x + y = ?

The universe is trying to tell me something. Employment opportunities have been throwing themselves at me out of the blue. For the last seven years my instinctive reaction to such phenomena would have been to duck. I was quite busy enough at home bringing up young children and that is where I wanted to be thank you very much. This time round I’m having to rethink and catch the balls thrown at me, rather than dodge them. Apart from the fact that youngest is now four and should soon be leaving me more time to rediscover where I am going in life, we need a second income stream, even if only a small top up one.

All last year I was trying to think of something that would fit in with school times and allow me to work part-time or from home. I’d got as far as contacting publishing houses for proof-reading work, though nothing has come through yet, writing to support my husband’s websites, which is how my blog was born (with far greater and wider application and bonusses than I’d dreamt of, I agree with all that Charlotte said here) but though it was all enriching, widening my horizons and I’m so glad I did, just for meeting all you wonderful friends, from the financial point of view apart from the $2 or so I’d earned from Adsense, it wasn’t getting me very far.

A possibility, that had never crossed my mind, came when we had our cinema outing last week. After the movie, we had lunch in a coffee shop that opened into the mall. A friendly girl approached me and asked if I’d be interested in casting for a commercial. Loads of film companies use Cape Town for shoots, and this Norwegian director wanted ‘natural’, so was casting people off the street. Initially I assumed she meant the children and said “No”, as I don’t want them to have to cope with the whole palaver of shoots, when they’re all quite shy of strangers. My sister-in-law, mentioned the money though and I thought about it under this new light. We went back to her and it turned out to be me they wanted to do the casting, there was apparently a ‘role’ the director thought I’d be perfect for. So she took a snap of me with a number, handed me the info letter and I went off to do the shopping.

My husband looked at the letter and recognised the production company as one who uses their studio for castings...so if I was called, it would most likely be to his workplace.

Fast forward to this week. I did get called, it was to his studio (handy for on site creche facilities in the form of Dad, if it hadn’t been far too hot to drag them all the way in to town). After all the usual hanging around that castings involve, I went in. Stood in front of the camera for the test shots. Was asked to do a little action.Turns out the role that the director thought I’d be perfect for is......a maths teacher! When the day before I’ve also been asked to become a real teacher, I think this is some sort of cosmic gentle tease, either that or a bludgeoning over the head of “Get on with it THIS IS WHAT YOU’RE SUPPOSED TO BE DOING!”

I don’t know whether they want me for the teacher role in the commercial yet, I hope so, it would be fun and one day of those sort of jobs a month would bring in more than the teaching would do. I somehow don’t think my destiny involves an acting career though – I’m being shoved from being a SAHM to being a GTSWTKM (go to school with the kids mother) ..unless I’m reading it wrong and you’ll see me at the Oscars in ten years time!