Heat generates brainwave

Phew! It's hot here today, but I don't mind - I've been pottering in my shady office with a fan running full blast.

Thankfully, because we were away last week, I've not had a huge amount of work booked in. The last two chapters of the book I loathe (the one on global development) have still not arrived - just as well, as my mind is still in Paris and I couldn't face several hundred pages of academic waffle. Monday I spent some time proofreading phase 1 of a website for which I wrote the copy. I've done several small-to-medium proofreading jobs scattered through the week for one of my favourite regular clients. Another regular client has been nominated for a business award then had a panic attack because she had to write an account of her start-up for the award committee - she's dyslexic so I proofread her stuff for her. That was a nice job as it involved a bit of rewriting as well - she has a great business so I was chuffed that she was nominated. And I've been doing a few pieces of substantive editing for a hypnotherapist - he's very sweet and I've heard from another hypnotherapist that I know that he's very good at what he does, but he can't write at all. He's writing a book of case histories, which I'm basically rewriting for him - this is a very interesting project.

My lovely graphic designer just rang to book me for another joint client meeting next week - more copywriting looms, this time for product info sheets and matching web pages, plus possibly some industry advertisements. My GD also mentioned that he wants to update his website and get me to do the copywriting. That's great because I've just asked him to rebuild my own website within the next month. I guess we'll be working for each other at a discount. While I had him on the phone, I ran my brainwave past him - seeing as we work together so much, I thought we could do a joint e-mail newsletter. It's all terribly vague at the moment but it could be a good joint marketing effort. It needs careful thought, so the GD suggested a pub meeting to go through my idea thoroughly. He's interested anyway.

I'm also busy pitching for a regular editorial gig with a company that is publishing talks and speeches made in the financial sector. As an ex-minutetaker and ex-financial editor, this is right up my street... fingers crossed.

It's not all been good this week - our cleaner's just handed in her notice. We have one month to find a new domestic goddess who will be willing to clean a very untidy and fag-strewn office, do the ironing and generally keep the rest of the house spick and span. I should point out that the messy, ash-ridden half of the workspace belongs to the beloved P - even though I smoke, I'm pretty tidy and organised. Still, I need a new cleaner who I can trust not to disrupt me when I'm working. Our current Mrs Mopp is very good at knowing when to knock and we have an arrangement for a 30-minute shut-down in my office so that she can get in to clean it. Training a new char is not something I look forward to.

Worse - the World Cup has started. I loathe football (and so does the beloved P, I'm good at picking blokes that don't like footy) and now I shall have to endure a month of disrupted schedules for EastEnders and trying to find something half-decent to watch on any channel on the rare occasions I fancy being a couch potato. Still, at least I won't be distracted from working.

Until Wimbledon starts...