Arbeid: Blogging live from Mu

se oppSome time ago I wrote an entry called Arbeid, which was about working in Norway. Tonight I’m updating you on that subject, from my place of work. Yes, I’m blogging to you live from behind the bar at Sound of Mu. It’s 8.30pm and there are eight people drinking here.


As I may have mentioned before, Sound of Mu is an art gallery / bar run by an artists’ collective. I’m part of this collective and work here part time, which means I finally have a regularly paying job. There’s money in my account, but it had been empty so long I forgot my pin number, and a machine ate my card.
I’ve started a second job, doing some English-language editing of academic documents, and that’s work from home (or from here… wherever I have my computer…). I have to register with Brønnøysundregistrene to be self-employed and send invoices. But that’s fairly straightforward – there’s a website where I downloaded a form. I’m also still registered with a casting agency to do acting work, which occasionally comes my way.
To update you on what I wrote before about “how to live and work in Norway”:
Skattekort: this is the card I need to pay tax. I had one for 2005, but as a non-resident I did not receive a new one automatically. I had to go on down to soulsville (Tøyen) and fill out a form at the tax office (likningskontor).
I am putting an application together for my “first-time residence permit”. Sound of Mu have filled out a form called an ansettelsesbevis. That is proof that I work here. I also have to submit a copy of my work contract.
PS Something I didn’t do when I left my job in London was sign on as unemployed. If I had done that I could have taken a form called an E301 and I’d have collected my UK unemployment benefit in Norway.

barry
Barry Kavanagh writes fiction, and has made music, formerly with Dacianos.

Contact him here.