When it rains, it pours...

Not to worry, this entry has nothing to do with the weather we've been having lately (Sprite already covered it on her blog, so I'm not about to be redundant), though I must say it isn't making me too happy. It does, however, have to do with the number of things I've got lined up for the next three months:

1. I've been offered a position teaching ESL in Ho Chi Minh City. I'd rather it be Hanoi; the money isn't awesome too (unlike what expatriate teachers in Singapore get), but given how little we'd spent when we were in Vietnam in January, what they are offering is enough to live comfortably and still have something by way of savings.

It's also attractive because it'll be a new experience, and we really did enjoy ourselves. Moreover, I drool to think of the photographic opportunities.


2. There are also tentative plans to visit Vancouver in the summer (June really, because while I am no longer restricted by school holidays when planning my overseas trips, Dan and Sprite, who are coming, are). It'll be good to be back there again (the last time was 4 years ago) and visiting my old haunts -- I've always been accused of being a creature of habit. Dan and Sprite want to visit a relatively cooler English-speaking country this June and the wife wants to "see the mountains again, Gandalf!"

My plan is to attend a uni classmate's wedding in late-May and then to stay on to look for a job. The wife will come only in June with the cousins-in-law for the touristy part of the trip. Depending on whether the job search is successful, I'll either come back with them or stay on and have my stuff sent over.

This is, however, dependent on my Performance Bonus from last year... although, seeing that I was appointed Acting DM in the middle of the year, it shouldn't be less than a C grade (read: enough for a 12-day trip, but probably not enough for a month's stay in Vancouver) and it would be pro-rated for just nine months of work. Here's to hoping that I keep my track record and get nothing lower than a B.

[Puts away trumpet] Heh.

Before ex-classmates who are in Vancouver, and who read this blog, jump up and volunteer their homes (especially the ones who've just had kids, you know who you are), you know me: not the kind to like to impose... So, thanks anyway.


3. Photography projects. There are at least four I've got lined up:

I would really want to take pictures of Changi Prison and the National Library, before the bulldozers move in and tear down more ties to my childhood and youth. That's two projects -- though I'll have to write in to the proper authorities for permission, I think, before anything can be done about them.

The third, was suggested to me by a teacher at the college (thanks P!). It's overseas and involves spending time in a supposedly very remote village somewhere in Sarawak or Sabah (I forget which) and taking pictures of the landscape and the people. Apparently there are plans to produce a coffee table book and they could use my photographs. Who knows? There may be an exhibition/ book launch in the works if this does come through.

And finally, there's still work to be done at the JC I'm at. The schedule's already planned, so it's about the only thing that confirmed in this list of projects.


4. Happily, the Shooting Home 2004 workshop starts the middle of next week.

Not so happily, I have yet to decide on the project for the exhibition that'll follow the workshop. Now I find out, I should have up to four projects when I go in next Wednesday in case people shoot down my ideas.

Stress.

Still, having an established photographer as a mentor for the next year has to be a good thing. I wonder who I'll get.


5. Just got the confirmation email from Reaper that the miniatures I've ordered from them have been shipped, so I'm looking at painting them in 2-3 weeks' time.

Still on the topic of online shopping, the stuff I'd ordered from Amazon should come in around the same time.


6. The 'results' of the Eye É City 2003 project should also be in by May. I'll know then if any of my photographs have been selected for the book.


So. Plenty of things to keep someone, brought up with the Protestant Work Ethic, happy.

***

Looking forward to the game tonight: if G does come tonight after he attends the grand opening of the Lord of the Ring Exhibition at the Science Centre (now here's someone whose geek! quotient's higher than mine), it'll be the first time in over 18 months that we've had the original players come together for a game.

Plus, I'd like to think I've designed a pretty kick-ass dungeon crawl for tonight's session, so I can't wait to put their PCs through some truly-horrid suffering.

MUHAHAHAHA!