Life, the Universe and the Internet

My ramblings about making a living on the internet and life in general

Archive for the ‘Contract Working’


British Hotels Still In The Dark Ages And My Total Dependence On The Internet

Published June 21st, 2007 in Contract Working | No Comments »

With this contract I am doing I have started to stay in hotels near the location a few nights a week, to take away the stress of so much driving (Three Hours A Day). So I assumed that it would be no problem to find a hotel with a wi-fi internet connection so that I could do some work at night. I was even happy to pay for the connection if necessary.

Four weeks in and I have yet to find a hotel that I can plug into the internet from my room. Well actually I could have one, if I am prepared to pay £95 a night for a bed and a couple of dried up sausages with a blob of beans in the morning. I cannot believe that so many hotels in the UK are so behind the times, come on guys, it takes nothing to install broadband and get some wifi hubs in, I mean you can even make a profit on it if you want.

But the other thing that shocked me, is my utter dependence on the internet to do some work. I take online access so much for granted now then when it is taking away it is a real problem. I cannot get access to so many things, not just my sites, but my email, my blog, a lot of contacts through MSN and Skype etc. I get a real feeling of being cut off, and I also find it a little disturbing that I am now so dependent on getting the internet. So I have started to think of ways that I can do more of my work offline. Although I am also now looking at some mobile devices like PDA’s, Blackberries etc, so that I could at least get my email if nothing else.

Would be interested to hear others comments on this, how do you cope with those periods when you are totally offline, how do you still manage to run your online business?

Contracting, Three Days In

Published May 23rd, 2007 in Contract Working | No Comments »

Well I am now three days into the contract and just about starting to adjust to the huge change in routine. I am now driving for three hours a day as it’s a 90 minute trip each way, so I am up at 7:00 am and getting home about 7:30. It’s pretty tiring but it is also limiting the time I have to spend on my websites. By the time I get home, spend an hour playing with my daughter, have food etc it is nine o’clock before I can even make a start. So I am doing the bare minimum to keeps things afloat, and I will hopefully catch up on weekends.

There are some good points though (apart from the income that is). The way that the company is writing their system is very different to what I am used to, so that is a good learning experience. When I have it all clear in my head, I am sure I can make some posts here on the subject. But for now, I feel my bed calling, I forgot how bad I was at mornings.

A Big Change In My Daily Routine

Published May 21st, 2007 in Contract Working | No Comments »

Today I am starting a new eight week contract as an ASP.Net developer, so for the first time in many months I will be working a normal five day a week, eight hour a day routine. I have mixed feelings about the whole thing, on the one hand I am not happy to be back working to a routine as I really like my freedom in terms of when I start and finish work, and have to travel to work again is not appealing.

But at the same time, it will be nice to work with people again and be part of a busy organization and at the end of the day it is only eight weeks. Plus of course it will be a regular income for a while.

I don’t really know yet how much it will affect the blog, on the one hand I will have less time to write posts, but on the other hand I am also expecting to learn some new things, so I will finally be able to make some useful programming posts again instead of just waffling all the time. :)