free time Archives » Angelina Egerton

Back after a break!

It’s been a while since I’ve posted anything here. I have been insanely busy. I knew this would happen – I’d get a job and lose all my spare time trying to juggle everything.

The income is great though, I’ve been on holiday with some lovely friends to Cyprus for ten days. I’m starting to slowly climb out of debt (the pace of the climb has increased since the holiday) and there is light at the end of the tunnel!

What I’m focussing on now is the fact that I reallllly really want to do some travelling – or at least live abroad for a while. Playing on the ship in Southampton that went nowhere has made me desperately want to play on a ship that does in fact travel with me on it. I’m also chasing the possibility of doing some sort of residency in a luxury hotel in Dubai – the money would be great and the lifestyle would be fabulous.

So I work in the shop four days a week, that means I have to squeeze the rest of my life into three days (plus evenings when I’m not in the gym/too tired to function). It is so challenging – and this Summer is going to be busy. I’m playing for Les Miserables in Runcorn, The Sound of Music in Newcastle, various weddings, as well as a tour with my wonderful harp quartet CLOUDS (more about that to follow in a separate post).

Juggling work + music is going to be very tricky for the next few months, but I daren’t hand my notice in because September, October and November are looking pretty shocking gig-wise at this stage. I’m waiting for an email/phone call regarding a cruise or an international residency sometime in the next few weeks, until then I’m going to try and not act rashly. Keep up with life admin (letters, emails, staying organised), practice (for gigs as well as various concerts and recitals coming up) as well as working in Long Tall Sally.

Main challenge will be to hang on to my sanity. It’s not going well.

the quiet weeks

This week is almost completely empty in my diary, scary!

With the exception of a bit of teaching on Saturday and working at the bar on Sunday night, the rest of the week is my own. It’s hard to believe it’s already Thursday, without the structure of gigs/places I have to be, it’s a challenge to actually schedule myself to, you know, do stuff.

While it is great to take it easy for a few days, get up late, stay up late, go shopping, watch films, I’m finding that this is the best time to do all the admin type stuff that comes with being a freelance musician. Emails, wow I wonder what it was like when everything happened by letter? I get so many emails to sift through on a daily basis – not that I’m complaining – once upon a time my business email account was something I checked every so often, while my personal account was the one I always checked. These days, my personal account has become the place where spam email goes to die. I live my life through my business account.

Sorting out the diary is another big job, making sure I have all the details of upcoming gigs, checking that I haven’t forgotten to get some vital piece of information like the venue for example (it has been known).

And now the nice bit – I have time to practice nice music! I have time to practice solo pieces! It’s just so nice to sit and play without any sense of not having enough time or being in a hurry or under pressure.

It can be tricky organising myself to stick to a schedule, especially when no one will know if you stick to it or just decide to laze around – not that I ever do that *cough*. Tell me, what are your tips for staying motivated to get all those little jobs done?