Beer o'clock

It's coming up to 6.30pm as I start this post and I've just cracked open a beer. Most days I'll pour something to mark the line between the end of my working day and my free time in the evening. Sometimes it's beer, sometimes it's a glass of wine. But early evening is always beer o'clock.

I need the beer today as I'm cross at how little work I've actually managed to achieve today. I was up just before 7 and by 8 had done an hour's editing for a client. I spent the next hour reading The Guardian online. Then I spent the time between 9 and 10 finishing a corporate job and chatting to that client. Then my landlord called. Then a friend rang (quick wave goodbye to the best part of an hour!). Then I read another paper online, dipped into Facebook and Journobiz and, before I knew it, it was 1pm!

I started doing my monthly invoices but the printer finally ran out of the last drop of ink so I jumped in the shower at 2 and headed out at 3 to buy ink. By the time I got back, via a window specialist to sort out my window key problem, it was 4.30 and I'd missed the post. Oh well, I discovered I didn't have enough stamps anyway - the invoices will go in the post tomorrow. I was also too late to ring the council to get pest control to come round and exterminate the rat that appeared in my back garden last night, but I did find time in the morning to ring the estate agent to blast them about not taking down the For Sale sign outside 10 weeks ago - this morning, I found some kids had pulled it out of the flowerbed during the night and slung it across my pathway. It's gone at last.

Other things I wanted to get done included chasing some pitches (they all seem to have fallen into a black hole) and pay some urgent bills. Tomorrow, tomorrow. Except I'd reserved tomorrow for a bit of shopping as I urgently need some new clothes to replace the schmattes I'm living in at the moment. Now, I'll have to do the invoices, the bills, the window keys (again) and the rest.

A colleague on Twitter today said freelancing is a rollercoaster - it is, and sometimes you can't get off. No wonder I need beer...

On the plus side, I got a nice email at the end of the afternoon from a potential new client offering editing work. I rang her back to chat more - it's local, on site and will probably pay well. I've mailed back my CV and she'll talk to her client (she's a go-between) but it looks positive as it's in my specialist field. Fingers crossed. Regular work = Good.