All work

In the uncomfortably near future, I need to have prepared and submitted two tender documents, and also have written a speech, and it's freaking me out a bit. So I decided that I'd do the bulk of the tender work, this weekend - one document each day - and get that out of the way.

As an arch sufferer of procrastination and distraction - and what a dynamite combo that is - finding the right place to work is essential and it seems that I do particularly well in public places such as coffee houses. Thus, shortly after midday, today, I installed myself in the Cow Shed, just outside Chorley.

There's something about the background noise that helps me to concentrate and after a short while I was completely immersed in documenting my ideas. Weeks of thinking about the job had resulted in some form of mental digestion that meant that now I was sat in front of the laptop, I was able to describe it, fully formed. 

By the time the Minx joined me for a coffee I was delighted with how well I was doing but also distressed to find that, after four hours, I was only half way through. Post-coffee, we de-camped back to chez Minx and she took herself out into the 'yarden' to draw while I tried to get back into my work. 

And, actually, despite the lack of coffee shop bustle, people chatting, and children running around, I did pretty well. I put on some music - my 'go to' work music: David Sylvian and Holger Czukay's 'Plight and Premonition' - and, by just after eight o'clock, the job was done. One down.