If you read with me weekly, you’ll know that a) I’m super late posting this week – oops! And b) that I finished my full-time job last Friday (11th September), to work towards a new career as a Freelance Copywriter (more on that journey in this post here). My plans were to secure a part-time job, ideally doing something interesting, which would keep some money coming in to pay my bills and enable me to spend time obtaining more writing work to eventually become fully freelance.
I was looking forward to the idea of having a week off after what’s been an extremely chaotic few weeks, but I was also starting to freak out a little bit, as my end date was coming up and I’ve been rejected from every part-time job I’ve applied for for the last 3 months. It’s one thing taking a leap of faith and making it work, but it’s another thing entirely when you still have bills to pay and the reality is that you don’t yet know how you’re going to pay them! However, last Thursday evening, the day before I finished my full-time job, I had a successful trial shift at a beautiful wine bar/shop not too far from my house, and I was offered the job mid-way through the shift. I was ecstatic (and yes – if you’re wondering, I do get to trial the wines and have already worked my way through the entire menu on my shifts this week!).
What happened next was unexpected but very welcome. I arranged to work some shifts in the wine bar this week and next week, and was excited by the peace of mind knowing I’ll still be earning something to pay my bills along with my writing job. I have another camping trip coming up and figured it’d be great to still keep money coming in but also have some relaxing downtime too.
Well, a day after agreeing to shifts in the wine bar, I received a message from the company I’m currently writing for, asking me to take on a mammoth project with a lot of work over the next two weeks. It was so typical – I had spent some time worrying about not having enough work or money for a little while, and I suddenly found myself with too much work all at once! Obviously, I accepted it all gratefully and have spent this entire week frantically working whilst trying to find a balance and adjust to this new life. It’s all fun and games when you quit your job! And, honestly, I could not be happier!
So, I actually have some great recommendations for you from the last week or so – before I spent everyday trying to navigate this new working life I’ve made for myself.
Reading
Travellers Share Cultural Offences Committed Whilst Abroad
Firstly, I apologise in advance for sharing a Daily Mail article. Really, I do. Try to get over the typical Daily Mail structure (you know where the writers have a word-count to meet so write out exactly what you can already see in a screenshot thus you end up reading everything twice) and just focus on the content of the screenshots. It’s an article about cultural differences and taboos that travellers have experienced whilst trying to be polite around the world. I love stuff like this, and it’s really interesting to see how things are in different parts of the world.
Again, sorry for sharing as I did detest myself for even reading it, but it’s interesting.
Watching
James and I watched this last weekend and I thought it was brilliant. Of course, it’s not perfect (are these things ever?!), I felt there was still things lacking from the documentary and it’s clearly biased in its focus, but it was interesting to watch nonetheless.
It’s a documentary based around social media and networking, and the addiction we all have to our devices. There is so much of this documentary worth listening to, and so much truth spoken throughout that I found myself startled in places.
They’re not telling us something new here – we all know we’re addicted to our devices. We all know about the corruption that goes on behind the scenes of social media (but in case you don’t – you can read a tiny snippet into the Cambridge Analytica scandal here) and we know that we have become slaves to technology. But this documentary shines a light on various other issues, and seeing those described and spoken about in this manner really made me realise just how corrupt and out of control social media and networking can actually be.
This is one of those documentaries where I can’t even begin to explain what I took from it, because I think everybody should just watch it themselves and make their own decision. I think I have a healthy relationship with social media, but I know many don’t. It’s interesting because I don’t envisage a life fully without social media or our devices, which raises the question – am I happy to continue being exploited so some greedy, corrupt billionaire can make even more money from my usage of social media and the subsequent health problems faced as a result?
Give it a watch – it’s definitely worth it.
Listening
I can’t actually remember if I’ve shared this song before, but if I have then you just get to listen to it twice because it’s so good. I adore Gerry Cinnamon, and he’s one of my favourite artists to see live (sob – remember live gigs?!).
I’ve been listening to this song a lot lately, mainly because I seem to have unconsciously attached this period of my life where I have a new beginning to this song. There’s a lot of the song that resonates to how I’ve been feeling about my job, but the opening lyric pretty much sums it up – ‘this is the beginning of the rest of your life…’
Have a listen – it’s a good’un and Gerry Cinnamon is amazing!
Word of the Week
I love reading books that make me research new words, and I loved this word I discovered last week. Coquetry is:
In layman’s terms – it’s flirting. What a nice posh word for a flirt!
That’s all for now – I’ll try to be on time next time – can’t promise though!
Enjoy the remainder of the weekend and I’ll see you next week!
Reflect and Introspect 