This has been less of a rollercoaster week for us- we've had a lot of waiting to hear back from people about various things. We heard back from the letting agent (the person who is in charge of leasing out people's properties) that we were approved, and our official move date is March 20th. We heard back from our friend that we asked to live with us, and she said yes, so she also has to fill out an application just to check her past landlords. And even though G and I are married, I have to fill out a separate form too! The lax idea about marriage and living together here makes things a bit annoying- people who are a "live in partner" are treated very similarly to a spouse. Anyway I'm filling out the form.
Our new housemate's name is Zephyr- she's from China, and just recently finished her master's degree in business. She is such a lovely sweet girl- one of the most good natured, friendly, and kind people I have every met. We are truly blessed to have such a wonderful person to share our house with. Zephyr also goes to StAG, and is involved with the international work as well, so that will be a blessing to both of us. I found out that she really loves animals, and has been going out into the street looking for neighborhood cats to befriend and love. I think she and Nelly will get on very well indeed. :) We're hoping that we can learn some Chinese from her as well, and having an in house Chinese person to teach us more Chinese food will be great! We are all 3 so excited about it, I'm not sure who is the most excited. :) Nelly would be excited if she could foresee the benefits to her too- while we're away traveling Nelly will have someone to look after her, plus she'll really like having a wooded garden where she can do cat things. :)
I did decide to apply for BNI, and I heard back from my 2 people whom I asked to be my reference (which they call referee here) that they had been contacted, and honestly it felt very good to hear their words in praise of my work and my service. I certainly try my very best to meet my clients' needs, and knowing that I'm doing that well was reassuring. I also heard through one of them that I have given a consistently good impression to the BNI group- that too was reassuring. I've been getting emails from various BNI people who are already interested in meeting up to see more of my work, and for me to get to know their business as well. I haven't heard back officially if I'm a member yet or not, but I do hope they let me join.
The Breckland Orchards photos are all processed and have been sent off to 2 exciting places- Cambridge Journal, and Cambridge News, both of whom have done articles on the woman who started the business, and I am so excited that my work will be in print! I will definitely get copies, so I can use those for my own PR and also send some home. Keeping a file of your work in print is a great idea for photographers. If Claire from Breckland Orchard is very successful in marketing her product, my photos may get wide publicity which would be great for my business.
This week I also had 3 English teaching sessions, devised my own evaluation tools and created a form to use in my 2 hour sessions with people. I worked with guys from Afghanistan, and from Spain, and Serbia. Sometimes it's a bit tiring, but overall the work is satisfying and is giving me the opportunity to put up my prints in the office of my company, where they would like me to potentially sell some to their clients. I'm also going to be creating a little book of Cambridge sights that people could buy to take home with them.
In other business news my first run of business cards came in- I used a company that can print a different image on the back of each card, so I used 50 different images and chose the best ones for a reprint of 200 cards. I'm almost out of cards already from the BNI folks who always take cards to use to refer you to people. I did give a card to a couple looking for wedding photography, and the letting agent for our landlord as I took some photos of the cottage that he could use to market the place. I'm looking for opportunities to get my work out there, even if I do it as a volunteer, because it's good PR for me. So now I can add a letting agent to the list of my clients. :) I'm hoping to find the online posting and get a print out of it as well to put in my portfolio of work.
I haven't mentioned it on the blog, but we are SO excited that our friend Jen is coming to visit! In fact she's flying in tomorrow morning! We are having some very fine weather and tomorrow we're planning to sightsee around London, and then come back here in the evening. Also on the list for the week is seeing more castles in Wales, and hopefully Bath as well. I don't have any major projects pending so I'm trying to take the week off, which is trickier than it's ever been now that business is growing! We're looking forward to having Jen with us, and doing LOTS of photography!
I'm off to photograph snowdrops at Anglesey Abbey today- it must be 50F outside, and it's sunny. It is definitely spring now- although I miss the Michigan snow, I do love the early springs here. :)
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