Mussel Man

I can now officially say that I officially have an official part-time job. In fact, two cropped up at the same time, the results of many attempts at "casting the net" and "reeling something in". After coming back with an empty net several times, I suddenly had two: a sporadic job as a "conference porter" (i.e.- factotum) at UEA and a job as a "mussel preparation person" in the mornings at The Belgian Monk
. I decided to go with the mussel job because it was more regular than the other one. However, I did end up saying I would work for a couple of days at a conference at UEA this week. Sort of regret agreeing to that, but oh well.

The Belgian Monk is the place where K worked for two weeks when we first got here, so it's sort of funny that I'm in there now. Should have sprung for that a long time ago. But again... oh well. They have also given me a "kitchen porter" position on Saturdays. So, I'll be working from about 11am to 3pm on Monday - Friday cleaning mussels and a split shift as a kitchen porter on Saturdays, 12pm-5:30pm and 8:00pm to finish (around 11:30pm). "Kitchen porter" means "dishwasher". It's good, mindless work that I can just churn through while my mind flits around with other topics like the dissertation and "the future". And it's £4.95/hr, plus tips. A decent boost to our "household income".

I do, however, feel a wee bit guilty for being an accomplice in the death of thousands upon thousands of small, saltwater mollusks (the mussels and the barnacles attached to them). Murder in the 2nd degree (I think), but damn do they taste good when cooked in cream, geuze, and leeks!

-RP-