I've worked in a cinema, as a fundraiser, in a film equipment shop, in a cake shop and in a bakery, and I've been volunteering in a charity shop. My experience is a little varied, made worse by the pandemic, but as things are slowly getting back to normal (or at least, a new normal) I have a new job that has the capacity to be good long term.

I now work part-time for JML, leaving me free time for volunteering and writing. My job title is Merchandiser, which means I go from shop to shop to refill, rearrange and maintain the JML displays. So far it's been very enjoyable, with great coworkers and work I can feel confident doing.

The activist group London Bi Pandas put out a call for articles about protests and lockdown in direct response to anti-lockdown protesters. I asked which angles were most needed or which had already been claimed, and was asked if I could write about ways to protest.

I started writing 12 Ways to Protest During Lockdown (Without Being a Typhoid Mary). Later, I was asked if I would be happy to have my article and another person's edited together into a longer listicle.

The issues that London Bi Pandas focus their activism on are issues that I care about; LGBTQ rights, racial/cultural/religious equality, and left wing politics. I'm proud to be involved in the ways that I can, so I was more than happy to collabortate on A Guide to Protesting during Lockdown.

I've been invited to give a fifteen minute talk on the topic of my own queerness and faith. There will be a selection of speakers, short films and discussions with perspectives from various faith and secular points of view. I'm excited to get involved with the local community and to share my experience on how my gender and my beliefs fit together.

To hear me and enjoy the entire evening:
Come to Stratford Library, 3 The Grove, E15 1EL at 16:00, Saturday 23rd February
(Finishes at 19:00, refreshments provided)
Check out the facebook event

My exact thoughts were "What if there was something like this, but set in England? And also a newspaper? And I made it?" so, I did.  I did my research and bounced ideas off of friends and family.  With one issue ready to go, I added dates and got to printing and promoting. I'm also working ahead as far as possible, with the goal of a new issue each month (though, in-universe, it's a Saturday paper). I've made a website at PerrelPost.weebly.com so please head over there to find out more, and I'm selling via Etsy, so please pop over to etsy.com/uk/listing/645908062/ to buy!

I am selling them as opposed to giving them away, but keeping the price low. I'm just covering printing and shipping costs, rounded up to pay for my own time. I really hope that people like it.

Between my partner, who is a camera assistant, and my new workplace and colleagues, I've been getting really interested in the filmmaking side of cinema. As a writer, I was most drawn to writing scripts, and looked into the standards of scriptwriting. I read a few scripts, downloaded a script template, and started writing. Practice makes perfect, after all!

I have a few scripts that are worth using already, and the end result of scriptwriting is exciting to me; articles they don't change when they're published, but a script is just a design for a film, and is turned into something very different by the people you give it to. 

​Because scriptwriting is so different from article writing, and has such different audiences, I decided to make a new website to put my scriptwriting on. Instead of confusing readers and magazine publishers with scripts and confusing filmmakers with articles, my scriptwriting site is aerongrayscripts.weebly.com. Click over to that site to read my loglines and get stay up to date with my scriptwriting projects.

I'm pleased to say I have a new job; as of Wednesday just gone, I am the Shipping and Inventory Specialist at CineGearPro, which is a camera equipment shop. I'm working the same hours every day, Monday to Friday, which is fantastic. My role includes shipping orders and updating inventory when shipments arrive, both of which involve paperwork and keeping track of the difference between many very similar items.

It's only part time at the moment, but I am really enjoying it so far and hope to be there long term. As it's part time, five hours each day, I still have plenty of time in the afternoon and evening to get my writing based work done. I'm not adding Sundays to my work timetable, but I will be writing on Saturdays if I'm free, and will be answering email etc on Saturdays.

I was looking forward to starting a great deal, and I can't fault the company or the people I worked with, but I unfortunately had to leave my new job only four days in. This does mean I'm now unemployed until I find a new job, with my time free and my bank account gathering dust once more. It's the perfect time to commission or hire me, hint hint.

Without going into too much detail, it turns out that charity fundraising is the kind of job where you see the worst of people. Even indoors, non-chugging behaviour fundraising causes the general public to react with disgust and anger, and it wore me down. A particularly horrible person stopped to berate me and share his awful views, and I realised that I just could not do the job. My team leader told me that, yes, you get people like that sometimes.

It was an experience, and I will never look at any fundraiser the same way again; I already have an article planned about the way people treat you as a fundraiser, so look out for that for further details. I was feeling very low for a couple of days, but I'm determined to get back on track and be productive.

Last week was my last week at the cinema; I've gone from part time retail and cleaning to full time fundraising! I now work for an agency called Together, who fundraise for a few major charities, including Cancer Research UK, the team I am on to begin with.

I'm very happy with this career move, even if it means I have less time for writing; it's more and more consistent hours than my previous job, it's well paid, and I feel very positive about making a difference. My shifts will either be early starts or late finishes, so I'll still be on my computer for a while during work hours, and I'll be doing writing during my 'spare' time too.

I'm definitely still available for commissions, but not for short term team projects. Hopefully I won't be leaving this job for a good while, and my next career move will be into a journalistic job. If you're looking to hire me long term, please get in touch!

I enjoyed my time at Empire Cinemas, and I worked with some lovely people, but I already think I will enjoy this job a lot more on terms on my day to day role; it is 100% interacting with people and zero cleaning, and while I will still be on my feet all day I'll be in the same place all shift rather than moving around as much as ushering (cleaning the screens between films) requires.

As you all know, I am a film fan and saw the job advert when I was there to see a film. I'm enjoying the atmosphere of film and learning how cinemas work. I also get the benefit of free tickets, so I'll easily be able to keep up with my New Year's resolution and have plenty of films to review!