Just Thinking

 I want to step away from teaching English. 

In every house I've had, I've always had one room for teaching.  Made my life very simple when the kids were little.  Just a 30-second commute, from one room to the next.  The house we are moving to just doesn't have the room to do that.  Also, it's in the middle of nowhere so I don't think getting new students in that area will be easy.  I'm hoping we can keep the students we have here by using the community centers to teach but I want to put the classes together.  At the moment I have one lesson on Monday and one on Wednesday, and a few on the other days.  Mikey has 4 or 5 a day.  I don't want to travel 40 minutes, one-way, teach for one hour and then sit and twiddle my thumbs for a few hours while Mikey teaches.  Here while Mikey teaches I can cook, clean, or get a few things done.  Also what about the future, 5 or 10 years from now?  We either have to make this school profitable enough to support any families the kids might have, and they all work together, or find another business.

What to do about David and Christopher?  They have part-time jobs here that they kind of like.  They could get more hours and stay here but they don't want to.  Also, wages are very low. The minimum wage for this area is just over four pounds and no real overtime!  David's supervisor, who is responsible for three or four different shops only gets 3 to 4 hours off every 24 hours.  It's dangerous as he is driving to different stores.  

The area we are moving to has almost no public transportation, a bus every hour and it doesn't go to the areas where there might be jobs.  David needs his own car and Christopher needs a driver's license. Another two worries.

I've been thinking about trying to start a different business but what?

I've thought about making a travel and food blog.  But I don't travel, I want to but no money! And most of the recipes I use are from other people or books and I have no idea about copyright laws.  

We have a load of land so I thought about using some to rent out storage lockers but that's not popular in the countryside.  We missed the solar panel chance.  

Starting a pet-sitting business and pet hotel.  But no start-up money.

We have persimmon trees, so fruit picking is an idea but very seasonal.  We could try to grow other fruits but I have a black thumb and again very seasonal.

I guess we need a family meeting and find out what everybody wants to do.

I look at these kids making money on YouTube etc and wonder if that is really possible.  Would anybody be interested in a 60-something fat foreigner living in Japan?

I have no classes tonight, so going to attack the kitchen, maybe bake, do my exercises, and get ready for tomorrow!!!!

Sleepy Sam!