Life in the land of (F)unemployement

I've rarely ever been unemployed for more than 3 weeks. I've always managed to jump from coop-job, to uni semester, to contract job, to full-time work and so on. And now, I think I know why. It still hasn't been a total of 3 weeks yet, and I already have had enough things on my plate to keep me busy and get me out of the house every day for one reason or another. It's almost as if all this free time just means that it's the perfect opportunity to cram as much as I can into my days with things I day-dream of doing when I work in a cube.



For example, here's what's been on my plate this past week:

• Creative Sydney - I spent some time a few days last week, and will be doing so a few more days this coming week helping out at this amazing festival of great minds. It's kinda like a giant networking and learning party for creative people. The guys and gals I've been working with are all really nice, and I get to help out with general stuff as well as their e-newsletter. It's good to be helpful, do something I know I'm good at, all with fun people.

• French teaching and tutoring - This is another thing that keeps me busy. Because it's still fairly new, I've got a lot of preparation to do, but as time goes by, I'm making my own material and am starting to be a little more confident in what I'm doing. I've got a few regular people I'm helping, and I'm getting one-off requests here and there, so I think I'll keep this going for a little while.

• Freelance writing - I've been talking about doing more and more writing and last week I managed to get 2 really important things done: business cards to hand-out at schmoozing events and a simple website with a few written sample. I'm hoping to get better examples in there with funkier articles related to events/arts/crafts/food/travel/all-the-wonderful-thing-in-life, but for the moment it's an OK start and a little hub where I can show-off what I've done. I've got a list of interesting things to write about and all that's left to do, is to write (or revise and finalize) some articles, find who would be interested in them and start sending them out.
• Word of caution: If anyone ventures off to my fancy-schmancy website and sees a typo or something that may need a bit of editing, please let me know. No one has reviewed it other than me, so your comments will help me get better. Thanks!

 My new office on a nice sunny day.
On rainy days (which has been 90% of the time this past month),
my bum has been carving a nice comfy groove on the couch.

• Om nom nom - On top of all these "professional activites", I've also been able to do a lot more cooking and baking at home and am planning to continue to do so. I'm finally managing to use up the freezer space for things other than ice cubes by making soups. The only downside is that with more cooking always comes more dishwashing...and constant requests for a new batch of brownies, or home-made hummus, or banana bread!