Wordsley, Stourbridge, England: 21 degrees, warmish, sunny and slightly overcast.
It is Wednesday, the middle of the week, and a strange week. As I wrote yesterday, there are many loose ends and conflicting situations at the moment, and I don’t know what I want to do.
I’m working, giving classes, and making money —not exactly what I ideally want, but enough to cover my expenses in Brazil for Yasmin and Nalva. However, it’s nowhere near sufficient to support myself in England.
Ten years ago, the exchange rate between the British pound and the Brazilian Real was £1 = R$4. When I arrived in England at the end of November last year, it was 6.1 to a pound, and now it is almost 6.5.
At the moment I am earning in Reais and whilst living in England I am spending in pounds, which basically means I am breaking my own bank. If I am to stay in England, I need to find a way to earn money quickly in pounds, or it will get very ugly for me.
I need to prioritise monetising my blog through Google AdSense and start creating faceless YouTube videos related to ‘The long gringo blog’. I also need to use my Osmo Pocket 3 video camera to produce content for either ‘The long gringo’ channel or a new channel I can establish, so I can monetise as quickly as possible and earn more money.
If I were to find another way to create or build something in England to make money, it would be perfect, but I wonder if it would work or last. I get the impression that a particular level of quality is successful here in England. The service industry dominates the rest.
I spoke to my mother’s solicitor before Christmas about my prospects here; he said I was different and that there was a market for me in England. I’m thinking of calling him to ask him to be more specific so I can get a clearer picture of my possibilities if I stayed in England.
It’s amusing how we can advise others on their troubles and challenges, yet our own are often quite tough, if not impossible. As I grow older, age becomes a concern; I am nearly 60, so in some ways I’m a dinosaur in the marketplace.
As a charismatic and intelligent person, creating content that can be viewed worldwide while helping others is the only real option at this stage. So, why haven’t I done it until now?
Maybe because I have always been afraid, I have been teaching for so long that it is difficult to break the chains and try something new. This is my challenge: to do something that I can make money from, be less dependent on classes, and create an income that is not dependent on just my time.
If I create video content, like my blog content, and both are monetised, if I am lucky. I will be able to produce high-quality content that generates income. The long gringo was created to help people with their day-to-day problems. That, plus living in Brazil, which is a constant shitstorm in a person’s life, is a perfect school for anyone on how to survive and get on in life.
In some ways, people are less prepared in England than in Brazil. I have already talked a lot about the importance of improvisation in life and work, as well as Brazilians’ resistance to getting things done, because in Brazil, there is no politically correct way—and if there is, it is a farce.
Being back in England, people are sometimes spoiled. They’re not desperate; they are comfortable, and if there is a problem, the government will help because there is no sense of desperation as in Brazil.
If you lose your job in Brazil, the government isn’t going to help you; it will only make things worse, unfortunately reflecting the harsh reality of the country. Imagine Brazil without the overwhelming sense of desperation that is so common there.
Where people can work peacefully, without constant worry about the next day or their future, knowing there’s some safety net to catch them if something goes wrong, rather than the current situation where everything seems to collapse and there’s no support.
Despite all the doubts, it has been a productive day. I also got to speak to Yasmin.
In bed by midnight.
Thank you.
Thanks for reading this blog post. Please explore my other posts and share your thoughts in the comments section.
Richard
