Posts tagged Somerset
Frome Jelly 19 May
May 10th
Just a quick announcement of the next Jelly in Frome. It’s been a while due to all my recent upheavals, but finally I’ve got it together for Wednesday 19 May, from 10 am to 4 pm. We’ll be at The Old Church School again, thanks to our ultra-supportive host Gavin Eddy.
I’m looking forward to seeing old and new faces, and for the latter there’s new information on the site about what to expect when attending Jelly, plus some pointers about what you can hope to achieve. The glass-walled meeting room holds eight people, so don’t delay – booking starts 12 May.
Moving on
Mar 13th
Good news this week – we’ve finally found another house to rent after two months of searching. A house that will accommodate two home offices and all our furniture. We think we’re pretty minimal in our possessions but having always lived in older properties, which have larger rooms, we’ve discovered we have too much for modern houses, which tend to have fitted wardrobes and appliances.
We will probably have to put everything in storage for a while as the owners of the new house are moving away to start a business and won’t be ready to leave at the time we have to move out of here, but it’s a huge relief to have found somewhere. And we had already booked a few days in Spain for the interim period, so we‘ll be moving in when we get back.
It looks like it’s going to be a busy time as we pack up to leave while I continue to add to the site (Work from Home Audit coming very soon) and start Jelly at a new fantastic new venue, Glove Factory Studios in Holt near Bradford-on-Avon. More about that soon as well.
Jelly on ice
Jan 8th
A and I crunched carefully down the road yesterday to Jelly at The Old Church School and were joined by two other people who live locally and were able to walk in. Others were stranded by the ice and couldn’t make it.
Having spent all the previous day at home, with not even a short walk, it made me feel so much better to be in a different environment and talk to people I don’t often see. I’m always recommending other home workers to get out as much as they can, but even so, every time I do it, I am amazed once again just how much difference it makes to my mood and outlook.
I’ll be organising more Jelly very soon and details will appear here and on the Work from Home Events page. It’s worth pointing out that you don’t have to have a laptop to come to Jelly! Just bring some portable work – something to read, write, sew, knit, whatever – and enjoy the company.
There’s always some help available. Yesterday A got a Jellyer going on Twitter and Tweetdeck. Often it turns out that something that is a complete mystery to you is natural as breathing to another Jellyer!
Another helping of Jelly
Dec 16th
Just doing some work on publicising the next Frome Jelly, which will be held on Thursday 7 January between 10 am and 2 pm at the same venue, The Old Church School, tucked away behind the Methodist Church on Butts Hill, just below the fire station.
Jelly is meant to be spontaneous and viral and is normally only announced a week or so before the date, but with the Christmas and New Year break fast approaching, it seemed best to let people know so they could put the date in their diary and plan accordingly. It would be sad if I left it too late and nobody turned up. Solitary Jelly would be no fun at all.
If you’re interested in setting up Jelly in your area and would like to know more, check out these videos and info.
Newsflash – page about Jelly
Dec 9th
I’ve just added a new page about Jelly that includes a couple of videos from the first Frome Jelly in November. New pages are listed under Tips on the menu bar and also in the right-hand column under my tweets.
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!
From home office to radio studio
Sep 16th
I had my first shot at live radio last week when I was invited on BBC Radio Somerset’s Morning Show with Emma Britton. Emma travels around the county on the BBC Somerset Bus, but I was away when it came to the Frome area, so I drove to the studio in Taunton to talk about the pros and cons of working from home.
Emma is a very enthusiastic and engaging host, and made it easy for me to relax and chat about my experience of home working, writing the book and the upcoming workshop on Saturday 26 September. You can listen to the interview until midday on Friday 18. It starts at 1.01.15 for about 10 minutes.
Free novels up for grabs
Jul 10th
This blog seems to be in danger of becoming about books rather than working from home, but I just have to let you know about an opportunity to win a newly-published novel. A local free magazine, The Furball, has 5 signed copies of Pictures of You by Jane Elmor to give away if you know the answer to the following question:
What was the name of the farm where the legendary 1970 Isle of Wight festival took place?
Easy for anyone who can Google, so just email your answer to matt@thefurball.co.uk by 31July with ‘Book competition’ in the subject heading and you might have some lovely new reading material heading your way.
I met Jane when I moved to Frome a year ago and her first novel My Vintage Summer
Can’t wait? Then you can click and buy it here straightaway, you greedy booklover, you:
Work from Home Essential No. 3: A Favourite Coffee Shop
May 31st
I love coffee shops and I find that having one close by is a great advantage when you’re working from home. It provides a venue for all sorts of occasions – somewhere to go just for a change of scene, for a treat when you’ve completed something difficult, for a different environment in which to get your creative juices flowing, and to meet people either to discuss work or have a good old chat.
My favourite here in Frome is Divas, which is in the same building at the bottom end of town as Black Swan Arts, a gallery and shop, and some artists’ workshops. The counter display of colourful and healthy food makes you want to start at one side and work your way across to the other, ditto the cakes ranged across the top. You can sit outside in the pretty courtyard if the weather’s good, and browse the local and national papers while slurping the excellent coffee. Its only disadvantage is that it’s next to the library, where as you know I’m a regular visitor, so maybe we drop in more than we should – ‘Fancy a coffee?’ ‘Oh, go on then.’
