SELF EMPLOYMENT + A SICK CHILD + A SICK MAN = WRONG RESULT!

So, I’ve got a client presentation that requires my undivided attention. I have some fashion news for one of my clients which I need to pitch to ALL national fashion journalists, from directors to assistants and I have some legal documentation I need to sort for one of my other business ventures. To top it off, boss lady has caught some friggin’ eye infection so I’m having to keep her at home (as I don’t want my nephew to catch it if they’re both at my parents house). If that wasn’t enough I have a sick man home too and whilst he isn't 'asking' for me to do much for him, you know that is not what he is thinking or how he would like it to be.

Sick man is too sick to look after daughter so I’m having to do so, which just means plenty of attention, playing, carrying, playing and so on, whilst trying to balance getting ‘some’ work done. I would normally not bother attempting to juggle the two, as if she’s normally sick, as her mother I like to be the one to look after her. However, those motherly actions need to be dashed out the window this week, as it’s very important for me to complete these tasks ASAP!

So Lord, if ever I prayed I needed you to split me into two people – this is the time to grant that prayer please. Or you could just give me my red cape, (with an ‘S’ on my chest) and make me Superwoman, as it’s become apparent, so many people think I am already.

Which ever you decide please let it be done by 7am tomorrow morning… thank you.

ARE WE NOT AS STRONG AS OUR PARENTS?

Why is it I constantly hear myself moaning about how hard it is to achieve and maintain a quality lifestyle in the UK without killing yourself doing so? All I want is to be able to maintain a beautiful home (a la Grand Designs), enjoy at least one long haul holiday per year with my family (excluding the weekends away with the girls which I’m happy to do every six months or so). Enjoy regular spending sprees for things I desire and may not necessary need. I think you get my drift right?

I don’t believe I EVER heard either of my parents complain about any aspect of their jobs, whilst they raised my brother, sister and I, so why is it different with me and my friends now? We’re all hardworking, like I mean, really hardworking – as per my parents, but again I say, they never use to moan. Well never in front of us kids. If my 1 year old daughter could speak now, she would run her mouth about how I moan about ‘how hard it all is working and maintaining a decent lifestyle in the UK’… I’d probably have to slap her face to shut her up. So I ask, what’s the difference from the days when our parents were on the daily grind and now? Or maybe there isn’t any difference and we’re just not as strong as our parents were back in the day?
I ask this question as I recently found myself blubbering on the train home from working at a client’s office, solely for the reason of me finding the day so tiring as well as depressing (Watching people commute to work , rushing like robots seriously depresses me. Try watching people tomorrow from when you arrive at your home train station and I’m sure you’ll know what I mean). Granted, I was ill with a chest infection, however it didn’t warrant a grown woman sobbing (I’m not lying, I had tears rolling down my face), on a packed train, whilst making the journey to my parents house to pick up the little miss. I suppose it also didn’t help that a journey which should have taken 1 hour and 15 minutes, ended up taking 2 hours 30 minutes, due to parts of the Northern Line being suspended. But still I ask ‘was this a reason to cry the way I did?’

When I arrived at my parents, I was greeted by my older brother, Mum and my daughter. My brother took one look at my face and said ‘what’s wrong sis’, to which I replied ‘I’m tired. I’m just so tired’ then preceded to cry again whilst propped up at the bottom of the stairs in the hallway. ‘Oh, I forgot I failed to mention earlier in this post this was only my SECOND day working in-house as a freelance consultant for this PR agency; (you know the agency I mentioned in my last post), so what the hell was going on with me! I can laugh about it now, but I tell you, had you’d seen me on the train or saw me at my parents house, I was inconsolable, the whole of my chin was wet with tears.

So back to the question, I don’t think it makes me weak having this mini ‘drama queen’ moment. I just think our parents were more tolerable back in the day with the BS life threw at them. I also think these two days in particular, took me back to a place where I don’t EVER care to be again. I think the most important lesson I learnt was that it made me realise how lucky I am to live the life I currently live. Being self employed comes with its own negatives; however after stepping back into my old world for only 48 hours, I know the positives out weight the negatives by far. For those two days I had been hit in the face with a reminder (which actually wasn’t at all harsh), of how my life ‘use’ to be. If that’s not enough motivation to get me refocused when things start looking a bit blurry (and believe me it gets like that sometimes), then I don’t know what is.

I know many people have responsibilities and are not in a position to quit their jobs in order to pursue their dreams, but how about you try to make ‘mini’ changes into shaping your life to what you ‘want it’ to be as well as to help make the ‘job’ more bearable if you haven’t already? Something one of my close friends said to me the other day ‘if you continue to live your life a particular way, then your path will continue to be the same’. Even though I feel fortunate in terms of my working life, I know there are probably other aspects of my life where I could benefit from reciting this sentence at least once a day, in order to get to exactly where I want to be. Watch this space, I’ll let you know when I get there.

MISSING MY EX COLLEAGUES...

As regular readers will know I’m a self employed publicist/PR manager as well as working in a freelance capacity for various PR agencies. This week I was hired to work with an agency on a high street consumer retail account as they had a big story to publicise to the national press, which was to be supported by a big advertising campaign launching the same day.

The agency is relatively small (under 10 people) and on arrival, those who greeted me (the managing director and new business manager) appeared to be nice. I was shown into the boardroom where I was told one of the team would come over to brief me as the lady who I was to report into was out of the office all day, overseeing radio interviews with the client.

Rewind to 2004 – 05 when I worked for my ex employer, where it wasn’t abnormal for me and my colleagues nick named Gay boy, Asian chick, Filipino gal and White G to have a ‘Christina Aguilera’ break each day for probably two months or so, to watch her video to the single ‘Dirty’ as we thought it was the hottest music video ever! We'd be running around the office, striking a pose, attempting to recreate the video as much as possible - it was so much fun. Your probably thinking, ‘you used to do this at work? Well... yes! We used to piss around so much it was unreal. Don’t get me wrong, it was and still is one of the hardest working PR agencies I’ll probably ever work for; however we did know how to enjoy ourselves whilst getting the job done. Fast forward to today and I’m currently sat in an office of silence. This may not be a big deal to some of you, but this is unheard of in ‘my world’ of PR and its uber hard to adjust to this type of working environment. Listening to music helped to zone me into the world, mindset I needed to be in to get my client work done, whilst working hard at my desk. Total silence, distracts me and for the past two days I’ve spent quite a bit of time looking around the office at everyone else, staring at them – for no apparent reason, while my mind tells me how dull it actually is here and how I desperately wish I was with my old colleagues, Gay boy, Asian chick, Filipino gal and White G. Hey guys, if you're reading, Black G misses you and the rest of the crew.