We were up with the lark yesterday, because workmen replacing the conservatory were due at 8am. We got up at 7:30am (okay, it’s up with the lark for us, even if the lark has already been up for hours), and the men were already sitting at the end of the drive. I had to move my car once the poet had used his to go to work, and both cars had really thick frost all over them. The poet made us both a hot drink before he went to work, and then once my car was off the drive and work had started, I made the workmen hot drinks before having my breakfast.
I wrote up yesterday’s blog post but noticed that the Pixabay licence has changed, as of 20 February 2023, so off I vanished, down that particular rabbit hole. I’m not sure what exactly has changed, other than them not being liable for content that has been uploaded that didn’t already have any additional privacy or consent permissions in place. Their terms and conditions might have already said this, but the wording on the actual licence next to each image has changed and as far as I can tell, this might be the change. I don’t remember seeing it anywhere before. Needless to say, I’ll be taking more care in future.
The first job I did after I hit my desk was update my submissions record with the story I sent off on Tuesday night. Then I went to see my latest earnings from Medium and added those to the submission record too. (No earnings from Vocal this time.) I opened up my content calendar spreadsheet, added the new story to that, and listed a few other anthologies and the stories I could include in those, such as Five Stories for Summer, Five Stories for Christmas, and Five More Stories for Autumn. I was delighted to see that I already have a full set for Five Stories for Summer.
We didn’t hear again from the alternative venue for the Monkey Dust gig, so we assumed it was a definite no, the poet confirmed that with the rest of the band, and I let a few people know who would have still come to the different venue. Beyond that, there was no more admin to do for this gig this week. The next gig is a private party, so I don’t have to worry about posters or creating a public event for that one.
Payment from Medium landed for February, so I went and collected that and dropped 10% into my 10% account. It’s not a huge amount, but it’s more than what I would have earned had I not posted anything over there. These stories and articles, once published, continue to earn as well. I need to get into a good rhythm of writing and posting stories and articles to both Medium and Journal.
I went through a couple of the new social media platforms and started to delete my content. One of these I’ll definitely be closing down, the other one I’ll keep to chatter. I’m not getting enough of a return for the labour I’m putting into these, so one will be repurposed and the other one will be closed.
It’s really difficult to concentrate on work when you have any strangers in your house, let alone three workmen who keep needing to ask if they can use the loo or who you might make a drink for. Every time I settled down to something that needed concentration, there was a ‘yoo-hoo’. I took the dog out for some supervised exercise, having already gone to close the front gate I’d asked them to leave shut, and he peed on their dust sheet. It could have been worse… and they were all right about it. But throughout the day the dog got into these barking bursts at all the unfamiliar noises. And besides, why weren’t they playing with Him, All The Time?
One job I’d forgotten about this week was the job searching and I hadn’t surfed the job boards since Friday. So I put that right and earmarked three jobs I wanted to look at in more detail. They were three very different jobs – 1 blogging, 1 proofreading and 1 copy editing – and I decided to go for all of them, but I had to write out three very different applications, so that took up some time. I’d love to get a paid blogging job again, so even if I’m unsuccessful this time, I’ll keep an eye out for a few more of those. The last time I did any paid blogging work was before and right at the beginning of the pandemic.
Throughout the day I kept half an eye on the NUJ Tweeted picket line images of the BBC journalists who were striking all across the country. I ‘liked’ every one I saw. One of my favourite posts was someone with a piano-accordian playing We Shall Not Be Moved. I’ve not been a member of the NUJ for a long time. Perhaps I should look at rejoining.
I updated the diary for this week as I hadn’t done that last week. I also haven’t yet done the next lot of dates work for the writing prompts, so I need to slide those in somewhere.
Eventually, I hauled out the proofreading job and I stuck my fingers in my ears as I prepared to start reading. This was a big job when I was editing it and it will be a big job just proofreading it again. It was already almost 5pm by now, though, and just as I was about to start there was a ‘yoo-hoo!’ and the workmen announced that they were going. Then the poet came home at the same time. All the menfolk talked men things, we did some more car jiggery-pokery, and then they went. They’re coming back today at around 8am, and they’ll be back tomorrow too.
I helped a pal out on Twitter (I hope!), by which time I’d already called it a day.
Sign up for my newsletter
If you would like to receive my newsletter, please follow this link or use the form below to sign up and receive your first free short story.
And don’t forget, you can unsubscribe at any time.
Yes, you definitely helped me; I would have been lost and frustrated without that help. Thank you.
It’s so hard to get anything done when people are in the house, even when they’re being respectful and asking for permission, instead of tromping around causing trouble. Hope today is easier.
They’ve been here all week! Well, since Wednesday. They were supposed to be taking Thursday off but they turned up anyway. They reckon they’ll be done my early afternoon today (Friday).