I often forget how to converse with to people during these long periods of self-exclusion. I have to look after Mom on a daily basis, but that's just functional talk: "Have you eaten?", "Have you taken your pills?", "Are you ready for bed now?". Occaisonally I'll venture to: "What's this programme on TV you're watching?" or "What are you reading?", but it never leads to a long conversation.
I needed to practise being around people again. Realising it had been three years since I had anything even resembling a 'routine', and that the only given in my life was that I always seemed to be awake at 7pm, I decided to venture back into the world of contracting.
Contracting has always worked well for me. I simply don't have the staying power to stick at one job for more than a few months without getting bored, so knowng that I'll be able to leave at the end of a fixed period is ideal. Because of the risk and uncertainties involved, contracting pays about three times as much as a regular job, which is also a bonus - the way I see it, it means I can work for a year, then take two years off as holiday - and that's pretty cool.
It's also extremely high pressure: this particular contract is with a Government organisation, so I'd planned to come off all social media for six months to focus on the work - I created the SixMonthsofSolitary hashtag, and told those who needed to know I was going off the grid.
It didn't quite work out like that, though. The first responsibility I'm given is to monitor Twitter activity. Like I didn't spend 18 hours a day doing that anyway. Then, I realised the office hours weren't so bad, either. With an hour for lunch, and the gym next door, it feels like I'm barely working at all.
I'm just having to get up early to leave the house, and occaisonally I have to talk to people. I'm actually quite enjoying it. And, by December, it'll all be over, and I'll be many thousands of pounds richer. You can't get better than that.
