Unexpected Journey
Am feeling overwhelmed this morning. I feel like I have so many things to think about and consider, but don’t know where to start. Big changes are necessary, yet despite knowing this I feel paralysed.
The first big decision I need to make is what to do about work. Student numbers are still down and at the moment I only have two or three days work a week, which gives me plenty of time to do other things, but means that I’m not saving very much. Last night I realised that I’ve hardly saved anything over the past year – had no income when I was sick for a month last year and for various reasons have been working part-time a lot recently. I’ve been thinking about buying an apartment, but looking at my finances realistically I can’t afford a home loan if I’m only working part-time. I have the money for a deposit, but that’s not really enough. Of course the other consideration is the price of real estate in Sydney – at least A$200,000 for a studio apartment in the inner-city. I could move further out, but I don’t want to do that.
The big question is do I look for another teaching job or is it time for something completely different and if it is, what? I enjoy teaching, but the conditions aren’t great and there are times when I feel like I’m stuck in a rut. Will I still be happy teaching in ten years time? I know I can do other jobs, but the problem is experience. I’m very experienced and I believe the skills I’ve picked up teaching are relevant, but potential employers don’t often see that. Maybe I need to go back to study, but again that raises the question, what do I want to study.
I have to go into work today as I’m taking my class on a three-day study retreat on Wednesday and unfortunately the coordinator wasn’t in on Thursday or Friday, so I don’t really know what’s going on. I’m actually quite looking forward to getting away from everything for a few days and am lucky that I have a really great class at the moment.
On Saturday I received an unexpected invitation from a friend (Zac!) to join him on an afternoon trip to Dangar Island, which is a small island in the Hawkesbury River just north of Sydney. I was planning to look at some apartments, but it was too hot anyway, so I said yes. I’ve been to that area before, but had never been across to Dangar Island. It’s a twenty-minute ferry ride from the mainland and after a bite to eat in the only café we went for a walk around the island. It’s a tiny place and there are no cars, so it was amazingly peaceful – if someone gave me a house there I’d be quite happy to live there. I took lots of pictures – mainly black & white; back to basics – and got some great shots, especially with the approaching storm. I need to get out of Sydney more.
The rain continued on and off all day yesterday – perfect film going weather. There are a number of films that I want to see at the moment, but I ended up going to see ‘Lawless Heart’ – a British film about live and love that’s just opened here. I knew very little about it and like ‘Sideways’, which I saw recently, was pleasantly surprised. I love character films – especially films where the characters have flaws – just like in real life. I went to the Dendy at Opera Quays, so after the film decided that I wanted some pictures of Circular Quay on a stormy, summer Sunday afternoon. Again black & white and again got some interesting and atmospheric shots. Have no idea what I’m going to do with them.
Recently I read ‘The Hours’ so last week I borrowed the DVD and last night finally got around to watching it. It’s a very beautiful film and in many ways quite poignant – particularly Julianne Moore’s character. I’m actually not surprised that I’m feeling a bit blue after the two films I saw yesterday.
OK – time to get organised and head off to work.
The first big decision I need to make is what to do about work. Student numbers are still down and at the moment I only have two or three days work a week, which gives me plenty of time to do other things, but means that I’m not saving very much. Last night I realised that I’ve hardly saved anything over the past year – had no income when I was sick for a month last year and for various reasons have been working part-time a lot recently. I’ve been thinking about buying an apartment, but looking at my finances realistically I can’t afford a home loan if I’m only working part-time. I have the money for a deposit, but that’s not really enough. Of course the other consideration is the price of real estate in Sydney – at least A$200,000 for a studio apartment in the inner-city. I could move further out, but I don’t want to do that.
The big question is do I look for another teaching job or is it time for something completely different and if it is, what? I enjoy teaching, but the conditions aren’t great and there are times when I feel like I’m stuck in a rut. Will I still be happy teaching in ten years time? I know I can do other jobs, but the problem is experience. I’m very experienced and I believe the skills I’ve picked up teaching are relevant, but potential employers don’t often see that. Maybe I need to go back to study, but again that raises the question, what do I want to study.
I have to go into work today as I’m taking my class on a three-day study retreat on Wednesday and unfortunately the coordinator wasn’t in on Thursday or Friday, so I don’t really know what’s going on. I’m actually quite looking forward to getting away from everything for a few days and am lucky that I have a really great class at the moment.
On Saturday I received an unexpected invitation from a friend (Zac!) to join him on an afternoon trip to Dangar Island, which is a small island in the Hawkesbury River just north of Sydney. I was planning to look at some apartments, but it was too hot anyway, so I said yes. I’ve been to that area before, but had never been across to Dangar Island. It’s a twenty-minute ferry ride from the mainland and after a bite to eat in the only café we went for a walk around the island. It’s a tiny place and there are no cars, so it was amazingly peaceful – if someone gave me a house there I’d be quite happy to live there. I took lots of pictures – mainly black & white; back to basics – and got some great shots, especially with the approaching storm. I need to get out of Sydney more.
The rain continued on and off all day yesterday – perfect film going weather. There are a number of films that I want to see at the moment, but I ended up going to see ‘Lawless Heart’ – a British film about live and love that’s just opened here. I knew very little about it and like ‘Sideways’, which I saw recently, was pleasantly surprised. I love character films – especially films where the characters have flaws – just like in real life. I went to the Dendy at Opera Quays, so after the film decided that I wanted some pictures of Circular Quay on a stormy, summer Sunday afternoon. Again black & white and again got some interesting and atmospheric shots. Have no idea what I’m going to do with them.
Recently I read ‘The Hours’ so last week I borrowed the DVD and last night finally got around to watching it. It’s a very beautiful film and in many ways quite poignant – particularly Julianne Moore’s character. I’m actually not surprised that I’m feeling a bit blue after the two films I saw yesterday.
OK – time to get organised and head off to work.
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