Nice People 13: Nice Save

PasturesNew

Sometimes on telly a programme will go and see somebody about something and they'll make some statement about that person's job and I just think "I wish I had a job like that!"

There was one the other week - some history programme. A family had lived in a castle 1000 years ago and the son had moved to London, before coming back to the castle and it was besieged etc etc ... usual stuff. While the son was in London his mother had written to him and he'd written back. This person had spent something like 25 YEARS just studying those letters. I mean ... a mum's letters to her son and back, for a few years ... just how much "study" does that really warrant?

Just Googled it - the Paston Letters. http://war_of_roses.enacademic.com/62/Caister_Castle,_Siege_of
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paston_Letters

neverdespairgirl

I read the first couple of sentences, and knew that would be the Paston letters!

They were a whole family writing to each other over quite a long time, and they are a very useful late medieval source. But I agree that 25 years would be rather pushing it.....

PasturesNew

The storm rain is here. Just regular rain at present... hopefully it won't get much worse as the handyman's still not popped round and on his list is sorting out the drain that's full of leaves, where I can't get the grid off as the downpipe rests on it and it needs sawing off.

Edit: Now it's getting fiercer and a bit windy-sounding. It's pitch black out there so can't see what's going on, all I can do is lie here and hear the rain and wonder....

zagubov

PasturesNew wrote: »

Sometimes on telly a programme will go and see somebody about something and they'll make some statement about that person's job and I just think "I wish I had a job like that!"

There was one the other week - some history programme. A family had lived in a castle 1000 years ago and the son had moved to London, before coming back to the castle and it was besieged etc etc ... usual stuff. While the son was in London his mother had written to him and he'd written back. This person had spent something like 25 YEARS just studying those letters. I mean ... a mum's letters to her son and back, for a few years ... just how much "study" does that really warrant?

Just Googled it - the Paston Letters. http://war_of_roses.enacademic.com/62/Caister_Castle,_Siege_of
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paston_Letters

One of the most interesting books I read was Galileo's Daughter. A series of letters between Galileo and his daughter, a nun secluded in a convent.

You can forget ebola. These people lived in a world where if you shook hands with anybody you'd have no confidence they'd be there in a few month's time. Galileo's daughter was well-insulated from the plague, but his brother across the Alps died and his sister-in-law and their children came to live with him and one by one they passed away. As did most of Galileo's friends.

The most secure jobs in those days would have been undertakers for the dead , and for the survivors, matchmakers.

Generali

HAMISH_MCTAVISH wrote: »

I know a lot of people doing similar things.

They usually seem to end up working harder than they did in the career job, for less money, and a lot less security though...

Have you thought of taking a low input/low stress 9-5 job to pay the bills while building up a side business over time? Public sector, non-profit, etc....

I have but the problem remains the same: if I take a low paid job in the public sector I need to pay childcare. Childcare costs $600/week during term time and about $1,000 a week in the holdidays = $35,000 a year from taxed income = $45-50,000 a year of gross income. To get the same post-childcare income as I get signing on and doing the business around it I need to earn $90-100k. I am not going to get a low stress, simple job for that kind of money.

Without wishing to patronise anyone let alone you, people without kids almost always struggle to understand just how expensive working when you have kids is. That fifty grand always has to be found along with rent/mortgage. It's not even like food where you can live off cuppa soup and breakfast cereal for a week. Every single week that I work full time I have to bring in $1000 gross to pay for child care ootherwise I simply can't work. It's more important than any other bill because I can't leave the Generalissimos behind and work whereas I can work if I skip the rent for a week.

CKhalvashi

PasturesNew wrote: »

The storm rain is here. Just regular rain at present... hopefully it won't get much worse as the handyman's still not popped round and on his list is sorting out the drain that's full of leaves, where I can't get the grid off as the downpipe rests on it and it needs sawing off.

Edit: Now it's getting fiercer and a bit windy-sounding. It's pitch black out there so can't see what's going on, all I can do is lie here and hear the rain and wonder....

It's raining here too.

Just had a call from someone who tried to sleep at Stansted last night (the terminal gets noisy when it rains, especially at night), who said that STN is the most uncomfortable place to sleep.

I live 2 minutes from Stansted, and I did offer............Taking a coffee and bacon sandwich up in 2 moments for the abovementioned individual, as it's nice to keep in contact with people we've worked with in the past

ETA: Why do people insist on transiting through the UK only with Euros?

GDB2222

Generali wrote: »

I have but the problem remains the same: if I take a low paid job in the public sector I need to pay childcare. Childcare costs $600/week during term time and about $1,000 a week in the holdidays = $35,000 a year from taxed income = $45-50,000 a year of gross income. To get the same post-childcare income as I get signing on and doing the business around it I need to earn $90-100k. I am not going to get a low stress, simple job for that kind of money.

Without wishing to patronise anyone let alone you, people without kids almost always struggle to understand just how expensive working when you have kids is. That fifty grand always has to be found along with rent/mortgage. It's not even like food where you can live off cuppa soup and breakfast cereal for a week. Every single week that I work full time I have to bring in $1000 gross to pay for child care ootherwise I simply can't work. It's more important than any other bill because I can't leave the Generalissimos behind and work whereas I can work if I skip the rent for a week.

This all points towards the cycle clothes business, which is relatively easy to fit around child care. You can even involve the kids in helping. Of the three options, it sounds the least stressful. You can start small and build it up. You'll be around whilst the kids are growing up, which goes really fast.

The main disadvantage is that you might go stir crazy being a house husband.

LydiaJ

Generali wrote: »

I have but the problem remains the same: if I take a low paid job in the public sector I need to pay childcare. Childcare costs $600/week during term time and about $1,000 a week in the holdidays = $35,000 a year from taxed income = $45-50,000 a year of gross income. To get the same post-childcare income as I get signing on and doing the business around it I need to earn $90-100k. I am not going to get a low stress, simple job for that kind of money.

Without wishing to patronise anyone let alone you, people without kids almost always struggle to understand just how expensive working when you have kids is. That fifty grand always has to be found along with rent/mortgage. It's not even like food where you can live off cuppa soup and breakfast cereal for a week. Every single week that I work full time I have to bring in $1000 gross to pay for child care ootherwise I simply can't work. It's more important than any other bill because I can't leave the Generalissimos behind and work whereas I can work if I skip the rent for a week.

$600/week for two primary school aged children during term time? What on earth childcare are you using? Or is childcare just all monumentally more expensive in Aus than there? That's $60 per day per child. Admittedly I don't have to pay for before school care, but that's usually cheaper than after school care because it's for a shorter length of time. I pay £8/day for DD to be looked after from 3:15 when school finishes until 6:00 when I pick her up from after school club.

Generali

LydiaJ wrote: »

$600/week for two primary school aged children during term time? What on earth childcare are you using? Or is childcare just all monumentally more expensive in Aus than there? That's $60 per day per child. Admittedly I don't have to pay for before school care, but that's usually cheaper than after school care because it's for a shorter length of time. I pay £8/day for DD to be looked after from 3:15 when school finishes until 6:00 when I pick her up from after school club.

Minimum wage is $20/hr+ with 9% super on top which goes a long way to explaining it. Before and after school care is slightly cheaper, only slightly, but we can't guarantee that we'll be there by 6pm.

We have a girl in from 7:15am-9:20am and then 3:20-6:30 or 7pm at $25/hr. $25 is the going rate for unqualified child care. We have 2 unqualified uni students one of whom can't even cook and refuses to do any sort of housework.

Spirit_2

LydiaJ wrote: »

Oh Spirit. You sound so sad.
I wish I could give you a proper hug, but here is a cyberhug as the best I can do:

I didn't mean to sound sad, I was just trying to get across the reality that when you put off "leisure" imagining some future time whn you can indulge yourself, that there are risks that non financial factors may scupper yourplans.

I am still a bit taken aback that my busy potttering about life has ground to a halt and i am not only housebound but inactive in the home and dependant on others.I expect to recover though so am OK but have only been home 2 weeks and it is all alien.

I have a physio coing this morning. we have settled on a neuro physio who is a stroke specialist to come in twice per week and her rehab assistant to come in 3 days a week. Nice guidance recommmends 45 mins per day over 5 days so I am following that.

it will cost £280 per week. £80 per session for the physio and £40 per session for the rehab assistant.

will see how it goes and adjust as needed.