Rattling around in my head

It's been a bit of a tough week. A bunch of my friends are going through some rough times and since 75% of them are foreigners we're also all panicking (do different degrees) about the new, more stringent visa laws. I'm good to go for another year still but it has been dawning on me that all of this is both precarious and likely temporary. Though I would like to stay in London and have all my friends stay here too- it is not up to us. So that has been frightening and difficult to come to terms with.

There have been two jobs that I have applied for recently that would have allowed me to stay in the UK. One I didn't get an interview for and the other I spent Wednesday taking four hours worth of assessment tests for. I didn't get called back for a second interview for that one.

(Part of the issue is that I'm not even sure what fields to even look in. The two I've applied for differ in all respects.)

I've been feeling down about it and so had tea and freshly picked cherries at Peter's house this morning when I picked up a bass I'm borrowing for a gig on Sunday. We had a good chat and literal tea and sympathy can never go wrong. Particularly as I now get to play with a 19th century, fretted, guitar shaped bass with a lion's head scroll for the next week.

I came back to the flat and glumly walked around the kitchen, bumping into Ella and Geoff. Ella, being the darling she is, listened to me moan for a while and then came up with an idea that hadn't totally occurred to me.

I currently *love* my job with the tykes. I bounce down the hallways and sing and grin and regularly walk into my boss's office and announce grandly that I. LOVE. MY. JOB. So I'd rather not lose that. That being said, I've run the numbers and it would be nearly impossible for me to make the amount of money that I need to through teaching alone (especially since I don't have a teaching degree). So the new idea is to scour any and all arts jobs bulletins, arts schools, and arts organizations to see what vacancies they might have. If I can make 70% of the amount I need from one of those jobs and if they'll allow me to take either one day or two mornings off a week then I can do that and my tykes and make enough to stay.

I don't know if it will work, but the new idea at least offers a glimmer of hope where I was starting to feel like there wasn't one. Between the two of us we've already managed to find two more jobs that would fit the bill, sound interesting, and I have a hope of getting. They both close on July 19th- so there is even still time to apply.

So there you go, those are the things rattling around in my head currently. Wish me luck?

PS. Happy Birthday Mommy! Happy One Day Belated Birthday, Grammy! Happy Three Days Belated Birthday, Papa!

The Visa Situation

I decided last week that I really ought to look up what the requirements are for my next visa so that I *know* and am not just relying on heresy and rumour. While I am glad to have a more solid conception of what I need to do, I also discovered that I need to triple my current income in order to stay in this country past 2011.

So I'm developing a number of plans in order to make that happen. I might need to leave teaching and find a desk job, or I might need to find three other schools who'd be willing to hire me for full days at my current rate of pay. Currently I'm moving forward on both fronts. I have a dinner meeting with a friend of mine tomorrow to talk about the company that he works for and what he thinks about it. I have talked to my headmaster about other schools to approach and talk to and he has promised me a reference and told me to drop his name as much as I please. Also at the Kid's school today the director asked me if I would be interested in teaching more levels of musicianship next year. So that is excellent and definitely a step in the right direction.

There are options and possibilities and I'm going to find some way to make this work. Yup.

All of this might change anyway- as I understand it the newly elected Lib-Con government is less immigrant friendly than the Labour party was, so we'll see what happens in the next year or so.