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This is the pool at 06.40 this morning. Before David and Dani got up, created waves and compelled me to bomb in on David and Dani.

Sixty lengths before breakfast yesterday. It’s six strokes front crawl and eight breast stroke. Back crawl gets worrying after about three.

So refreshing.

But not as refreshing as everything else that’s going on.

This was the scene inside a church on Monday morning.

I can’t quite get over the fact that people have come from all over the world, giving up work, their holidays and finances, to COME AND GET SOME!

Tags: Faith by treehousedaddy
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1) Ever thought that the way you hold your mouse, or the way you hold your wrists when using the keyboard could have an effect on your back? Get a wrist rest, so that the line from your forearms to the top of your hands when using the keyboard or mouse is straight. If your hands are bent up from the wrists you’re putting strain on the ligaments which pass through the narrow spaces inside your wrist and the likelihood is you’ll end up with a pain in the neck.

2) Some editors like to work with a tablet and stylus sometimes just for variety. They say it helps although I gave it three days and found them just too slow. What do you think?

Tags: The freelance life by treehousedaddy
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I wrote this in my notebook and had to write it up. So old fashioned.

My web guru is working at getting the email from the phone to update automatically. ‘Til then, things might be a little delayed.

The endless yellow ribbon drawing out the path the runway, the take-off zone. An almost perfect semi-circle drawing us onto the apron, it’s geometrical perfection trimmed away as it joins the boad, white arrows which draw the landing aircraft to earth and point the departing fliers to detachment.

Arrows, arrows, arrows. Then white lines. A mess of thick black skid-marks, pasted onto the touch-down zone with thick, child-like strokes.

Last time I saw this sight I was sitting in the jump seat of a brand new 777, just seven days old, one of the first in BA’s fleet, flying out to Saudi Arabia. That was 1999. And we were on time.

Now, on June 14th, 2008, I’m seeing the same lines again, this time through the nose-mounted camera.

The aircraft gathers speed. At the moment of takeoff, I clap, and before my hands meet the second time the aircraft is full of cheering and clapping. We’re 23 hours and 25 minutes behind schedule.

Why am I making this trip? Eight hours of flying, a trip to a destination I hadn’t even heard of just over two weeks ago, and then a couple of hours driving.

It’s to do with the upside of being a freelancer. You get to choose when to work and when not to, just as work sometimes chooses when to be with you or not. I somehow knew this week was going to be workless, and that this was the time to go.

It’s also to do with wanting to find your destiny. Don’t you?

Tags: Faith, The freelance life by treehousedaddy
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I’m writing this from the departures lounge at Gatwick Airport, four hours after the plane should have lifted into the great blue sky above. It’s a fine day, and I’ve just come from lunch on the house, with an apron-side seat looking down on the great argonauts of the sky. Flex those wings, my friend, they seem to say as they push back from the stands and run through the pre-flight checks.

Don’t worry, it’s just another delay in getting to the Lakeland Revival in Florida. I spent over three hours last night looking for my passport, only to find it in the place I’d expected it to be - and where I’d looked about ten times. Got to sleep at around 1am, having emailed lots of contacts to tell them about ‘Gold Fever!’ going out tonight on BBC2 at 19.00.

I’ve been looking forward to this trip ever since I rang my friend Roy Petersen (Free Donuts) and he said: “I’m off to Lakeland Revival tomorrow. Google it. I got home and the first two emails I opened referred to it too.

Just now prayed for a pound to pay for this internet access. Walked 20 paces and saw one on the floor. Who said God isn’t alive and hard at work???

Tags: Faith, The freelance life by treehousedaddy
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The exertions in the garden yesterday have…

…done me no harm at all. Either all the exercises I described earlier have done the job completely or it’s a miracle. The only other thing I had done – when the pain first hit on Friday morning – was put my hands on the pain and say, with absolute conviction, “I rebuke the pain in the Name of Jesus Christ. Be healed.” Since there is no-one who loves us more than He, it’s His joy to heal us, although it’s a mystery why He doesn’t always do so immediately, and sometimes not at all.

Apparently it takes some faith – between the prayer (who receives it as a gift from Jesus) and the receiver there needs to be enough for it to happen. But despite believing He could do it instantly I believe He wanted me to learn from this incident how to avoid it in future .  

Tags: The freelance life by treehousedaddy
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I got hit on Friday morning whilst putting on a sock. First time in three or four years. It was absolute agony, with a massive cramping pain in the lower back. The kind where the only relief comes on all fours on the floor for a few minutes, gritting your teeth, taking a few deep breaths and trying not to yell in pain.

Since it only happens infrequently, say every 3-4 years, I fell for a bad situation, but I knew I had to keep everything moving and not allow the muscles to lock.

It was tricky, but I got moving. Having taken a couple of Ibuprofen and rubbed in some Deep Heat, I walked to the station with my son, caught the train and then walked to his school. Cycled 3-miles to work. Arrived at 9am, climbed four flights of stairs then started the working day by watching the first assembly lying flat on my back, having tipped the monitor forward as much as I dared.

Watched the first assembly lying flat on my back. Director arrived, rearranged back to normal, carried on. As much as possible, stretching over the back of the chair, standing on tip-toes, reaching for the ceiling, going on all fours. Tried to keep moving whenever I wasn’t actually editing – thanks Fiona for your understanding. That’s the upside; working with nice people so often.

A walk at lunch time worked wonders. Ten minutes in I felt much more free in the back. By the end of an hour it was

sooooo

much better. Carried on the same kind of thing all afternoon, with 2 more Ibuprofen and some Deep Heat around 3pm and again around 10.30pm. Thanks, Richard, for the tip about lying on your back and pulling your legs up to your chest.

Saturday almost pain free, except watching Switzerland’s dismal performance. Portugal’s game was much better. 

Sunday able to drive 40-mins to Soul Survivor in Watford, then to Camden, then home in West London to some gardening.

Let’s see what that does tomorrow. 

What’s your tip?

Tags: The freelance life by treehousedaddy
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The downside of being an editor is that you sit in your chair to work. If you’re not very careful that might mean you’re sitting for hours; not good for other reasons such as DVT (Deep Vein Thrombosis) and definitely not good for your back.

But it’s made worse if your chair doesn’t help you have a good posture and other parts of your body, such as the wrists and the neck, are putting strain on your ligaments and muscles.

The upside is there’s a huge amount you can do to prevent it and to deal with it if the worst happens.

I’m fortunate that most places I work supply a really good chair to spend the day in, but where I’m working now it’s just a cheap office chair. What can you do? All their chairs are like that. Will they have me back if I insist they provide something more adjustable?

Unfortunately I wasn’t careful enough and got hit by agonizing lower back pains on Friday.

It reminded me how important it is to protect against back pain, but how?

At the first sign of any twinges in your lower back take action. Any, some or all of these exercises will help, and since no-one will pay you if you can’t work for a short while it’s in your interest to act.

1) Going for a 30-minute walk works wonders.

2) Go on all fours. Your arms and thighs should be perpendicular to the floor. Arch your back like a cat while lowering your head. Then dip your back and raise your head. Repeat a few times.

3) In the all fours position, swing your left arm across and up as if you’re trying to reach up to scratch your opposite side. Repeat with the other arm.

4) Lie on your back a something slightly soft, like an exercise mat (but not the hard floor or industrial carpets). Bring your thighs up to your chest and hug your legs to you. This stretches the muscles. Bliss!

5) Stretch over the back of that chair. If it is a cheapo office chair, make it earn its keep as an exercise machine too!

6) Stretch for the ceiling.

7) If you do get hit, take pain relief, such as Ibuprofen (max 6 in one day, always read the box!), and rub in Deep Heat.

Be active. You need to prevent the muscles seizing up, at all costs. Don’t retire to bed and hope to get better.

What are your tips?

Tags: The freelance life by treehousedaddy
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Today must be the wettest day so far this year. Raining lamp-posts, not stair rods. Heavy, plentiful, and precipitating perfectly vertically. Puddles the size of duck ponds. Anything less than 3000mm of hydrostatic head would see your tent leaking. Make that 5000mm.

The upside of my cycle ride through the steel-grey landscape of leafy West London is that being a freelancer the journeys are varied. Today was a new one; four miles from Chiswick to North Kensington, with nothing but thoughts of my poor daughter languishing at home with Glandular Fever and, of course, how to make sure I don’t get flattened by some übercar monster on-roader with steamed up windows.

Sheet rain. Getting more than a little wet. To make matters worse (perhaps it was the atmospheric conditions), I found myself dying for a pee. Cycling tights soaked on the outside and nearly flooding from the inside. Relief to be found only by a pitstop at Sainsbury’s.

The only way to survive this global warming chaos is to carry a complete change of clothes in the rucksack. Today even they are wet. 

Tags: The freelance life by treehousedaddy
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Today I’ve got one of those – thankfully rare – days between jobs. 

The last film was ‘Gold Fever!’ (TX BBC2, 19.00, 13th June)

Time to catch up – on the showreel, the bills, the project proposals. Yes. Like you, too much to do and the day is shortened with the discovery that my daughter may have glandular fever and needs to go to the GP and then the hospital for a blood test. 

The good news is, by following the advice on MoneySavingExpert I managed to save just under £1,200 on my buildings insurance! What an upside to the downside. 

If you’re an editor, or cutter as they say in some places, then “Welcome!” I’d like to know how you go about solving problems – working with newbie directors, dealing with workaholics who think everyday ’til 10pm is cool, companies who try to get more out of you than is fair and, if you’re a freelancer, let’s share some tips on getting work. 

Tags: The freelance life by treehousedaddy
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