I would really like to be able to say that I missed the whole summer (and posting here) because I was busy doing things. The truth is, I was busy doing nothing much at all.
Applying for jobs doesn’t count. It does part-way explain my misery.
Networking events… emails… texts from friends. “What are you up to now?”
My neck in it, having had to draw my major workplace pension years earlier than I wanted to because I ran out of cash and needed the lump sum. But I also have to draw the monthly pension part, which means I lose out on Universal Credit. One step forward, three steps back.
Then there’s the sad fact that if the temperature gets too far over 22°C I stop operating. And it did that for several days, and a couple of nights.
I did have a few ideas for plans but they mostly required money, and they also mostly required having a partner in crime. At the moment, she’s in France. Somewhere. I’m still trying to talk myself out of spending £500 on a star tracker, which is a bit pointless in the middle of Leeds. Not having a car, getting to “dark sky” places is a bit difficult unless you book a weekend somewhere – in which case you’re still at the mercy of the weather.
So I’ve restricted myself to odds and sods; a set of neutral density filters, a graduated ND and (tomorrow) a 37mm UV filter for the kit lens. Of course, I needed some of those last year when I was in London and it was either foggy or bright sunshine, but…
But, I’ll be down there again on the 25th & 26th. Who knows?
August, then, was a bit of a washout. A former Director roped me in to help with a festival website; someone else broke it (honest) so that was that. But I still get to practice my Inkscape and InDesign skills producing the First Weekend leaflet.
September? As well as the Fellows Lunch at the end of the month in London, I think I’ll do the 25-hour course I get for free from the CIM. It’ll give me something to focus on, and the course I’ve chosen will be useful. And it might stop me sharing my misery on LinkedIn, which is really bad of me.
I’ll also, believe it or not, come up with a plan to fix the issues with this site. The general posts listing/archive list isn’t working out as well as I’d hoped, so I want to take it back to basics with just a reverse date order list, with or without thumbnails (probably without). How that works in the New WordPress Order, I don’t know yet. I’ll lift some code from one of the default templates, as is my habit!
Onwards, and upwards. Soon be Christmas…