Humblest apologies, masters

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I'm afraid that there won't be a blog post today. My mind and heart just haven't been focused on writing and cartooning this week, and there's a reason for that...

You see, for those of you who don't know, I'll be moving from Durban to Cape Town on Friday. Basically an advertising agency in the Mother City is keen to hire me as a copywriter and proofer - going so far as to fly me down, take me out to lunch and provide me with initial accommodation when I move. This is in stark contrast to Dirtbin, where I received interest from just two companies - one of which wanted to pay me half my previous salary and the other just stringing me along while they looked for someone "better."

Anyway, considering I've been full-time unemployed for a full year now, I've had to make the move. I really don't think 12 month gaps on your CV, even if they are spattered with part-time work, look good. I also just wasn't an especially good freelancer. I had a few jobs, obviously. However, and this is my fault, it was always hard to motivate for writing work in a port city that 80% of the time has to do with textiles, heavy industry, engineering firms and things like tyres, filters and shipping containers. I just wasn't interested. Also, while several friends sent my CV to their "connections," or people approached me with promises of freelance work, nothing temporary - or more permanent - ever materialised.

So here I sit a bit stressed, a tad more anxious and utterly devastated that I'm leaving behind my dog and someone very special to me. At least I know I have some very cool, open armed friends waiting for me in Cape Town - both the real life type and buddies I've made online the past few months and years.

I'll be trying the Cape Town work thing for at least 6 months. I need to earn some money and make some connections. The ideal situation would be to develop enough trust in my abilities that I could secure future work - in my areas of interest and passion - that could be completed remotely no matter where I am in the country, or the world.

Anyway, squeezing a little bit of pop culture into this otherwise personal post, I offer visual proof that geeks tend towards darker, intense movie tastes. These are the DVDs we took down the KwaZulu-Natal South Coast last weekend for a (wet) beach breakaway.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Congratulations on the job offer and best of luck for the move! I really hope it pays off for you and helps you move in the direction you want to go.
Ryan
1:14 PM
Terrance said…
Best of luck for the Cape Town gig and while you're here be sure to bring down that Donnie Darko Director's Cut! It might make me 'forget' all about tormenting you with Inception ;)
4:56 PM
Suresh Jayan said…
Am so happy for you. Hope everything works out with the job and you find plenty of new and exciting stuff in Cape Town.
9:58 PM
ßraandon said…
I was going to say, Congratulations, excellent, so happy to hear you're finally getting your Cape Town move. But you sound really bummed out about it.

When you say you plan to try it for at least 6 months, I presume that means you really aren't that excited about this job. That's really too bad, and I can certainly sympathize, because over the last year or so I've applied for jobs that really weren't very good. Luckily I didn't get offered those positions, and in the end it paid off when I got multiple job offers and got to choose between them, and securing a job that won't just make ends meet, but is really exciting, challenging, and rewarding. But I also had the leisure of not being unemployed and having to worry about a CV gap.

So I'm sorry to hear your job offer (presumably) isn't what you had hoped for, but I agree with you: ride it out for a while, but keeping looking for other opportunities. And look on the bright side: you at least get to move to Cape Town, which I know was something you'd wanted to do for a while now.

Why can't you bring your dog? Can't you send for him after you find a place to live that lets you have pets? In any case, best of luck and congratulations on the offer, though I'm sorry to hear it isn't everything you had dreamed of.
2:11 AM
Tim said…
Unfortunately Terrance, the Donnie Darko there is mine - and it's definitely staying up here in Durban. Anyways ... if I haven't said it before, good luck with the job in Cape Town (though I'm secretly hoping an even better job will lure you back to Durban one day).
7:55 AM
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