May 3, 2009

• and again time marches on...

  ...and I have managed NOT to update my blog. It's not like I'm working full time or for that matter there's been nothing much to talk about - there has been a lot going on, some good and some terrible. I think like a lot of people I just go to bed thinking, "I'll do that tomorrow". Still, I don't want to let the blog slide as I intend to have plenty to read when I eventually can't do anything else BUT read. 
  
  Since I last blogged I've continued to be very busy applying for jobs and trying to get the business started up. I think I have said before that finding work has been quite frustrating over here. The most annoying aspect has been the fact that I'm not getting shortlisted for the teaching jobs that in the past I would have been interviewed on the strength of my CV alone. I know things are tough at the moment but I sometimes am tempted to wonder if it is that or the fact that I am not from Northern Ireland that is holding me back. Still, I have never let the fact that people may not want me to do something stop me from doing something I want to do!
  
  I have expanded my area of employability to include jobs that I haven't done for some time and I now have several CVs highlighting different skill sets. Funnily enough I am doing the things that I spent  many tiring months in my last job telling others to do; look to your transferable skills and put yourself out there! It has paid dividends as this coming week I have three interviews lined up. One is as a shift supervisor for Starbucks (!) and the other two are working at Belfast Metropolitan College as an invigilator and an ESOL/EFL Tutor. I don't mind which one I get and it would be nice to get all three and work them around the business. I don't especially want a full time job now. I like the idea of working in a few places and seeing how my therapy business gets on. I do know that I want to work and I want to be busy. I reserve the right to complain about working and being busy but still, I want to work.
  
  On the subject of the business, that is going well. I have my first corporate client! I go to a call centre operation and massage the hands, necks and shoulders of a variety of their staff. It's been great so far and hopefully many of the people I work with there will become clients in the future too. I have started 'Therapy Parties' too. The idea behind those is to encourage one person to put me in touch with two or more people - I go to their house and give them the therapies they need and the host gets a free or reduced priced session depending on the numbers they provide. The main excitement for me around this area at the moment is that I have been invited to write a monthly column on Holistic Medicine for a gay magazine over here. I won't get paid but I will get a full page advertisement in addition to my name and the web address of the business in the strapline. I am working away on my first article now - who knew that writing just 500 words when someone says you have to would be so taxing!!
  
  I had some terrible news from home about three weeks ago and that was that my niece was raped by three men on the way home from a night out with her friends. She is understandably not in a good way now but she is having counselling and there is still hope that the men will be caught. One good thing about DNA evidence of course is that they might get caught up in a fight ten years from now, be arrested for that and then have their DNA taken. When I heard what had happened to her my first instinct was to rush home and see how her and my sister were coping but then what could I really do? Luckily my sister has a very caring partner and treats my sister's kids from a previous marriage as his own and I spoke to my sister every day to see how things were going. I just hope that my niece will eventually be able to put this terrible event behind her and that she will not be too scarred by it.
  
  I enjoyed working for the Belfast Film Festival so much that I have volunteered again. This time for the Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival. Belfast has over 70 festivals over the year which makes it a very interesting city to live in and this festival is one of the best. I'm mainly covering theatre stuff but of course I get to see all kinds of things as the perk of being a volunteer. If time allows I think i will continually volunteer for festivals that interest me as it is a great way to meet new people if nothing else.
  
  I have also started advertising private English lessons and on Friday I met my first client. He is from Hungary and has lived here for two and half years. He is married and his wife is also from Hungary and, like most immigrants (including my parents) they have come to a new country, had to take jobs below their level of expertise and work all hours barely seeing each other. His English is already good with a few problems to iron out and I suspect that he is more interested in meeting a native speaker who he can talk to about things unrelated to the dull supermarket job he is doing. I am very happy to help, the money is less of a consideration as, to be honest, I am rather keen to meet some new people on my own terms here.
  
  Last night Patrick and I went to see a play he has done a lot of work on called 'This Other City'. It was the production I have ever seen 'in traverse' and the immediacy that the staging lent it was breathtaking. The actors were all very good and as I go to the theatre regularly now I had seen many of them in other roles and I got the usual buzz of seeing them take on new skins almost; nice guys from previous plays turning into scuzzy pimps in this one - that sort of thing! The theatre season begins to draw to a close for the summer break soon and so we will only have festivals and music to entertain us... poor us I hear you cry!
  
  We will be away to Austria at the end of this month for a week. I've never been to Austria - even when I lived in Prague - and I have always wanted to see Vienna. This time however we are going to the Tyrol region and flying into Innsbruck. It's going to be a very relaxing week I think, the views look stunning and the only excursion that is a 'must see' is the one to Salzburg. You can't go to Austria, into the mountains and NOT see Salzburg... especially if you have seen the Sound Of Music over 200 times!
  
  Hmmm... having scanned back over this blog I am beginning to see why I haven't been on here a lot recently! I have been reading you all of course, just not contributing much. Anyway... I am up to date now.

  • 7:56 am
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