A Simple Life of Luxury

It has been a busy old christmas here for me working on the now up and running Borth and Ynyslas weather station. I had already set up the weather station itself but have now connected the weather station to a PC and produced several web-pages that provide up to the minute weather data for Borth, Ynyslas and the rest of the Aberystwyth region in West Wales.

The initial idea was to provide wind data for the windsurfers, and kitesurfers that use the beach here at Borth, but once I get involved in a project I tend to go a little over the top. Subscribers to the service now get access to web pages showing detailed weather statisitcs from Borth. The pages include

• an overview page showing the wind, temperature, barometric pressure humidity etc. as it is now and the trend and extremes for the day.
• There are then pages for the extremes over the past month, past year and all time records.
• In addition there is a page dedicated to each weather parameter (wind, rain, temperature, humidity and barometric pressure) which contains the current data, recent trends and historical data.
• There are also pages containing various graphs and charts to give a more visual representation of what the weather has been up to.
• And of course links to forecasts for the area.

Data is updated every minute and I shall no doubt be adding even more to the site as people start using it and request new features. I can’t help but keep checking it out myself to see what is happening out there!

Here’s a link to the Borth and Ynyslas Weather Station in Wales. The real pages are available to subscribers only but I shall add some sample pages to allow non-subscribers to see what they are missing soon.

In case you hadn’t noticed, Christmas is just around the corner, so last weekend was spent doing the now customary ‘Cole Family Xmas Tree Hunt’.

We all meet up at the Fountain Forestry at Brockley Combe just outside Bristol, have the usualy argument about which way was the best to get there (mine is the best each year as it is by far the quickest and the most scenic too!) and then we set off into the forest to find ourselves a good looking Xmas tree. Of course with so many of us there this geneally takes an hour or two as finding the PERFECT tree out of all the trees in the forest is a demanding task .

It is also clear from the photos that the family is growing each year. This year saw two new additions to the annual Xmas tree hunt, Morgan and Jack.

Once we had all cut down the perfect tree it was back to the other side of Bristol for a buffet dinner and then off home to decorate the trees. It is certainly a long way for us to go from Borth to South of Bristol (a round trip of about 8 hours) just to get a Xmas tree, especially as we drive through acres and acres of welsh forest full of ‘perfect’ trees to get there, but its always good fun, which after all is the whole point.

One of the ingredients that allows me to live what I consider the ideal lifestyle here in West Wales is the fact that I have set myself up as a self-employed freelance website designer.

In theory this should provide me with complete control over my work / life time balance. I have a fair bit of control over the timescales I give to various projects for clients and as long as I meet any deadlines I have stipulated then I can work whichever hours of the day I prefer.

In practise things aren’t quite a perfect as they would seem; meetings need to be arranged with clients, phone-calls need to be made and answered and each new appointment reduces the flexibility I had. These are minor points however and in general I am my own boss and can choose when to work and when to play.

There are of course other downsides to freelance website design work. As a freelancer I have to do everything to keep the business successful. As well as being the website designer I am also the accountant, marketing staff, salesman, support team, technical staff, receptionist etc etc. In one way this is a good thing as I know everything that is happening and have complete control. In another it’s a bad thing as it takes up lots of time that could be spent building websites and earning money. On top of which I’m not really cut out to be a salesman so that particular task isn’t really an effiicient use of my time.

Another constant worry of being a freelance website designer is the lack of job security. Obviously I’m not going to get laid off, but I never know where my next contract is coming from. At the moment things are looking good, I have a few projects on the boil, a couple simmering in the background and one or two where I am getting the ingredients in place to make a start. But after that who knows what will happen? Hopefully there will be more projects to work on, if not I shall have to put my salesman hat on and get out there to find some new projects.

All in all being a freelance web designer allows me to have the flexibility in my life that I need and helps me pay the bills. It doesn’t make me rich, it can be hard work at times and there are times when it can be a little stressful. But for me, it is the best balance I can get and does provide lots of job satisfaction.