It’s been a while since I have written. That’s sometimes a symptom of being too busy and sometimes the opposite! On this occasion it has been due to extremes of both.

Kinect movement capture demo recorded at Kurst studios, 24th August 2012

Since the last update, I had a frantic few weeks working on the final delivery of a corporate job for the Olympics: so much for the ‘I’ll just relax and be part of someone else’s team instead of running my own projects. Relaxed it was not. But it felt good being very busy at times and I found some level of drive within me that I thought had disappeared until the new arrival. In the last few days when the designer returned and was on site, however, I found myself having to give in to the naps. And what a difference a power nap makes! Find a nice, dark corner, preferably by the projector fan, and just hide for half an hour and miraculously re-emerge ready for the refreshed onslaught.

I was glad to finish that project, though, and to relax into a phase of research, development and score reading that could, on occasions, be carried out from the comfort of my home (with naps planned in as required). It seems slightly strange planning for shows for when baby is here but I am glad I have these as a focus and I know that my career is on a path to continue. We have even investigated nurseries with the view to ramping up care from 1 to around 3 or 4 days a week between January and April to allow me to first catch up on sleep then move into storyboarding and production with the first Opera Premiere on 28th April. That’s the theory anyway!

So I suppose I have been effectively working part-time since the corporate job finished now and with the increased frequency of ante-natal appointments it’s just as well. It suits as well – I feel like I have brain space to think about both shows in their early and very creative stage as well as ticking off tasks on the baby preparation list with the result that I feel almost ready and rested enough in case baby should make an appearance any day. Maybe I’m also lucky that it’s been August: traditionally a very slow month in freelancer terms and the phone hasn’t been ringing and tempting me towards more work. This means I should be able to carry on for a few more weeks. I have one more R&D session the week after next at the start of my 37th week (the standard time when people tend to go on leave) and a trade show the following week and some storyboarding to do, which will take me up to 38 weeks! After that I think I can justifiably call it a day and start officially pottering.

In the meantime, I’m happy mixing the two so my day today has consisted of development work first thing, followed by morning cakes with the NCT girls (most of whom are ahead of me and therefore starting leave) followed by a swim then a meeting with Kurst in their spanking new and teched-up to the nines studio in Hoxton to chat interactive video and performance (demo above)

Maybe this is what they mean by life / work balance. Who knows…