Work, Rest and Play

Of course, advertisers simply aren’t allowed to fib anymore, not even a little bit, so, when the confectioner used the tagline, “A Mars a Day Helps You Work, Rest and Play!” no one actually believed that it was true, but it was a neat little ditty. They’re not allowed to say it now.

I was reminded of it on Saturday when my alter-ego spent a couple of hours with the husband making his Q&A video blogs. 

Yes, obviously it’s work. I have to set everything up, sort questions, and make sure the whole thing rolls smoothly along, and, those couple of hours of him answering questions might be the beginning and end of the work for him, but it's only the start for me. Afterwards, there’s at least a couple of hours of film to cut and edit and upload to Youtube, and then there are links to distribute. So, you know, all told, there might be several days work in it for me. I don’t take this stuff on lightly, which is why I don’t find the time to do it too often. The fans do seem to love the results, though, and I always promise myself I’ll get round to doing it more than the once or twice a year that I generally manage.

It’s very restful listening to the husband talk. He loves his job... Really, really loves it. If he wasn’t writing for a living, all of his free time would be filled with scribbling down his thoughts and ideas, and turning them into stories. He’s a very lucky man to be paid to do what he’d do for love. He is also a great communicator; he enthuses, endlessly about the projects he’s working on. The latest thing, whatever it might be, always seems to be his favourite thing, and, trust me, he works on a very wide variety of projects. I don’t know how he does it. I am also always soothed by his voice. It never grates or annoys, and he doesn’t have any vocal ticks or foibles that irritate me. I could listen to him forever.

Then, there’s playtime. The artist in me loves cutting film. When Dan was taken ill with epilepsy, three years ago, I was halfway through a fine art degree, and I was getting very interested in film. I enjoy nothing so much as messing about with it, cutting and pasting, editing and arranging, clipping and timing, and generally getting as much out of those two hours of the husband talking as I possibly can. It’s fun, hours and hours of fun... I can’t wait to get to the gag reel, so watch this space.

In the meantime, the first vlog, as we have begun to call these videos, is available right here, right now. Go take a look.