Happy New Year!
I know, I know… I’m almost seven weeks late to the party. But since moving to Tasmania, I’ve had to recalibrate my internal calendar.
Back in the UK, January was the time for getting stuck back into work after the excesses of Christmas. It was always a little tough to find any enthusiasm for ambitious plans and new projects when it was still cold, dark and wintery outside.
Here in Australia though, January is all about the joys of the summer holidays – swimming, sunshine and ice cream – with work dropping much lower down the priority list.
I’ve had a couple of small projects on the go – some really interesting editing work for the Monash Sustainable Development Institute, and a submission to a State Government Request for Tender that involved a LOT of form-filling – but my focus for the last month has really been on family.
The Tasmanian school year finally started last Wednesday and, after waving my son off in his smart new uniform, it was lovely getting back to my desk. Since then I’ve sharpened my pencils, started my planner, and finally feel like I’m getting my head around what 2018 might look like work-wise.
Already this week I’ve had an essay accepted at a lovely online publication called Mothers Always Write, submitted two applications for flexible travel writer positions, and done about 10 hours of preparatory work for a six month contract with the University of Tasmania.
I’m really excited about the start of my first full year back as a freelancer, and can’t wait to get stuck into some big projects. I’ll try and share semi-regular updates on this blog about what I’m up to, along with other posts that I hope you find interesting or useful.
As ever, if you’d like to chat to me about a work project, please feel free to get in touch.
(Oh, and that Boredom Box I spent hours on? The one that was supposed to help us through the holidays? We didn’t use it once. This is probably not a good thing for a writer to admit, but I have no words…)
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Photo by Steven VanDesande Jr on Unsplash
Ruth Dawkins Freelance Writer 