never really bother looking words up, let alone trying to remember them! I feel a rolling vocab list coming on! (3) 漢字 - I used to love studying these, learning to write new ones, trying to remember the stroke order etc. - so this is just for fun! It's back to the yellow books we go... I'm going to be focusing on this throughout February with the expectation of seeing some progress by the end of the month.
Study: I'm still working towards the seemingly never-ending series of exams required to upgrade my CAT qualification to an ACCA one. Latest textbook arrived this morning - it's hard to imagine something more opposite to songs and cards than accountancy, especially Tax, of all things! 
