They are going to make me go down to the wire.
It's been seven weeks since I lodged Eneias' application for a "Short-stay Entertainment Visa" to come to Australia to perform with me.
The show is in mid-February, and apart from an email saying "Your application is still in progress" I've heard nothing.
I would like to start the marketing campaign. I should be rehearsing. But what's the point, if we are not certain that the show can go ahead?
I feel unsettled. To alleviate my anxiety, I'm eating and drinking too much. Poking in cheese and throwing down glasses of wine like there's no tomorrow. Not a thought for the summer that is fast approaching, let alone the fact that I'll be going on stage with a visiting Brazilian guitarist.
I'm going to look like a blimp.
Please. Give the man a visa. He is no threat to our national security.
According to the web site, the indicative time frame for this type of visa is three months. So it could still take a few more weeks.
In the meantime, my singing is improving. I'm having some more lessons with The Diva. She is teaching me some improvisation techniques that are going to be very useful.
And I'm doing better with my Portuguese. My vocabulary is expanding. I can write an almost-correct paragraph. I'm understanding the spoken language a bit more.
I've found some on-line tools to help me. DuoLingo provides quick lessons, involving translating simple written and spoken phrases. Sometimes you have to select the correct words from a small collection. Just tap on the word to add it to the sentence. There is also Babadum, an online game that builds your vocabulary by asking you to select the correct word to match the picture, or vice versa.
I notice that the young girl in our group, Sasha, is starting to read aloud quite fluently. She has improved quickly. She attributes this to the fact that she has been watching "Brazil's Next Top Model". I'm going to start watching this, too. I can watch past episodes on demand, on my i-pad.
There are so many more tools available now, than when I was learning languages at school and at University. If only I had had access to these, back in those days!
Eneias suggests we plan our repertoire for the show. I'm happy to do that, but I'll be ever so much happier when his visa comes through.
For the moment, I have no choice but to play the waiting game.
It's been seven weeks since I lodged Eneias' application for a "Short-stay Entertainment Visa" to come to Australia to perform with me.
The show is in mid-February, and apart from an email saying "Your application is still in progress" I've heard nothing.
I would like to start the marketing campaign. I should be rehearsing. But what's the point, if we are not certain that the show can go ahead?
I feel unsettled. To alleviate my anxiety, I'm eating and drinking too much. Poking in cheese and throwing down glasses of wine like there's no tomorrow. Not a thought for the summer that is fast approaching, let alone the fact that I'll be going on stage with a visiting Brazilian guitarist.
I'm going to look like a blimp.
Please. Give the man a visa. He is no threat to our national security.
According to the web site, the indicative time frame for this type of visa is three months. So it could still take a few more weeks.
In the meantime, my singing is improving. I'm having some more lessons with The Diva. She is teaching me some improvisation techniques that are going to be very useful.
And I'm doing better with my Portuguese. My vocabulary is expanding. I can write an almost-correct paragraph. I'm understanding the spoken language a bit more.
I've found some on-line tools to help me. DuoLingo provides quick lessons, involving translating simple written and spoken phrases. Sometimes you have to select the correct words from a small collection. Just tap on the word to add it to the sentence. There is also Babadum, an online game that builds your vocabulary by asking you to select the correct word to match the picture, or vice versa.
I notice that the young girl in our group, Sasha, is starting to read aloud quite fluently. She has improved quickly. She attributes this to the fact that she has been watching "Brazil's Next Top Model". I'm going to start watching this, too. I can watch past episodes on demand, on my i-pad.
There are so many more tools available now, than when I was learning languages at school and at University. If only I had had access to these, back in those days!
Eneias suggests we plan our repertoire for the show. I'm happy to do that, but I'll be ever so much happier when his visa comes through.
For the moment, I have no choice but to play the waiting game.
