Meet Jon
I get up around 7.15 (or should do), sometimes I take my daughter May to her school, but not Oscar as he’s at Big School now. Then, if my disintegrating body is up to it, go for a bike ride over the tiny local mountain with my rescue dog, Judy. She gallops along with me, bouncing through the bracken like a spring lamb.
I work from home, which is May Hill in the Forest of Dean. My office is quite fancy – it has a stone floor, a wood burner, and a sofa. Jammy eh? I have four screens in front of me and a large floor to ceiling window to my right, looking out on to some fruit trees, chickens, and a vegetable garden. There are no shops, but a lot of green stuff. It’s not all gravy. Yesterday the whole [swear word removed] house was engulfed in smoke because the bloke over the road was burning some wet leaves for hours.
I build stuff in C#, JavaScript, HTML, whatever is needed to keep the wheels of commerce turning.
At the moment, I’m working on an API for Xero and expanding Google Maps integration. Although I work remotely, I’m in contact with the team in Bristol every day. We use Slack and Basecamp, as well as the odd email – so I don’t feel far away.
I have 6music on every day, all day. Sometimes I switch to Soundcloud when Lamacq comes on.
Although being a developer is seen as typically geeky, it’s also very creative – I love building new stuff every day. I’m particularly proud of the Toshiba VRF application I developed and currently I am really enjoying working on linking Xero to Clik Service.
At the end of the day, I go and hang out with the dozens of staff who have invaded us for a week for Barnstorm, a show my wife Tessa organises every year. We currently have about a dozen grownups (the staff) camping in our garden, plus about 40 yoofs from 12-18 camping in a nearby field. They all slave away for a week and end up with an original musical theatre show that’s performed to a packed house on the Friday and Saturday. This is the second of two weeks of that (with five days off in between), so it’s my new normal.
(I also make Xero bandanas £10 for 3 + P&P).