Out with the old and all that

So it's January 2nd and I'm back at my desk though I can't say I'm really working. My three kids are much in evidence around the place today and most of my clients are still off so it's a chance over the next couple of hours to clear the mountain of 'pending' that piled up during a very busy December before the pressure to entertain my offspring means work has to take a second place to Christmas holiday activities.

Christmas and New Year passed off pretty well here and this this very short lull before the grindstone gets turning again has given me a bit of time to reflect on the good and bad parts of 2007.

The pluses

Leapfrog has been busier than in the two previous years with a good variety of work mixing b2b publication work with change projects and tactical internal comms projects. I spent a lot of time with one particular client, but for once managed to keep my other work going in parallel without any client work suffering.

I've had some of my history writing published in BBC History Magazine and am working on a commission for a publication detailing the secret role of one of the UK's stately homes during WW2.

I've embarked on an MA in International Relations at Brunel University , and while it's tougher than anything I do in work, and has taken just about every spare hour I have in the week just to keep up with the reading, it really has given me a new spark. After probably five years of feeling in a bit of a rut about work, I'm finally seeing real possibilities to expand into new areas - and perhaps take a slightly different direction once the course is complete.

On the margins

My TV wannabe-ness got me onto the BBC's Mastermind. It was a fabulous experience and I felt great just to get through the selection process and into the famous black leather chair. But once there, nerves and a slightly daft selection of specialist subject combined. While I was never going to win the heat, I didn't do as well as I could or should, so left the studios in Manchester a little disappointed with my own performance.

Minuses

One downside of being a microbusiness has been having to turn down work. For the first time in three years I've been approached for projects I simply didn't have the capacity to fulfil. some I was able to pass on to associates, but I simply had to knock back a few other opportunities. 2007 was certainly the year when a couple of clones would have been very useful.

Another downside of being stretched workwise and by the MA was having to give up my CiB involvement for the time being. The final straw for this was the huge apathy within the organisation for making the changes necessary for it to remain relevant to the communications industry. There are a few people who do a great job to keep CiB going - but it's all too few. For a year, I was part of a membership group that delivered very little. Partly this was the perennial problem of a volunteer organisation: too little time and little money to back plans. But more so it was down to a much wider apathy. Initiatives got little support and most members simply wanted to get everything spoon-fed without making any effort to put anything back in. Around 70 people out of over 1100 could be bothered to vote in council elections, and when just 62 participated in a CiB-sponsored communications survey in the Autumn I really felt I was wasting my time. I had little enough of that time available anyway, so putting CiB on the back burner wasn't hard.

Finally, 2007 saw the usual tale of projects that started but got pulled; late payments and mounting costs. I'll need to review my rates early this year, since they haven't really changed for rather too long now, while all of my costs have spiralled. The present government has made it harder and more expensive to run a business, and too much of my time is spent on bureaucracy when I should be earning money. We may well face a consumer recession this year, and I'm genuinely apprehensive about how the credit crunch will affect this distant link on the business food chain.

However, I'm going into 2008 with a good pipeline, strong contacts and enough nous to get me through any potential tough times.

Anyway, I hear the call of squabbling kids....

Getting the balance right

I came home buzzing last night following a two hour discussion at uni around who is driving globalisaton - and whether globalisation exists at all. What was the role of the state? Are they in thrall to multi national corporations? Is the north endemically bad for the south? Is it all the fault of US consumers? My group spans Asia, Africa, Europe and North America and the debate was lively. I was even sufficiently charged up to volunteer to open next week's seminar on the impact of the Bretton Woods Conference. Seeing as last week I'd never even heard of Bretton Woods, there's clearly something clicking in about the new MA work. I really enjoy it: it's what I want to do.

So it was hard this morning returning to the mundanity of work. Now none of my projects is mundane in itself, but there's a certain familiarity with corporate comms after 20 years in the business. The same issues arise and while the challenges are always a little different, there's a lot of repetition in what I do.

At the moment I'm being urged to stay involved in one project that I know I can't commit sufficient time to - and I've already knocked back an offer of some interesting work that time simply won't allow me to take on. One of my magazines is picking up speed - and that's always fun as it comes to life, while three other projects are all on the stove somewhere, and the trick is to keep them all cooking by keeping the clients active and the projects moving to a conclusion.

That's easier said than done and it's too easy then to fall into the trap of taking on too much new stuff to fill the perceived gaps. These days I'd rather keep pushing to ensure those already on the go reach their natural conclusion, and work to bring on one or two more a little further down the line. There's been too much famine or feast in this kitchen over the past few years. Now, with a chunk of time to hold for study for the MA, it's essential that there's always enough bubbling - and nothing boiling over.

Ok, well I think I've stretched that analogy well beyond its natural life....

I can see my house from here!

It has been a VERY good week for ticking off those things I'd planned to so before I die.....

First, I found out that I've been accepted on an MA course to study International Relations at Brunel University. It's going to be very odd going back to college 23 years after completing my first degree - but I'm really looking forward to it.

I first found out about the course when flicking through the ads in the back of BBC History Magazine a few months ago. It's a mag I've enjoyed reading for a couple of years and have always fancied writing for. Having had one space-related piece knocked back, I'm rather delighted to be published on page 83 in the August issue. Ok, it's a review piece, and it's just half a page, but it's a start to my history writing career which should, most definitely, be spurred by my MA studies.

The piece reviews the new AirSpace gallery at the Imperial War Museum at Duxford - a place that my love of all things aircraft related has brought me back to several times in the last few years. Now AirSpace brings much of Britain and the Commonwealth's greatest achievement in aircraft design and manufacture under one roof. If you want to get up close to a Vulcan, Spitfire, Lancaster and Concorde, it's well worth a trip out to Cambridgeshire.

Anyway, speaking of aircraft, I finally got to pilot one today: a long, long-held ambition, finally brought to reality thanks to Jac and a brilliantly thoughtful anniversary present.

Taking flying lessons has been at the back of my mind for quite a few years - but the cost has always seemed prohibitive. Still, I've always wanted to dip my toe in that particular pond, and got the chance today with a trial lesson on a Cessna 152.

Now climbing on board the Cessna at Wycombe Air Park was a bit like getting into my dad's old Ford Corsair. The little Cessna was far from new, far from shiny - and a pretty snug fit. With the Captain in the right seat, pretty much touching knees and shoulders, there's not a lot of leg or elbow room. This little plane, single engined and a basic trainer does exactly what it says on the tin - it gets you in the air and is pretty good at keeping you there!

Having wanted to learn to fly in theory for years, I was actually quite tempted to bottle out yesterday, but reasoned that even if I was totally awful, this was a dual-control aircraft, and my instructor would just take over.

I wasn't totally awful, but was very tense when first taking the controls 2,000 feet over the Chilterns. We turned out of Wycombe over Frieth and just beyond Lane End. I took control and headed north up the M40 a little before turning towards Thame. A further roll right took me over Chinnor and onwards to my home town, Princes Risborough.

I could see my house coming up at about 120 knots, and the chance of a picture was too good an opportunity to miss. So my instructor took control again and took us down to 1,000 feet for two circles of the house......Jac and the kids knew I'd most likely head over Risborough, and were all out in the garden waving........I think the instructor thought we were all a bit daft.

Anyway, after taking back control and flying out over the Chilterns, it was time to turn the nose back towards Wycombe. Just a few minutes later I had to cede 'control' once again, and suddenly the aircraft was reacting rather more smoothly and confidently as my instructor took us back into final approach and an extremely short landing.

The Cessna was a completely different experience to flying in a commercial jet. Bumpy from the ground to 500 feet, it rolled over the inevitable turbulence as I rather stiffly pulled back on the elevator when I should have been flying level and stepped a little too hard on the rudder when yawing left and right.

We landed with a bump, and with a jolt I realised that 30 minutes had passed in seconds - and that there's a grave danger of me being hooked on flying! £6,150 for the next 45 hours has cooled my enthusiasm a little..........but not a lot!