Making Things Happen

I can work from home and often I do, its nice to earn money in your underwear without being part of the sex industry.

I have been a newspaper boy, messenger boy, pencil sharpener, factotum, paste-up artist, commercial artist, typographer, graphic designer and grand old designer for many years and I have loved it all - even the crap bits.

I spent some time out in California in my 30s trying to find home, but it wasn't there. I lived in the Pyrenées for five years and worked online, which was the best of both worlds for a while, but in the end I began to feel like James Caan in "Misery" and had an overwhelming desire to come home.

As a fella, sad as it may sound, what we do for a job, to a certain degree, at certain times of our lives, defines us. To be redundant, or worse - unemployable has always been my private nightmare, (I saw my father go through that in his late 50s and it was a dark time for him) part of the reason why I went freelance in the late 80s was to combat that fear, I had arrived at the understanding of the eggs v basket formula.

I prefer to be around people, but they have to be my kind of people, by that I mean people with whom I share a cultural heritage, who get what you are saying. I prefer the interaction, I work with a bunch of young guns in a cool agency called BWP Group owned by someone that I regard as a good friend. It is located in the delightful little riverside town of Marlow in leafy Bucks. The people there enliven me, make me laugh, cry and wind me up on occasions.

So this working life has given me a lot of things, more than I expected, and although large sums of money is not one of them, I have no regrets. One day I am going to be found out, then I will have to get a real job.

Photo: BadScooterist and his trusty Big Blue Steely Dan