under another sun

A bit of a gruelling Monday where I barely left my desk. Started at 7:30 and completed everything past 8pm -- the last hour or so working on the podcast finishing off the edit of the interview I did with Native Nations writer LeAnne Howe.  Big presentation this afternoon of the ideas Keith and I had assembled, and these went down very well, there was another in-house team on it, the writer of that team had Keith's regular copywriting partner Ross. Otherwise the day enlivened by Lorraine sending me a video of Erykah Badu on Sesame Street singing about friends .  Slumped on the sofa at the end of the day, sipping a glass of ginger beer and watching the great British sewing bee, or some such, with Lorraine and Jade. My brain was tired.

Spent Friday going on a few walks and preparing to interview Leanne Howe, who is a poet from the  Choctaw Nation. However we had to bump the interview till Monday shortly before it was due to take place. I was not too worried by this as I was feeling a bit flat this afternoon.  Just before close of the working day got another offer of work starting Wednesday  next week. However it was complicated by agency deciding to employ us under IR35. This is a new tax change designed to wreak havoc on freelancers everywhere, adding layers of admin and uncertainty. The agency is going to treat Keith and I as pay as you earn employees for the week of the job, so deducting all tax and NI at source, leading to lots of accountancy unpicking later -- and a greatly reduced payment meanwhile. We have slightly raised what we are charging because of it, and this job now hangs in the balance. What freelancers need, after the worst business year for many in living memory, is a slew of new obsta...