Archive for October, 2009
Jelly is good for home workers
Oct 9th
This week I attended the first Jelly in Bath. What, you may ask, is a Jelly when it’s at home? A Jelly, good people, is a gathering of home workers, and any others who might fancy a change from their normal workplace, in a cafe, office space or someone’s home. There is free wi-fi access, a table to work on and plenty of chat. It’s called a Jelly because it began in New York, and apparently the two guys who dreamed it up were eating jelly beans at the time!
Bath’s first Jelly was held at JikaJika, a large new coffee shop in George Street, which sells yummy cakes and sandwiches and astonishingly powerful coffee. (Oddly enough, the building used to be an estate agents, and I was responsible for cleaning it for many years, so it’s nice to go there and not wield a mop!)
About nine home workers turned up with their laptops, from Bristol and Somerset as well as Bath. Most of us hadn’t met before, and so useful connections were made. For example I met a social media consultant who gave me an impromptu seminar on how to use Linkedin. Everyone seemed very happy with the way the day went, including the coffee shop manager, so with luck they will become a regular event. I’m going to see if I can get a Frome Jelly organised, so if you would like to know more, please get in touch.
Working from home workshops
Oct 2nd
In the end I postponed the workshop I was planning to run in Frome last Saturday, but I learnt a lot from the process of organising it. Rather than booking a room and advertising to the general public in the hope of filling places, I am now making a list of people who are interested and once I have plenty, I will work out a date that suits the majority and hold the workshop. That way everyone will know me, or at least know of me, some will know each other, and I think it will be a really friendly and productive day, a chance to share experiences of working from home and recharge our batteries. I’m sure there will also be some opportunities for people to help each other out after the event and maybe even to get some work.
If you are interested, have a look at Work from Home Events where there is a description of the workshop, and then contact me so I can add you to the list. And please pass the information on to any home workers you know who would be interested. Thanks!
A pain in the ear
Oct 1st
I rarely use my mobile. Like a pensioner, I keep it switched off most of the time, for use only when I need to check in at home or for emergencies. That’s why I don’t publish the number on my website or business card.
The reason is a pretty compelling one – if I make a call with the phone to my ear, shortly afterwards my ear hurts inside. It started when long phone calls using a cordless phone would make my ear hot, and then when I was a writing student at UCF and using the mobile more often, I noticed the pain. Now I only ever use it with the loudspeaker on so it’s away from my ear, which as you can imagine is not always very convenient.
I did get the doctor to check me out. He peered inside and pronounced everything perfectly healthy, which was a relief, but he didn’t seem very surprised by my problem and said that call centre staff can suffer badly in this way, wearing headsets all the time.
I do feel slightly freakish when I have to tell people and I’ve only ever heard of one other person who has the same experience. Do let me know if you know of others.
