It's been nice for me, traveling between Antwerpen and Brussels ... 40 minutes of peace on the train, a time for me to pick up reading again however if you add the tram ride from home to the train station, plus the 40 minutes on the train, with another 15-20 minutes on the bus through Brussels then suddenly the idea of teaching 90 minute long English classes in Brussels for 20 euro plus transport costs seems like a really bad business decision.
I lose a minimum of 6 hours making the journey and even more hours creating materials for my two very different groups of students.
Today I ran late at the train station, sprinted onto the platform, paid extra for the ticket bought on the train, waited 20 minutes in a cold wet Brussels, without scarf, coat or umbrella only to find that my boss hadn't been able to clear her email since 28 March and that the student cancellations for Easter were probably part of that lost cache of email. Easter holidays ...
Mmmm so it was that I walked back out to the bus stop, waited 20 minutes after just missing my bus, crossed the city, waited another 30 minutes for a train back to Antwerpen, 5 minutes waiting for the tram home, then a frozen walk along the street leading to home.
A Saturday morning best forgotten but for the fact that it did hammer home the importance of me valuing my time. I knew Brussels was a lousy business decision but I loved the bookshop I was working out of and enjoyed my students ... and although I have more work over in the city if I want it, I have to factor in all the travel and the fact that there are probably more than one or two students here in Antwerpen.
Photography this afternoon ...
I hope your Saturday morning was a better morning than mine.
2 comments:
I feel for you - Oh! The wasted time ... and it was cold and wet to add insult to injury.
I was lucky ... it wasn't so cold and wet. A shower while I was waiting for the bus, and a cold wind that I truly needed either a collar or scarf as protection. It was only that I got so cold that even as I was writing this this morning, I was still chilled.
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