Just back from the gym (which I still hate) and the swimming… - Echoes of Flavio's Ghost Dreaming

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			Just back from the gym (which I still hate) and the swimming… - Echoes of Flavio's Ghost Dreaming




			07:05 pm July 8th, 2011

flavius_m


	Just back from the gym (which I still hate) and the swimming pool (which I still enjoy,even though some woman kicked me in the face as she went zooming past. In the slow lane. The indignity of it...). Now to await the delivery by Ocado, which is no more than an experiment. It would be cheaper and less hassle to drive over to Waitrose or Sainsbury's to get my shopping but in the near future I might have to consider giving up the car (have I bored you guys with that little bizarre circumstance that could only arise living in London?) so have to try out various experiments to see whether I can actually make do without a car. At the moment, as a third of my lessons involve me driving to the pupil's, the answer is no, I can't, but this may change and I must prepare for it. I'm working on it. I also joined Streetcar, but cannot see that as a replacement when I need the car for work. Yes, I already did the sums and when I ran into a couple of the extra charges when I joined, I realised it would be even more so. Mind you, I still enjoy living in London and couldn't contemplate moving anywhere else. Tags: life, stuff Current Location: Tally Ho Current Music: peter gabriel - i go swimming

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	Comments




			Thread started by Barbarella a.k.a. The Mad Cat Lady

	From: themadcatlady	Date: July 8th, 2011 06:21 pm (UTC)		(Link)
	Students

Why don´t you get your students to come to you? When I had piano - violin - guitar lessons in the past, it was always that *I* had to go to the teacher to be taught....

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	From: flavius_m	Date: July 8th, 2011 06:24 pm (UTC)		(Link)
	Re: Students

Well, many do, but a large sub-section of them will not, mostly children with middle class Hampstead mums -those want you to come to them. It's not so bad, just the situation with the car and Camden council arising from living in this place. By the time it becomes a crisis I'll have found a way around it, I hope.

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	From: themadcatlady	Date: July 8th, 2011 06:32 pm (UTC)		(Link)
	Re: Students

Yeah, they also better pay for your hassle, time, petrol by paying more than the students that come to you (I hope).

What is the situation with Camden Council? Parking fees?

(Reply) (Parent) (Thread)

	From: flavius_m	Date: July 8th, 2011 06:36 pm (UTC)		(Link)
	Re: Students

I unwittingly bought a flat in a car-free development. It is shared ownership so it is a little less straighforward to sell it and I don't want to, anyway, but buried in article 23434 paragraph 234 of the contract, after the bit where the leaseholder shall covenant (is that a verb?) not to keep livestock in the premises (at which point you switch off) there comes the one where the leaseholder also covenants not to request a resident's parking permit, or to lease any garage belonging to the Council. The idea is that if you live here you don't have a car, which would be fine if I had a 9 to 5 but I don't... the worst bit is that I actually agree with the idea of the thing, to reduce car use in London, etc, but it so happens that I need it for work...

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	From: themadcatlady	Date: July 8th, 2011 06:47 pm (UTC)		(Link)
	Re: Students

Hmm, that sucks. But yeah, it´s nice too of course. You should probably get some legal advice on this and how to possibly get around that...

Mind you, I had a car in London for only about 3 yrs and decided to give it up cause it´s just too expensive to run (Forest Gate was (is?) a high risk area, so the insurance was extortionate), impossible to get around in London traffic, and in the end, even that we moan about London Transport, it´s still the quickest and cheapest way to get around, so I went back to that. It was a bit difficult at first, but not impossible.

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	From: flavius_m	Date: July 8th, 2011 07:13 pm (UTC)		(Link)
	Re: Students

I never drive into central London. But, apart from

maxvon_d. all my pupils are either further out, or across North London, but not further central.

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	From: themadcatlady	Date: July 8th, 2011 07:34 pm (UTC)		(Link)
	Re: Students

But London, especially North London, is so well connected by buses and Tube. You should have no problem with that. The rest (even if not all) of your further out pupils might want to be encouraged to come to you, if you told them that you wouldn´t be able to come see them anymore in the future...

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	From: flavius_m	Date: July 8th, 2011 07:35 pm (UTC)		(Link)
	Re: Students

If only... it unfortunately doesn't quite work like that.

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	From: themadcatlady	Date: July 8th, 2011 07:36 pm (UTC)		(Link)
	Re: Students

Oh? You think they would rather go get another teacher? Oh well, yeah, probably... hmmm. :/

(Reply) (Parent) (Thread)

	From: flavius_m	Date: July 8th, 2011 07:41 pm (UTC)		(Link)
	Re: Students

Enough would. I charge over twice as the guy who has the flyer on the newsagent's window. Of course I do know what I'm doing, etc but to people shopping around for a teacher .. how are they going to know that? they are a bit like shopping for potatoes and he still charges half of what I do. And there are very good reasons why I charge as much as I do, btw.

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	From: flavius_m	Date: July 8th, 2011 06:36 pm (UTC)		(Link)
	Re: Students

I do charge a couple pounds more for visit lessons.

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	From: themadcatlady	Date: July 8th, 2011 06:47 pm (UTC)		(Link)
	Re: Students

Good on you, I would too!

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	From: flavius_m	Date: July 8th, 2011 07:17 pm (UTC)		(Link)
	Re: Students

In fact, by next year I have to make the differential between they coming to me and me going to them larger, to encourage them to come here instead. But as I said, there is a group of pupils that will never come to me, it's one of those things.

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	From: themadcatlady	Date: July 8th, 2011 07:34 pm (UTC)		(Link)
	Re: Students

ah, see my reply above then...

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	From: flavius_m	Date: July 8th, 2011 07:39 pm (UTC)		(Link)
	Re: Students

As I said, if only... at some point I may be able to do that, but not at this point. Some of them will never come to me. The trick is to build up a larger base of people coming to me, but at the moment I cannot turn down those two in Outer Willesden who want lessons with me. To get there by car is a little less than half an hour, three times as long by public transport. And you get to do one or two lessons an evening instead of four or five. I've been doing this for a long time, I know how it drops, where and how to advertise and what people expect -which is different things in different social segments, etc.

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	From: themadcatlady	Date: July 8th, 2011 07:41 pm (UTC)		(Link)
	Re: Students

I hear ya. Hmmm. :/

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(Deleted comment)

	From: flavius_m	Date: July 8th, 2011 07:19 pm (UTC)		(Link)

Well, if I had a 9 to 5 and didn't have to keep ping-ponging all over North London as far out as Watford for the lessons, I would give up the car in a blink of an eye. But to use Streetcar in that fashion would be like taking black cabs all the time and also not very reliable. How do I know that that car I need all Thursday eve from 4 till 9 is going to be there, etc -now that I'm inside Streetcar, I can see that the little Polo in the corner is booked on Thursdays for the next four weeks....

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	From: themadcatlady	Date: July 8th, 2011 07:42 pm (UTC)		(Link)

Silly question probably, but what is Streetcar?

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	From: flavius_m	Date: July 8th, 2011 07:46 pm (UTC)		(Link)

It's what they call a 'car club': you pay a 'membership' and a top up insurance (like £15/month) and rent a car by the hour. They have cars in bays all over London and, if you have a 9 to 5, it'a fantastic replacement for a car. But it does work out more expensive for me than having a car for work, and also less reliable, see my answer to Matt at the bottom of this.

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	From: flavius_m	Date: July 8th, 2011 07:46 pm (UTC)		(Link)

Oh, I see, you already saw it:)

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	From: themadcatlady	Date: July 8th, 2011 07:47 pm (UTC)		(Link)

Ah yes, I already read that before asking. Again, hmmmm.... I´m sure there´s a way out of all this and a solution. You just got to be creative and patient enough to find it!

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	From: flavius_m	Date: July 8th, 2011 07:48 pm (UTC)		(Link)

I know. I'm working on it:)

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	From: themadcatlady	Date: July 8th, 2011 07:51 pm (UTC)		(Link)

Positive vibes from me for that!

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			Thread started by Mel

	From: robot_mel	Date: July 9th, 2011 10:30 am (UTC)		(Link)

is there no way you could get them to make an exception as your livelyhood depends on it? Maybe some carbon offset thing they'd be willing to agree to? And then there's the part of me that wonders if they've told the council this and you could apply for one anyway? Like keeping a cat in a flat that says no pets on the lease...

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	From: flavius_m	Date: July 9th, 2011 10:36 am (UTC)		(Link)

In truth, after the extremely negative reaction I got from Parking Services, I'm afraid to even ask. At present ... I could tell you what I'm dong to circumvent the problem but not in this medium.

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	From: robot_mel	Date: July 9th, 2011 10:38 am (UTC)		(Link)

Good luck with the circumventing :) (I originally wrote circumnavigating! but I hope it's not that drastic)

(Reply) (Parent) (Thread)

	From: flavius_m	Date: July 9th, 2011 10:39 am (UTC)		(Link)

There may be a little bit of circumnavigating involved :D

Edited at 2011-07-09 10:40 am (UTC)

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