Torrid day

Dreaming about my own death last night. Not great. Crept out of bed to try not to disturb Lorraine. She drove off to see Pat and Maureen and had a good time with them and Ken. 

A torrid day's work which began before eight. Presented eight ideas to the CD at lunchtime in what was supposed to be a work in progress meeting.  The CD, who is generally a good egg but is rather under pressure on this job, began judging them as if we had had a two week to work on them rather than a day and a half. He was hostile to a beautiful  idea that we had come up with and Keith had created gorgeous image for. A bit preciously, I lost patience at this point because the stated demand at the beginning of the brief was for originality, freshness and creativity. I said I was sick of coming up with original work to meet the brief, and when what is actually wanted is just more of the same. In retrospect, I quite enjoyed the fact that Keith had to step in to play good cop for once.  

We slogged all afternoon in a bit of a braindead way trying to meet another 5pm deadline, which we may have been on track to meet at around 4, but Keith's design program crashed and we lost hours of work. Keith raging. Mercifully the 5pm was cancelled at two minutes to 5pm and both of us having had a wretched day called it quits and will start early tomorrow. 

I finished the day seething -- which is unusual for me. But it confirmed to me that I am a bit burnt out after about six months of pitch work. When I reflect on the holiday Lorraine and I took, one week away, where I got bank phone calls queries about invoices etc all the way through, and when we were home again,  I had work emails and negotiations and renegotiations, this simply doesn't actually count as holiday at all.   

I have to work on the same job next week, but after that come what may, I am taking some time out to get my head together, resume work on my poetry collection and do some Podcast work in preparation for series two which Robin and begin in late September. 

I rustled up some grub for me and Sam, then mooched down to the Battle of Trafalgar to meet the beermonsters, who were all in good form. I was decidedly out of sorts, and monstered only a few beers as I had to be on top form tomorrow with Keith to fix everything rapidly.  Particularly enjoyed talking to Steve about foraging, among other subjects. Left early  and was happy to see Lorraine, and snack on a sneaky cheese toasty before bed.