Brian Bollen's Blog

Saturday Night With The Cassiopeia String Quartet

I'm not quite sure how to put this, but I spent Saturday evening in a cultural environment, soaking up the Mozart and Beethoven output of the Cassieopia String Quartet at St Lawrence Church in Towcester, Northamptonshire.

The works on offer were Mozart's String Quartet No 19 (Dissonance) K 465 in C major and Beethoven's String Quartet Op 18 No 4 in C minor.

Thank you Lizzie Rowland (Viola), Rosanna Lowe (Cello), Thomas Bentley (Violin 1) and Jacob Gritt (Violin II).

I stand in awe of their technical excellence, discipline and concentration and wish them the best for the future they deserve.

Another Day, Another Freelance Milestone

Today marks 31 years to the day that I left the Financial Times for the last time as a staffer and launched into the freelance world (January 22 1993).

When I arrived home that Friday afternoon there was a commission sitting on my fax machine, from Will Goodhart, the then editor of Euromoney Corporate Finance, for 3,000 words at £250/1,000.

I hit the ground running on the following Monday morning, have barely stopped since and quickly learnt a prime lesson: no matter how busy you are, you never stop looking for work.

I bet the Euromoney rate is still somewhere around that level, but feel free to correct me if I'm wrong! 😀