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Been A While

Been A While

It has been quite sometime since my last blog post. This has been largely due to some real life changing events in my personal life if I am being honest.

Firstly, I went self employed in February of this year. This had been on my mind for a long, long time (4 years to be exact) but only took the plunge this year when things felt right. I am still working in the industry I love, design but I am now a one-man contractor. This has been a fantastic experience which I will cover in a later post in more depth. Just too much to discuss.

Secondly, after 6 years in the lovely city of Peterborough we decided to move to Cambridge. This was not an easy decision to make as we made great friends in the city and had some of our best years there with 2 of my children being born there. Cambridge just offered us something unique - easy access to London, better jobs locally, good schools and better facilities for my eldest son, Dennis. So far so good in this university city as it has lived up to expectations. What has surprised us is the traffic and the property prices.

Thirdly, after many, many years of trying I have some of my music signed to a label in Switzerland. The music industry has changed so much since I first started producing my own music. Where previously in the vinyl age I could of expected a tidy sum back from having my music signed the realty is in the digital age is very different. But like design, music is a real labour of love for me and not something I do just for personal rewards. My hope is that it just won’t end with just having a single track signed and more will come now.

Also I have found a new passion for running. For many years I had suffered with back problems - probably due to the all the time stood up arranging Post-Its in UX workshops. But through a combination of running on the treadmill to build up strength in my back as well as yoga (in particular hot Bikram yoga) I have been able to manage my back problems. To the point where I am running between 12 and 18 miles a week over 2 weekly runs which I am really happy about. This consists of mostly a mid week 6 mile run (or 10k) followed by a 12 mile run on a Sunday morning.

Now these events have all happened, I am hoping to get more blogs down from now on. No excuses!

About the author!

Jay Heal

Jay Heal

Director, User Experience Consultant, Service Designer, Design Speaker, Technical Writer, Father, Husband, Brother, Son, Home Barista, Foodie.

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