School Days!

I haven’t written anything for a while, as I have been quite busy and am about to get considerably busier! I’ve wound back my online gig sessions a little because I have gone “back to school”, in a manner of speaking.

It occurred to me quite some time ago that, as much as I enjoy going out to play gigs (or at least I used to before the Covid-19 thing put a stop to it), I really don’t want to have to rely solely on that for my livelihood in the long term. For one thing, as a revenue stream it is somewhat precarious and erratic at the best of times, and as we have seen since March of this year, an unforeseen crisis can shut the whole thing down and leave you suddenly high and dry without an income. So it seems prudent to diversify a little and have other options available. In short I don’t want to HAVE to go out and play in bars four or five nights a week just to pay the bills when I am in my sixties – and that is not all that far away!

Going back to my original profession is out of the question. Nobody is going to hire a 52 year old ex-lab technician when they can (and rightly so) give the job to a fresh graduate, and in any case I have forgotten almost everything about it and have not set foot in a chemistry laboratory for 22 years. Similarly, my 5 years working in Planning on the supply chain side of things ended 17 years ago – too long ago to be of interest to a hirer (trust me I have tried). Which leaves my most recent non-musical career (or what some people call a “real job”). I stopped working management roles in the restaurant/bar industry in 2015 after about 8 years. I did make one or two half hearted attempts at going back in that direction since, but met with no success. No matter really, because to be brutally honest, I’d rather shove angry wasps up my butt than run an F & B operation again (I have untold amounts of respect for the people who do work in that business – and so should you, but that’s an article for another day).

Incidentally , most of these past roles have been with globally known “household name” companies, such as Bayer, adidas and Hard Rock Cafe. All good brands to have on a CV or so one might think, but being ancient history they are of little use. Ageism in hiring practices is very much a thing in Singapore, despite what the authorities will claim. Ask any PMET over 40 who has ever been retrenched how long it took them to get rehired – or if they even did get rehired. Such people are in abundance and are easy enough to find these days, just book a Grab ride or order a food delivery.

So I decided it’s time for something new, and this week I embarked on what is proving to be a rather intense training course which will, assuming I do not stuff it up, lead to a Certificate in English Language Teaching to Adults (CELTA) qualification from the University of Cambridge. Getting my CELTA, it is hoped, will lead to a whole new career, or at least a side gig. The course runs three days a week for seven weeks, and when I am not in class I will be doing coursework – a LOT of coursework! There is more than enough out-of-class work to keep me going for about another three days each week, so for the next seven weeks there is not going to be much time for blogging (not that I’ve been particularly prolific thus far), or online busking, or any of the other things I have been doing since the world got turned upside down.

When I first looked into doing this course, the pandemic had yet to hit hard – we were not yet in lockdown (sorry – Circuit Breaker!), but were taking precautions, up to a point. I was still gigging and travelling around teaching guitar to my handful of students. Then I spotted an ad, and attended an information session about CELTA at a private college in Middle Road in late February I think it was. The next day, I signed up for the course, electing to go for the July intake. So I was all set to start commuting to town three days a week to attend classes, and quite looking forward to it, but then – you guessed it – Covid 19. Long story short – my fellow trainee teachers and I are doing the course online from home, via Zoom meetings and a million Whatsapp group messages per day 🙂

Initially my colleagues and I were a bit concerned about doing CELTA online but we were assured that it would be up to the same standard as in a face to face classroom, and it is. In fact we have an advantage, in that we have to learn to use all the various online teaching tools that are available these days, in addition to mastering the actual course content. I am rapidly becoming an expert in hosting Zoom meetings and there are many other applications out there that we are, and will be, using. Online teaching is very much a thing now, and its here to stay, so completing CELTA in this manner will give us a little edge I think. There is the added bonus that we do not have to travel in and out of town to attend classes Monday through Wednesday, so in my case, that’s about 5 hours a week of travel time saved. 35 hours over the duration of the course is a lot of time that can be put to better use than standing on packed trains hoping the guy next to you isn’t sick.

It’s not without its challenges of course – my wifi signal can get a bit ropey occasionally, causing the sound on a Zoom meeting to go haywire – with the result that you can sometimes go a few minutes without really catching what was said. It usually happens right when you don’t want it to, but thankfully not too often and I haven’t really lost out on anything.

So there you have it – that’s why I have been quiet. I might update my progress in a few weeks time if I can, otherwise – watch this space to see if I make it through and graduate in mid August! 🙂

I’ll still do my online gig sessions, but just one or two a week – mostly at the weekend probably, and I’ll post new videos to the YouTube channel when I can. Check the gig schedule for updates:)

Cheers!

GM