Living the Freelance Dream: The Lost and Found Edition

This was taken a couple of days ago, doesn't he look all witch's familiar? I'm loving the glowing eyes!

Anyway ....

This week has been semi-manic. G came down to visit on Sunday which was great fun, at least until he had to leave mine at 5am on Monday to get to work in Hitchin. The Ginger One adores him, even if he went out every two minutes to smoke a fag, and it was nice to have a bit of company, plus the annual swap meet of games and other random stuff is always good.

I've spent this week planning a new project (when not getting my crown fitted) with a former editor which should be fun as well as finishing up NEO, which culminated in four deadlines yesterday, never good. I've been playing with the idea of attending the London Expo next weekend and, while I'd love to, my finances just can stretch it, not with Paris and San Diego coming up.

Still at least my website hosting is paid for the next year, the domain for the next two and I bought myself The One (aka my new laptop) which should arrive sometime today. Upon reflection all I really need it for is writing, watching movies and listening to music, (live-)blogging and maybe WoW so this one is perfect. I saw an identical model running XP while visiting Si and would have bough it on the spot if I hadn't known I could get it cheaper and with the right OS. It's light and a nice screen so all the boxes are ticked.

Anyway, after buying The One yesterday I went back to work, captioning images and trying to make my email work while my mother did some chores for me as she does every week. Suddenly I realised I hadn't seen Jerry in a while and checked his usual haunts (under my bed, behind the armchair, the corner of my desk and the window sill in my room) only to come up blanks. Mum last saw him on the stairs as she was vacuuming and it transpired she just gone to dump stuff in the bin - and had left the door open.

Yes, the Ginger One had made a bid for freedom.

Cue two hours of knocking on doors, searching the house and yelling: 'Jerry! Ginger, sweetie!' at the top of my lungs. Normally I wouldn't be too concerned (Jerry did after all used to be an outdoor kitty so he has some common sense - more than me anyway) but I took his collar off as he's been scratching his neck leaving a scabby mess so he was IDless in a scary building site world.

We left the front door open, assuming he'd return when he got hungry - I'll give him one thing, he knows the hand that feeds him. I asked the site folk to keep an eye out for him and checked under the neighbours cars then resigned myself to trying to get my deadlines done, all the while hoping he'd come home.

An hour later, I turned round to see him stroll into the living room. I have no idea if he was in the house (although I'm assuming not) or had just walked in but I grabbed him and hugged him to death. I tell you, if this is what it's like having kids, then I'm sticking with animals. Either way he's fine and spent the afternoon being all creeped out by the whole escapade. I'm guessing he didn't like the noise of the drilling and was hiding somewhere nearby before coming home. He's being really affectionate though, jumping up onto and curling up on my desk so I can make a fuss of him. Sweet, eh?

My editors were lovely though. It sounds like the world's worst excuse - on a par with 'Miss, the dog ate my homework' but when you lose someone that important, your priorities change. It was just bloody inconsiderate of him to choose deadline day to do it!