I thought I'd written a more recent blog than July!
Wow, loads to catch up on. Our daughter has been diagnosed with hydrocephalus, (water on the brain,) as well as hypermobility. At the moment we are also awaiting more diagnostics to be done by Great Ormond St children's hospital, after being referred there by Addenbrookes in Cambridge by the genetics dept. She's also booked in for surgery in Jan/Feb to alleviate the hydrocephalus.
Needless to say her developmental issues regarding mobility have been a constant worry for us. She now wears a spandex suit as well as splints and uses a walker frame as part of her physio, but with no definite diagnosis, we really don't know if it's helping or not. She's registered as disabled and @pinklet receives carer's allowance, as well as disability living allowance for her. Honestly, the money has really helped us out and considering I work 2 jobs, 6 days a week to pay for everything else, I don't feel bad about accepting help that we are due from the state. I've paid enough National Insurance in my time.
What we really need now is to move house. We currently live in a first floor flat which has 16 concrete stairs up to the front door, which tend to freeze over in winter. My daughter cannot easily walk up or down them and usually needs to be carried, which with my bad knees and my wife's poor back, is not ideal. We would love a bungalow so there are no stairs or even a ground floor flat. Unfortunately not many bungalows come up for rent around here (we cannot afford to buy a house,) and the only one so far that did would not accept pets & we have 2 cats. Ugh.
Anyway, I'm still working at *big tech company* full time and working Thursdays in the portrait studio at Center Parcs. I'm getting the odd photography gig here & there, but not regularly. Part of the issue is my working hours at *big tech company* don't give me much free time to run and market a business.
I did do some staff headshots for work recently (as well as some silly xmas ones,) & after buying some new lighting gear and watching a lot of video workshops, I can definitely say I'm improving. Now I just need some big editorial company to see my stuff and give me my big break. … I guess I won't hold my breath.
I finally got to meet @fenstar a while ago, when she visited from Australia and stayed with us and we also had a mini meet up in the Ship with @creamygoodness, @stenno, @mukki (first time meeting him & he's awesome & a fellow tog too,) and a few others, who's SG names I don't know. Lovely to meet them all.
We also drove down to see @jackie, as @fenstar & her were @pinklet's partners in crime back in the day & @jackie graciously allowed me to shoot a few portrait shots of her to enter into a "tattooed person" competition online.
I turned 40 yesterday. Holy shit, that feels weird to say. Not sure how I feel about it yet, but I definitely think I'm part way through a mid life crisis. I really want to ditch the crappy scheduled hours and open a (successful,) photography studio, but with my daughter needing medical care and *big tech company* providing private medical insurance, now just doesn't seem like a prudent time to take a big risk and leave my job. Especially considering we don't have any savings, (in part because I keep buying more gear …)
I'd love to shoot more sets for SG and have @darkdreamer waiting to get back in front of my lens again, but again, available time is such a rarity, that it looks like we will have to wait until January to shoot.
Hey ho. It's been a weird and often stressful year. Here's hoping 2015 is the one where everything comes together.
How are you?
