Wednesday 24 March 2010

How the BA strike affected our Voiceover business

Sometimes running your own voiceover business can be fun, even if it is hard work and long hours. Sometimes events just get the better of you and make planning your week ahead impossible.

In the autumn of last year I was booked to act as a Facilitator for a large City of London law firm. We were due to visit the beautiful city of Oxford for a three-day course in November. Ah nice, I thought, a change of scene, not being cooped up in either the office or a BBC radio studio would make a pleasant change.

On this particular November day, I was already working in London during the day when news came in of severe weather warnings for the south of England – in particular - yes you guessed it - Oxfordshire where they were expecting eight inches of snow. Despite the warnings, we set off that night towards Oxford, we had a little trouble getting there from Surrey and by the time we arrived it was a ghost town; two or three inches had fallen already.

By the time we awoke the next morning, we had our eight inches. And no one else could get to Oxford for the course. We seriously thought that we would be stuck there for the three days or longer – with nothing to do. I did manage to catch a train home – eventually.

And so we come to today – the day that the course had been re-scheduled for. No chance of snow in March we thought. But another curved ball gets thrown instead: British Airways cabin crew have decided to go on strike - and many of the delegates (who were due to fly in to London from Europe) couldn’t get here or the company was unprepared to pay inflated prices with another airline.

So, once again, my week is not quite what had been planned. Still, third time lucky eh?

I think that I will be stuck in the BigFish Media office all day or should I go and attend to the garden instead? I have a nice English Maple tree which needs planting.