The Big Weekend

Well, the time has come to see if all our training has paid off!! I'll be leaving in 10 minutes for Dartmoor in Devon. We are staying tonight in a youth hostel, and tomorrow morning we'll be setting out on our 20ish mile trek. We are walking about 12 miles on the first day, and the balance on sunday. We'll be tenting it on saturday night in what has been very cool evenings. Hopefully I'll learn how to put photos on the blog and I'll include you all (all 4 of you!) in the adventure. So, until monday.....

Is there anybody out there?

Hi. Just wondering if anybody is still checking on my blog. I wouldn't blame you if you didn't come around anymore because I'm not a very faithful blogger. If you stop by in the next few days please leave a comment so I know that somebody cares:)

Sore Feet

Well, the 15 mile walk I mentioned in my last blog almost wore my feet right off. I've been cycling to and from work and there is a pretty decent hill to climb on the way home so my legs and cardio conditioning are better than they have been for more than 20 years. My feet though were killing me at the end of the walk. At about 10 miles into the walk we went through a really boggy area and it was quite, well boggy. My boots aren't as water proofed as I thought they were so my feet got wet, and then the blisters came. By the time I finished I had big blisters on the balls, and heels of both feet. Ouch!! If that had been the real thing in September where we would have to set up camp and walk another 10 miles the following day I never would have been able to finish. The area that we walked through was absolutely beautiful. At one point we walked along the sea side at the top of a 200 foot cliff. Awesome!! If I can ever figure out how to add photos to this I'll add them on.

Should actually be getting ready for work

Well, it's been soooooo long I figured I had better write something. My youngest, Ezra, is crying in the background so this will be brief.

Just enjoying the British Summer. I don't think we've had a really nice sunny day here since April. Back home in Vancouver there is all kinds of sunshine and heat, while I my toes are getting water logged walking around here. Speaking of walking around, I am going on a 15 mile hike this weekend in Dorset. Me and some other guys will be doing a 25ish mile walk in late september and this is one of our "workouts" in preperation for that. We have already done 2 (I was only able to make the first one) practice hikes, but this will be a bit different because we'll be carrying all our gear getting for the real deal. Should be fun.

Gotta run.

Big News

Mmmmmmm, me me me me meeeeeeeeeee (that's me warming up my singing voice) Ahem!! God save our gracious queen, God save our glorious queen, God save the queen. I'm practicing for my ceremony where I will officially become a citizen of the United Kingdom. I'm not sure exactly when it will be, but I got the invitation to call the Master of Ceremonies and make an appointment for my citizenship ceremony. So now I am a dual citizen.

Also, today I got my piano tuning tools in the mail so as soon as my "how to" book arrives I will start tuning pianos. For those of you whom I haven't spoken to to fill you in on how that's going, I have decided not to go to the school in London. It would have been a lot of fun traveling into London for school, and the school itself seemed really good, but after praying about it I just didn't feel right about going that route. So I got hooked up with a gentleman who owns 3 piano stores and does a lot of refurbishing and tuning of pianos, as well as selling them. He occasionally take on people and mentors them in the business, but he doesn't actually pay you while you learn. Once you have a skill ie the ability to tune a piano then he starts to pay you. The manager of one of his stores told me to purchase this book and gave me a list of basic tools I would need to start, and told me to just start tuning any pianos I can find. He says the book is great (he still refers to it quite a lot and he's been tuning for 15 years), and he also said that if I ever got stuck on something to give him a call and he would be happy to offer advice. So the plan is to get as comfortable as I can tuning pianos on my own, and then approach Mr Roberts (the owner of the piano stores) and hopefully he'll take me under his wing and I can start earning sooner than later. At the moment I have a full time job, but there is only enough work for about 3 days a week. My supervisor asked me if I might be willing to go to part time in the future which would work in perfectly with the piano tuning because I can still have a guaranteed partime income that will match with Zulobia's part time income, and then any money I earn tuning pianos will be a blessing.

Sorry if this is a bit rambling, I am really tired, but I wanted to blow the dust off the blog and let you all know a bit of what's going on. Bless you all!!!

Comments

Please feel free to comment on anything, but try to be nice. I have changed the settings on the blog to allow anybody to comment. It seems that when a blog is set up the default setting for comments it to allow only people with a blogger account to comment, but that is now changed as I said before so comment away!!!

University

Well, yesterday I headed into London to check out the school I want to attend this coming September. I am going to take a 2 year course at the London Metropolitan University called Music Technology, which in the end will leave me with the knowledge and qualifications to tune and repair pianos. I phoned the campus in the morning just to make sure the open day was still on, and having been assured that "of course it's still on", I bought my train ticket and made my way to the big city. The open day started at 2pm, and upon my arrival at 1.15pm I was informed that the open day had been cancelled. Fortunately the gentleman that I was speaking to was very kind and phoned the head of the department, and explained that I had travelled all the way from Southampton. The head guy agreed to speak with me and was very helpful, spending almost 2 hours with me answering all my strange questions.

In my heart I had hoped that the classes would be neatly arranged to fit into 2 full days, leaving 3 days to work and earn some money. We could stay in Southampton and I could do the commute into London for the 2 days of school. This year's schedule is: all day Monday, Tuesday afternoon, all day Wednesday, Thursday and Friday morning. Doesn't leave much time for work. If I was to get any kind of a job I would only see Zulobia and the kids between terms. I did some preliminary investigation into student funding today and found that there are quite a few bursaries and grants that you can apply for, but most will only consider your application after you have taken the maximum student loan out. I don't want a student loan. With the exception of the mortgage on the house we used to own in Canada, Zulobia and I have managed to stay out of debt our entire marriage.

It wasn't all negative. The course looks great, the first thing I saw as I left the building was the gherkin (you know the bullet shaped building), and the instructors seemed very knowledgeable and helpful. I am really looking forward to taking this course and getting on with tuning pianos.

I really felt like the idea to tune pianos came from God. Not that it is a "great and noble" career that will make me rich or change the world. After praying unceasingly for 3 years, well probably mostly whining, this idea just dropped into my head. It appeals to me on several different levels. I could be self employed, it keeps me in a creative frame of mind, and it is a very portable skill that is needed everywhere people own pianos. Anyway, I am still going for it. I just don't know what it will look like come September. I guess that's where my faith comes in!!