college

At this point one year back we were just about to commence the intensive two week process of moving all of our furnishings and other goods and chattels into the basement of our North Saanich home preparatory to handing the main floor over to our contractors for the three month renovation for which we had been patiently planning for the preceding couple of years.

It seems like just weeks ago!

Of course – we have now been living with the completed and very lovely main floor since March and enjoying every minute of it. Somehow one doesn’t mind spending significant sums of money (quite so much!) if the results engender such happiness on a day to day basis… which in this case they do!

There was also something else on my mind at this juncture last year. It had become clear that 2018 was going to be the most challenging of our early years in Canada – financially speaking at any rate – because my final pension (that provided by the state) would not kick in until part way through my sixty-sixth year. I had as a result started looking – in an admittedly somewhat desultory fashion – for a job. This was complicated by the fact that I really only wanted to work one or two days a week for a limited period and I couldn’t imagine quite who would want to employ an aging geezer such as me!

As it turned out I didn’t find the answer to this question until we were already into the new year and a mere couple of days later I was standing in front of a class of slightly startled students at one of Victoria’s finest post-secondary educational establishments, about to launch into a fourteen week course in Computer Literacy.

In my End of Term report in these postings on the outcome of that experiment in returning – albeit on a part-time basis – to the workforce, I indicated that I had been offered a further term contract for what is here called the Fall Term (which would in the sort of school to which I am accustomed be known as the Michaelmas Term) and that I would not be averse to considering a further outing in what Canadians call the Winter Term, but which we Brits more optimistically refer to as the Spring, Easter or Lent Term.

Time passes rapidly and we are already approaching the halfway point of this term’s teaching. I have indeed been offered another contract for the start of next year – the which I have gratefully accepted. Truth be told I am rather enjoying this teaching experience. My forty years in the business has equipped me with a considerable stock of both knowledge and anecdote and the part-time, limited-contract nature of the job means that my responsibilities are pleasantly restricted.

Other benefits clearly include what seems to me (probably because I don’t need to live on it!) a decent level of remuneration for what I do, which not only pays my tax bill and covers any other shortfalls but will also facilitate some travel abroad during 2019.

I feel – as ever – most supremely blessed!