Ever since I started my own company which essentially provides me with an excuse to do what I like, I have greatly enjoyed my working life. Of course, there are always things I don’t like doing as much as others, but in general, I am quite content with the way things are going. So, I think this is the first day in a very long time where I can say with utter conviction:
Today was not my day!
It started out in the morning when I had received an invitation to provide a voice sample for a deeply religious text. Not just spiritual, but religious in the sense of “look deep down into yourself to find out god’s plans for you”. I’m an atheist, always been. Besides, how deep down am I supposed to look – wouldn’t that require a microscope and a very sharp knife? I’m not sure if I should price myself out of this one. As you’ll see in a moment, I do need the money, and it would be quite a large project…
Things went downhill further when halfway to the bus stop I found out that I had forgotten my umbrella. The whole idea of taking the bus in the first place was because by the time I was to go home, it was supposed to rain; and I didn’t want to get soaking wet on the bike. Not taking the umbrella would have been counterproductive, so I had to return to fetch it… In the end, I was late for my Japanese class, but because I’m usually on time, my teacher takes the few days when I’m not in his stride.
The big blow came in my afternoon Kyotogram meeting. I had barely entered the office and sat down on the table when the big boss jumped up from his own desk to come over and talk to my colleague and me. He brought bad news: After the complete disaster with the kyozutsumi project (only 2 – in words: two – sets sold), the headquarters in Osaka (who were greatly responsible for the failure) decided to shut down Kyotogram completely. Right now, it is unclear when this will happen and what we’ll do until then, but the boss said that the earliest we can close up shop will be by the end of May. Which means that I will have to find a new, steady job, which is not easy, most freelancing jobs are one-time only or at least far and in between.
And to top things off, my Tuesday evening German student informed me today that he would like to suspend his German classes for the time being, meaning: for the next 6 months or so. He needs to take an English test in September or October this year, and since he is very busy with little free time, and he absolutely must pass that test, he would like to focus on his English until then. At least he has decided to employ me as his English teacher, which is nice (I’ve never taught anyone the TOEIC before), but at the same time it will decrease my income since I charge less for English than for German classes (because there are so much more people teaching English in Kyoto). He did offer to pay my German rates, but I didn’t think that was fair to him.
And finally, when I went home, it was raining just as predicted.
So, that was my day. Or rather: it wasn’t. The only part that was enjoyable was my Japanese class. The grammar basics of how to turn verbs and adjectives into nouns are relatively simple, so for once I didn’t make a complete fool out of myself. I think my Japanese teacher appreciated it.
And I will now turn my back on this day and appreciate a piece of chocolate. Thank goodness today’s over…