Long week - too busy for me :-(

It’s been a very long week. After last weekend’s trip to Cambridge, I had to return again on Monday afternoon to drop some stuff off at the accountants, and then take a server to my old business partner Matt, who is getting some software running on it for me.

Monday night is Jazz at the Elm Tree, so a few of us went on to that after noodles at some noodle bar. Its nice going into a pub nearly three years after I left the place, and still being remembered by the landlord The beer is quite good there too, and prviding John (the landlord) is in a good mood the atmosphere is great.

While I was up there, I was asked if I could do some Macromedia Flash work for a good local, so I had to go and see them on Tuesday morning. I’m not really a flash person (I like to do some ActionScript when I can, but can’t design to save my life), but I enjoy doing it when the opportunity arises as it’s a nice change from PHP and SQL. Anyway, the discussion went OK on Tuesday, so I’ve got to go up again on Monday/Tuesday for two days of contracting. I’m too busy at the moment to really do it, and I’m a little apprehensive as I don’t think there will be enough time to get everything they want doing done, but the company will look good on my CV and the money is quite good, so I couldn’t really refuse them…

So that’s a bit of a pain. I have another medium sized flash job coming up in the next few weeks too, and had a good meeting about that on Thursday. That’s something I like about being self employed: going to a meeting somewhere interesting, with a nice drive across country, nice lunch with a beer or two, and then a relaxed meeting with someone that knows what they are talking about and what they want. I don’t like arsing around with some people who keep shifting the goal-posts, thinking that they can keep making changes without incurring any extra costs, and generally being a pain in the backside. Especially the ones that think they could get a flight booking system/customer management system/staff rota/in-flight menu generator/baggage tracking system/backup auto-pilot system for 250 quid (including VAT)! Customers eh?

Anyway, the flash work should be quite fun and fairly straight forward, so I’m looking forward to that starting. Having said that, I need to get all the crap that I’ve got on at the moment out of the way first, so I guess it’s an incentive to get my backside into gear. I’m supposed to be going on holiday next week too. Doesn’t look like I’ll get the whole 8 days, but I should get a few days walking in up in the Lakes.

I went out for a meal with a friend this evening, which was quite pleasant. She’s just moved to Surrey, so we went to a nice pub/restaurant near Box Hill. Again, it was a nice drive there and back through windy country roads, but being in a pub with decent beer and not being able to drink it is something I find hard to do. I’m trying to make up for it now by having a bottle of Old Speckled Hen, and I’ve got Miles Davis Kind Of Blue playing for company. I’m beginning to feel in the mood for sitting up late drinking and listening to some decent music now, but alas I have to be up early tomorrow so I guess I should be getting to bed. I’m yawning as I type, so it’s probably a good plan. I don’t want to have to stop Miles though