sol holidays

Yet another blog/website… solholidays

This one I’ve made for my friend Manolo. I help him with renting out three holiday apartments he has on the Costa del Sol, which he has listed on a few different websites (I take care of the correspondence). And so, because I love any excuse to try setting up a nice looking page, I did this one up for him the other day.

What do you think? Anything I should add or change, other than the photos? I’m hoping to get down there for a weekend soon and take some pics - the ones that are posted were given to me by Manolo. I should also add a map. Anyhow, I’d appreciate any feedback you’d like to pass on. Thanks!

plan of action

Started working on a biz plan today. . .

Well, a couple of them in fact. All tied up with and thanks to a couple of wonderful women I’ve met at different AWC meet ups. Sort of a follow-up (addition to?) my global brainstorming session post from last January.

Anyhow, I’ve found what looks like a good biz plan template online and took the first baby steps this week to start making it more than just something that makes my eyes glaze over by page 3. This means it involves having another real person in the room with me and going through it all together. Bouncing ideas off each other to our mutual benefit. Stuff like that. It’s all looking very positive.

Now I just have to get over feeling so scared.

a piece of cake

So yeah, it all turned out to be a piece of cake, in more ways than one.

Let me explain. . .

biz ideas please…

… kind of like a global brainstorming session

You see, I have been teaching English for about 15 years now and it’s time for a change. But I find that whenever I try to think of ‘what else I could do’ my brain seems to be stuck in a rut and no fresh ideas come to me. Ever since the clothing biz fizzled (either from bad marketing or maybe just bad designs?) I haven’t been able to come up with anything else.

So I thought it might be a good idea to have a brainstorming session here to see if you lovelies might be able to help me get out of my rut. To start off, here are short lists of skills, relevant work experiences (don’t think the coffin upholstering job counts) and also a few personal interests.

Some things that are definitely out (for various reasons) are: working for someone else, tourguide, opening a shop. Ideal job would be one I could start from home where I get to be the boss and have minions…

so fickle . . .

Remember when I was so obsessed about wanting this HP tablet? Well, I’ve changed my mind. During a trip to Fnac to visit my erstwhile heart’s desire this evening I ended up having another look at the same size Toshiba notebook and deciding that it was a better deal for the same price. It doesn’t have the cool swivel touchpad screen that’s on the HP model, but it has the same clear anti-glare screen as SB and much more. . .

• Ultra-portable 2-kilo notebook PC with 13.3-inch TruBrite widescreen
• 1.8 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7100 processor
• 200 GB hard drive, 2 GB installed RAM (4 GB max)
• multi-format/dual-layer DVD drive
• Quad-band Wi-Fi LAN (802.11a/b/g/n), 10/100 Ethernet
• Intel GMA 950 video card with up to 256 MB of shared memory
• Connectivity: 3 USB, 1 FireWire, 1 VGA, 1 S-Video, 1 ExpressCard 34/54. 5-in-1 memory card reader
• Pre-installed with Windows Vista Home Premium (with Media Center capabilities)

Meanwhile the same two problems exist . . . that I don’t have 1200€ and I don’t have any real need for an ultra-portable groovy cool notebook.

back to work!

Hi ho, hi ho . . .

It actually feels okay going back to work - especially as I don’t have any classes until tomorrow . But today is still a ‘work day’ as I got up at 7 o’clock and went to yoga class and the rest of the day will be spent organising the spare room for teaching.

And this evening we’re going out to a job interview. In fact, if all goes well Nog may be offered two jobs in a village just outside Sevilla, which would be fabulous (and also make the trip out there worthwhile). We’re just waiting to hear back from the first job to find out if it’s going to start in October as planned and then go to the interview for the second one - I’ll be tagging along as ‘the translator’. So fingers crossed that it all works out because it would be a great opportunity for Nog.

Otherwise and that, it’s just nice to be getting into a different routine. And I got some wonderful news yesterday - two very dear friends will be visiting in October, so that makes me very happy and gives me something to look forward to. And so … no post-holiday blues for me.

brave little soldier

Today is Nog’s first day at the English day camp.

I swear, it’s not something I could ever do but clearly Nog is a much braver soul than I am. Also, his regular classes are now over until September (I’ll still be working part time in July and August) so needs must and all that.

Apparently he’s in charge of two groups of 9-13 year olds (yikes!). He gives a two-hour class (eep!) to each group and in between they have a snack and go for a swim. Well, the kids swim while the teachers race between the two private ‘nautical’ clubs (about ten minutes apart) to teach their second group, after they’ve handed out the morning snack.

I just got a text message from Nog saying things are going well so far, just the second class to get through now.

And I have been busily doing ‘housewifey’ stuff all morning, specifically preparing all kinds of Nog’s favourite foods so he can have whatever his brave heart desires for lunch when he gets back (around 3pm).

Wish him luck everybody!

I think it’s gonna be a l-o-n-g month. . .

biz name?

Need a catchy name for new translation/teaching website.

As some of you may know, Nog and I just finished a rather lucrative translation & correction job for a medical journal and so we thought it would be a good idea to incorporate this into our present teaching work.

The idea is to set up a website that combines what we offer in terms of English classes (for all levels), including special full and half-day intensive weekend courses, with this latest translation/editing/correction service.

But neither of us can think of a great name for this. Any ideas?