Most salons here employ graduates who have completed a 1 year beautician course at a cost of $18,000.

My husband has been a lot more supportive over the last few days.

He realizes with me that when I lost my job in September- I wasn't only losing my job - there's every possibility I've lost 15 years worth of my teaching career.

We crunched numbers this weekend. Let's say hypotheticly for the first few months I see 8 clients with an "average" cost of $40 per treatment- depending on what it is - this would turn into a "hobby" because all I would be doing is working to pay off the interest of the loan.

We haven't entirely shut the door permanently. I got an Australian Business Licence Number and have locked in the business name with a patent. Also creating a website for the business so that I've locked in the www address.

I've been keeping an eye out on other jobs. Admin kinds really. But they're all saying things like minimum of 2 years experience or blah blah blah!