First Monday after B****t. On Friday some celebrated with plastic flags, some of us mourned with a little song and dance at Dead & Buried in Camden and a meal at a new Italian restaurant on Saturday. The uncertainty hasn't gone away; that 'settled status' confirmation email was in the form of a .pdf, the second paragraph of which stated that 'it was not a binding or legal document'. Reassuring as hell. Friends and acquaintances are still making plans or already leaving the country...

I'm not going anywhere. It would be difficult to start again at this age and doing what I do -it always takes me two to three years to get established with a teaching base every time I move. I do not think I have, at this point in life, the time or the energy to do that. But I do wonder whether it might come to that. The statements from Johnson are not reassuring either. I cannot retire, for reasons that go beyond this thread; I need and want to work doing what I'm good at -but that requires a prosperous economy where people can afford music lessons with me and have the time and incentive to do that; it also requires a cultural climate that values such things. It is not certain that the outcome of the nation's lemming jumping off the cliff will contain those conditions. But it would be very costly for me, in terms of practical things, energy, time and stress to move abroad. So for now I can only worry. Talking to friends in a similar situation I get the feeling that I'm only one of many. And we can only wait and see.
Hello.

Still here, even though I haven't posted here much. Life has given me that combination of being hectic and not having much really happening, which is rather frustrating.

Still need to find some half a dozen new private pupils, in case I need to terminate my teaching at a certain place where things seem to go from hectic to chaotic and their solution to this is to be very strict and increase the paperwork, the itemised lists of rules and procedures for the attainment of targets, etc. So, if you hear of somebody who may want guitar lessons in North London please put them my way.

In relation to that, I have stopped the advert that I ran for nearly 18 years at the Camden New Journal, our local paper -it just wasn't working. It seems to be the case that it hardly works for anyone and local paper papers are in terminal decline. I have tried a number of online means of advertising for lessons but none of them have worked (= local neighbours' forums, teachers' directories, etc) and at least one has cost me money without any positive results (= Bark, which was recommended to me by a local piano teacher but so far has only cost me money and spammed me). So I'm rather low in private pupils and depending way too much on those two schools I teach at.

The Br*x*t thing seems to swing between farce and drama and, for me and others in my position, more than ever be the source of much worry and stress and of disappointment with this country I've called home for thirty years. I have done nothing about my status here, waiting for the dust to settle, but I worry over travelling and not being able to come in again, etc so I'll have to go and process a 'leave of residence'. I resent this so much. This queue-jumper here who doesn't even have the decency to earn > £50K after thirty years of trying to give something back resents this situation a lot.

Need to think of a few small local venues where I can present some self-propelled guitar recitals. This means of course trying to get people to actually come and see me play instead of telling me why they couldn't make it this time but please can I inform them when I next play.

And so this is Christmas. And, what have you done...
@GreekAnalyst on Twitter:
Brexit 52-48: "Clear, decisive victory."
Trump 46-48: "The people have spoken."
Macron 66-34: "OMG France is so divided."
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