Thanks for the replies.
I can see that it really would be beneficial to do it full time, I cannot however fly evenings so weekends only with 2 weeks at the end would be the best I can do.
I am seriously thinking of going to the USA and getting my FAA/IR over 2 weeks, this would then leave me with a JAR conversion to do later over another 2 week break. If I can get access to an N reg aircraft in between to keep my instrument flying up to scratch then maybe this would be the best option for me.