A Rock and a Hard Place

Parc Güell by Glowing Edges Designs

Stuck between a rock and a hard place is a phrase that I have often thought about since living in Rotherham - having had to go down to London quite often, just because I needed to work and earn some good money.

A view of Girona from the city wall

I won't dwell on the reasons why I am now in Rotherham and let's just say that it wasn't planned as a career move. Having known a lot of people from South Yorkshire from my days at Nottingham University and having lived in Sheffield and worked in the county for a few years, it appeared a good place to be, during a turbulent period, to take stock and plan the next step.

Geology in Barcelona

However, no longer having any old work connections and the building cleaning and restoration industry being virtually non-existent in the area, I effectively had to start from scratch again, as far as my work life was concerned. Although, turning back to my interests in geology, I have produced some very good work and have developed my skills as a writer and photographer, I have never been able to do much more than keep the wolf from the door and just keep on going.

La Sagrada Familia

Carefully considering my future prospects, the spark of the idea of teaching English that I had developed in Dublin just kept growing stronger and stronger and I considered this to be the best option. Investigating this further, I still faced the stumbling block of being able to raise the cash.

With no work in the pipeline, I had to batten down the hatches and just bide my time for the best part of a year, until the right time came along. This was when I was temporarily employed by the British Geological Survey, in late 2007. 

Such work would be usually undertaken in the summertime but the client, Doncaster Metropolitan Borough Council, needed to spend their money before the end of the financial year and so this was started in the middle of winter. Fortunately, the weather was favourable and I could shake off the winter blues.

Having put in three months very hard work, and the start of the next Trinity College Certificate in TESOL course at Sheffield Hallam University nine months away, I decided to take a well deserved holiday and, after taking a crash course in Spanish for travellers, off I went to get some inspiration for another project of mine - Glowing Edges Designs - in Catalonia.

 

The Dalí Theatre and Museum