Day 145: Cabbage and Air in Advance

A bracing morning.  Spurred on by the promise of June heat, I dare to go coatfree.  Who needs a coat in twenty-three degrees of sunshine?  However, at six o'clock in the morning, it's still only one degree.  As I pass my car, I notice some ice on my windscreen.  Other people at the station are wearing coats and gloves.  I feel like a pioneer.

By the end of today I will have cracked the spine of a very intense week. If an agent had booked me this sort of schedule, I would resent them, and wonder whether they were trying to break me. As it is, I did this to myself.  For two reasons.  Firstly, it's very easy to stitch up your future self.  It's December - the jobs are in March, so you'll deal with the pain then.  It'll be fine.  Secondly, there's always the slight awareness that in the current economic climate, the tap may be turned off at any time. 

Every freelancer I meet is muttering about the summer disruptions - how the Jubilee and the Olympics will mean nobody is doing ANYTHING, and we will all be eating cabbage and air by September.  It's easy to get spooked by this sort of talk and to get manic, saying yes to everything, JUST IN CASE.

No Petrol; Fern 'exhausted'

Yesterday I was low on petrol so I went to a garage on my way home.  It was rammed.  It's not one I normally visit, so I just assumed that either I picked a bad time or it is always busy.  I'd not heard the news, so it wasn't until later that I found out about the future possibility of a tanker strike.  By last night my local garage was completely out of fuel.  People panic buying.  Creating the results of a shortage in advance of the actuality of one.

So, I am philosophical about the summer.  If there is work, I will do it.  If there isn't, I will eat cabbage and air, read books, and allow the soles of my feet to go leathery from being barefoot. 

I suspect I know how I'd prefer to spend the summer...  (Shhh.  Fate - I'm not tempting you.  Honestly.)