Had a bit of an unpleasant surprise waiting in my postbox last night - a statement from Deutsche Bank. I have an online/phone account, so they charge for statements. I didn't ask for one. I don't want one. But they sent me one anyway, and if they send me one again they're going to start charging me 2.49 Euro per statement.
Apparently they're sending it to me because I haven't used a statement-printing machine in 6 weeks. Well, that's because I can see my account online. I neither want nor need to print statements. But now I'll have to haul myself up to either the branch one U-bahn stop from the office or the one on the far end of Zeil at least once a month or else they'll send me a statement and charge me for it.
Also, I've been being charged 4.99 Euro every time I withdraw cash. Turns out the 'EC Card' machine (and yes, I have an EC Card) in the supermarket is not linked to Deutsche Bank, and has been merrily charging me without any indication whatsoever. No 'You will be charged x.xx for this transaction. Do you want to proceed?' as you get in cash machines in pubs, betting shops and exhibition centres. Just silently skimming off 4.99 Euro every time.
So, I'll have to walk up to the aforementioned two banks or find one of the three partner banks to avoid this.
All very underhanded, and making UK banking look very good indeed. Did I mention I'm paying to have a current account as well? I don't object to that in theory, but the Euros keep adding up.
Wednesday, 30 April 2008
Tuesday, 29 April 2008
Fly me to the moon
I received an invite to my cousin's wedding today - well, an email saying he needed my address to send me one. They're getting married on the isle of Inisbofin, which Dad says is rather like the moon in terms of actually getting there.
I had a look at getting from Clifden to the ferry port, Cleggan, on Google Maps, and it's a bit like... looking at the moon. Either the satellite photography is a bit strange, or the landscape is.
I had a look at getting from Clifden to the ferry port, Cleggan, on Google Maps, and it's a bit like... looking at the moon. Either the satellite photography is a bit strange, or the landscape is.
Sunday, 27 April 2008
Long Night of the Museums
Photos are here! (And for once Picasa uploaded them in proper time order...)
It isn't actually called 'Long', but I saw it somewhere else and thought it was a fun title. The basic premise is simple - for a 12 Euro ticket you get unlimited entry to 49 museums in and around Frankfurt between 7pm and 2am, with free buses, trams, tourist railway and ferries laid on.
I headed into town around 2pm to meet Z, who had texted me earlier. The weather was stunning, and we got some ice cream and managed to find a nice park to have it in. We headed back towards the main street to see if we could catch up with some other friends, but didn't in the end. Our favourite place, the Japanese restaurant Iroha, was closed between lunch and dinner so we had some pasta nearby instead. Z went home to do some songwriting and I went to buy my ticket, determined to go even if no-one else was.
Next stop was the riverside, where I finally got onto to one of the Primus Line ships that plys its way up and down the river, going east or west along the Main for 25 minutes before turning around, docking and going the other way. I got a ticket for the whole 100 minute east-west trip and enjoyed it immensely. I had decided to take my camera without the large bag to stay light, so of course the batteries started to run out as soon as I got on the ship, and I had no spares. I can always take the cruise again - it was only 9 Euros. There were fantastic views of the city, as well as the working ports and coal-fired power station. And just the joy of being on the water.
Two fit young men were attaching banners and lights for the Night of the Musuems on the side of the boat, all done with plastic ties. There was also what appeared to be a stag party on board, who descended into the first area I chose to sit in, so I moved on and ended up on the top deck with no seat, but that was fine. It was unfortunately also the smoking area, but when we docked to go the other way I managed to get a seat right up the front.
Once we got back to the riverside, it was getting chilly and I decided that although it was nearly 7pm I had better get something to eat. I headed back up through the Romersplatz and was rather dismayed at the massive queues outside the History Museum and the ticket stalls. I went back to Iroha, now open for dinner, and there was a slight misunderstanding (I was at a table for two, and the waitress who hadn't seated me thought I was waiting for someone and so didn't try to take my order) that cost me some time, but the food is always lovely. Fortified with teriyaki chicken, miso soup with mushrooms, rice and tea I headed back to the riverside.
I had done my plotting in the restaurant and decided to hit the Film Museum and Architecture Museum to see the anime exhibits I hadn't seen before, then the sculpture museum and finally the big one - the Städel Museum. The Primus Line were in action again as the free ferry for the night, so I hopped on and was whisked across the river to a pier just in front of the Städel Museum. I headed back up the way we'd come to get to the Film and Architecture Museums, which are conveniently next to each other.
The Film Museum exhibit was very good, with a section on different types of anime (shoujo, for girls; shounen, for boys; seinen for adult men and others) and also on European-Japanese co-productions that flourished in the 1960s. I recognised many series I'd seen as a kid in France there and it was nice to see them covered. It was a basic introduction, but an excellent one. There were also cels (hand-painted images on acetate sheets that are used to film the animation) for a number of series, including Kiki's Delivery Service and Mononoke Hime. And at the exit was a full-motion trailer for the computer game Final Fantasy XIII, which looked very impressive. (Link to video for Final Fantasy XIII and Final Fantasy XIII Versus)
The exhibit in the Architecture Museum was much more specialised, and focused on the Metabolist group of avant-garde architects active in Japan in the 1960s and how many of the urban landscapes or particular buildings in anime resemble their designs, particularly the skyscrapers lowering to become underground stalactites during attacks in Evangelion, or the prayer hall in Akira that looks like something by Kenzo Tange. They were showing anime in rotation in a secluded section of the room - in the middle of it - with Appleseed, Ghost in the Shell, Evangelion, Akira and others. There were also magnified panels from X-1999, a manga and anime by CLAMP which features the destruction of real Tokyo landmark buildings. It was very nicely done, and did a great job of linking the urban landscapes in anime in with these utopian architectural movements, even if it was very specialised.
I stopped off for a coffee in the ground floor bar, sent a text message to himself and Dad (who would no doubt be amused at the thought of being in a museum at 10pm) and had another look at my map.
One thing I have noticed about Germans - and maybe it was only that evening - but they have no concept of being in the way. People stop to talk, sit down, or just for no visible reason in doorways, gangways, staircases and narrow paths. And they have no compunctions about shoving in when they want to get somewhere, as I found when getting on and off the boat (no need to give way to your elders, they'll get there first) and when I was shoved into a doorframe in the sculpture museum by another older lady. The younger man behind her kindly let me past. Unpleasant memories of special exhibitions in Japan.
I walked past the Städel Museum again on my way to the sculpture museum, and there was still a queue, as well as a huge number of people eating and drinking on the lawn outside. The Liebieghaus, to give the sculpture museum its proper name, is fairly small but well laid out, and in a sense a perfect size as you stay interested throughout. Most of it is middle ages religious art with a little Asian religious sculpture. I'm not mad on religious themes, but there was one Pieta that was quite moving, with Mary's face shadowed by a scarf with an expression of quiet despair.
There was a good arrangement of exhibits that linked the different styles - unfortunately I managed to walk through some of it backwards - including Baroque, which was defined as initially a pejorative term for something over the top or grotesque but gradually gained a more positive meaning. The figures are huge and mighty and use poses from theatre, and the gloss on the walls explained it in terms of religious figures needing to create a greater impact on the common people to aggrandise themselves. The birth of spin?
I walked back to the Städel Museum, and there was still a queue. I was getting tired and wasn't sure I wanted to take it on, so decided to skip it and instead make for my back-up museum, the Museum fur Moderne Kunst, the modern art museum, which according to my (2004) guidebook had some Roy Lichtenstein. I was treated to the always impressive sight of the Primus Line doing the equivalent of a handbrake turn on the Main before boarding and being ferried back over to the north side of the river. (Ferries are right up there with trams, funiculars and cable cars as my favourite ways of getting places.)
On the way there, walking through the back of the still-heaving Romersplatz, I found another museum with a display of women impressionists, so detoured into the Schirn Kunsthalle. There were a large number of paintings and drawings by each of four artists, and again I went around it my own way (although they didn't seem to be arranged in any particular order that I could see) so I had fun guessing what year the work was from by how the artist evolved into and out of a classical impressionist style. Some of the impressionist/pointillist paintings were amazing, and two of the artists developed a very detailed pen and ink style afterwards, as if in reaction to the soft-focus impressionist style.
I didn't find any Roy Lichtenstein at the Museum fur Moderne Kunst around the corner, but from the museum website it seems they change around up to half the rooms every 6 months. What I did find was a huge exhibition of works by Bernard Buffet, which was very, very interesting. His 'Horrors of War' looked like an updated vision of hell from Bruegel, his self-portrait looks astonishingly like Jamie Hewlett's Murdoc from the virtual band Gorillaz, and he paints the most unsexy naked people I've ever seen.
Finding even one artist I like in a modern art museum is something for me, and I wasn't that interested by anything else, including frame-shaped bits of string and photos that if they were taken by anyone else would have been binned. A band was playing 1950s and 1960s French cafe music downstairs, and the building itself was very nice, all big and small spaces and brightly-lit white walls which woke me up a bit. I staggered out at 12:45am.
The Starbucks in Romersplatz was still open, so I got a (very mediocre) hot chocolate and made my weary way home. Threw all my drying off the bed onto the floor (there's something wrong with the dryer in the building so everything came out damp) and goodnight Frankfurt.
It isn't actually called 'Long', but I saw it somewhere else and thought it was a fun title. The basic premise is simple - for a 12 Euro ticket you get unlimited entry to 49 museums in and around Frankfurt between 7pm and 2am, with free buses, trams, tourist railway and ferries laid on.
I headed into town around 2pm to meet Z, who had texted me earlier. The weather was stunning, and we got some ice cream and managed to find a nice park to have it in. We headed back towards the main street to see if we could catch up with some other friends, but didn't in the end. Our favourite place, the Japanese restaurant Iroha, was closed between lunch and dinner so we had some pasta nearby instead. Z went home to do some songwriting and I went to buy my ticket, determined to go even if no-one else was.
Next stop was the riverside, where I finally got onto to one of the Primus Line ships that plys its way up and down the river, going east or west along the Main for 25 minutes before turning around, docking and going the other way. I got a ticket for the whole 100 minute east-west trip and enjoyed it immensely. I had decided to take my camera without the large bag to stay light, so of course the batteries started to run out as soon as I got on the ship, and I had no spares. I can always take the cruise again - it was only 9 Euros. There were fantastic views of the city, as well as the working ports and coal-fired power station. And just the joy of being on the water.
Two fit young men were attaching banners and lights for the Night of the Musuems on the side of the boat, all done with plastic ties. There was also what appeared to be a stag party on board, who descended into the first area I chose to sit in, so I moved on and ended up on the top deck with no seat, but that was fine. It was unfortunately also the smoking area, but when we docked to go the other way I managed to get a seat right up the front.
Once we got back to the riverside, it was getting chilly and I decided that although it was nearly 7pm I had better get something to eat. I headed back up through the Romersplatz and was rather dismayed at the massive queues outside the History Museum and the ticket stalls. I went back to Iroha, now open for dinner, and there was a slight misunderstanding (I was at a table for two, and the waitress who hadn't seated me thought I was waiting for someone and so didn't try to take my order) that cost me some time, but the food is always lovely. Fortified with teriyaki chicken, miso soup with mushrooms, rice and tea I headed back to the riverside.
I had done my plotting in the restaurant and decided to hit the Film Museum and Architecture Museum to see the anime exhibits I hadn't seen before, then the sculpture museum and finally the big one - the Städel Museum. The Primus Line were in action again as the free ferry for the night, so I hopped on and was whisked across the river to a pier just in front of the Städel Museum. I headed back up the way we'd come to get to the Film and Architecture Museums, which are conveniently next to each other.
The Film Museum exhibit was very good, with a section on different types of anime (shoujo, for girls; shounen, for boys; seinen for adult men and others) and also on European-Japanese co-productions that flourished in the 1960s. I recognised many series I'd seen as a kid in France there and it was nice to see them covered. It was a basic introduction, but an excellent one. There were also cels (hand-painted images on acetate sheets that are used to film the animation) for a number of series, including Kiki's Delivery Service and Mononoke Hime. And at the exit was a full-motion trailer for the computer game Final Fantasy XIII, which looked very impressive. (Link to video for Final Fantasy XIII and Final Fantasy XIII Versus)
The exhibit in the Architecture Museum was much more specialised, and focused on the Metabolist group of avant-garde architects active in Japan in the 1960s and how many of the urban landscapes or particular buildings in anime resemble their designs, particularly the skyscrapers lowering to become underground stalactites during attacks in Evangelion, or the prayer hall in Akira that looks like something by Kenzo Tange. They were showing anime in rotation in a secluded section of the room - in the middle of it - with Appleseed, Ghost in the Shell, Evangelion, Akira and others. There were also magnified panels from X-1999, a manga and anime by CLAMP which features the destruction of real Tokyo landmark buildings. It was very nicely done, and did a great job of linking the urban landscapes in anime in with these utopian architectural movements, even if it was very specialised.
I stopped off for a coffee in the ground floor bar, sent a text message to himself and Dad (who would no doubt be amused at the thought of being in a museum at 10pm) and had another look at my map.
One thing I have noticed about Germans - and maybe it was only that evening - but they have no concept of being in the way. People stop to talk, sit down, or just for no visible reason in doorways, gangways, staircases and narrow paths. And they have no compunctions about shoving in when they want to get somewhere, as I found when getting on and off the boat (no need to give way to your elders, they'll get there first) and when I was shoved into a doorframe in the sculpture museum by another older lady. The younger man behind her kindly let me past. Unpleasant memories of special exhibitions in Japan.
I walked past the Städel Museum again on my way to the sculpture museum, and there was still a queue, as well as a huge number of people eating and drinking on the lawn outside. The Liebieghaus, to give the sculpture museum its proper name, is fairly small but well laid out, and in a sense a perfect size as you stay interested throughout. Most of it is middle ages religious art with a little Asian religious sculpture. I'm not mad on religious themes, but there was one Pieta that was quite moving, with Mary's face shadowed by a scarf with an expression of quiet despair.
There was a good arrangement of exhibits that linked the different styles - unfortunately I managed to walk through some of it backwards - including Baroque, which was defined as initially a pejorative term for something over the top or grotesque but gradually gained a more positive meaning. The figures are huge and mighty and use poses from theatre, and the gloss on the walls explained it in terms of religious figures needing to create a greater impact on the common people to aggrandise themselves. The birth of spin?
I walked back to the Städel Museum, and there was still a queue. I was getting tired and wasn't sure I wanted to take it on, so decided to skip it and instead make for my back-up museum, the Museum fur Moderne Kunst, the modern art museum, which according to my (2004) guidebook had some Roy Lichtenstein. I was treated to the always impressive sight of the Primus Line doing the equivalent of a handbrake turn on the Main before boarding and being ferried back over to the north side of the river. (Ferries are right up there with trams, funiculars and cable cars as my favourite ways of getting places.)
On the way there, walking through the back of the still-heaving Romersplatz, I found another museum with a display of women impressionists, so detoured into the Schirn Kunsthalle. There were a large number of paintings and drawings by each of four artists, and again I went around it my own way (although they didn't seem to be arranged in any particular order that I could see) so I had fun guessing what year the work was from by how the artist evolved into and out of a classical impressionist style. Some of the impressionist/pointillist paintings were amazing, and two of the artists developed a very detailed pen and ink style afterwards, as if in reaction to the soft-focus impressionist style.
I didn't find any Roy Lichtenstein at the Museum fur Moderne Kunst around the corner, but from the museum website it seems they change around up to half the rooms every 6 months. What I did find was a huge exhibition of works by Bernard Buffet, which was very, very interesting. His 'Horrors of War' looked like an updated vision of hell from Bruegel, his self-portrait looks astonishingly like Jamie Hewlett's Murdoc from the virtual band Gorillaz, and he paints the most unsexy naked people I've ever seen.
Finding even one artist I like in a modern art museum is something for me, and I wasn't that interested by anything else, including frame-shaped bits of string and photos that if they were taken by anyone else would have been binned. A band was playing 1950s and 1960s French cafe music downstairs, and the building itself was very nice, all big and small spaces and brightly-lit white walls which woke me up a bit. I staggered out at 12:45am.
The Starbucks in Romersplatz was still open, so I got a (very mediocre) hot chocolate and made my weary way home. Threw all my drying off the bed onto the floor (there's something wrong with the dryer in the building so everything came out damp) and goodnight Frankfurt.
Hardcore Culture
When was the last time you came home from a museum at 1:30am?
Details later today... for now I need to get all my drying off my bed so I can get into it...
Details later today... for now I need to get all my drying off my bed so I can get into it...
Friday, 25 April 2008
Friday night's all right for
... staying in, this time. My colleagues evaporated at the end of the day, to play football, go home and nurse a cold or in one case to buy an X-Box 360 and hit the town courtesy of a rebate from the German taxman.
I passed on information about the 'Night of the Museums' tomorrow, but no-one seemed interested so I'll probably be doing that on my own as well. I should at least get some photos, and I might go in earlier and walk around and maybe take a boat trip up and down the river.
Must get out more, lack of German notwithstanding.
I passed on information about the 'Night of the Museums' tomorrow, but no-one seemed interested so I'll probably be doing that on my own as well. I should at least get some photos, and I might go in earlier and walk around and maybe take a boat trip up and down the river.
Must get out more, lack of German notwithstanding.
Thursday, 24 April 2008
Her story
Finished Unit 5, which is the last distance-learning unit for Social Studies. After this it's the translation (waiting for it to arrive in the post in Reading), seminars at the residential week and essay.
There was some reading material in the course pack that went into mercifully brief detail about how 'comfort women' (a euphemism if ever there was one) were 'recruited' to serve at Japanese army stations during the Asia-Pacific War through WWII. It put me into my own private nightmare for the 40 or so minutes I spent reading it. After closing the coursepack, I felt like the sunny day, colleagues giggling as they sent instant messages and BBC story about banks losing their case on charges were all quite unreal.
(For anyone interested, the text was 'Procurement of Comfort Women and their Lives as Sexual Slaves' by Y. Tanaka, in Japan's Comfort Women: Sexual Slavery and Prostitution during World War II and the US Occupation, London, Routledge 2002)
So, tonight I have to record my presentation and tomorrow it's report writing... I should be grateful for the chance to get all this done in work time, it would have been a really hard slog in the evenings and weekends otherwise. Speaking of which, it's nearly Friday again - I really should plan something. There's a bank holiday Thursday next week too.
After getting out of work on time, I ran up to my flat (No. 32, but actually on the 4th floor) and grabbed some washing and my box of powder, then went down to the basement - to find the machine in use, and unhelpfully it doesn't say how long it has left to go. So, back up again. That's my stairclimbing for the day.
There was some reading material in the course pack that went into mercifully brief detail about how 'comfort women' (a euphemism if ever there was one) were 'recruited' to serve at Japanese army stations during the Asia-Pacific War through WWII. It put me into my own private nightmare for the 40 or so minutes I spent reading it. After closing the coursepack, I felt like the sunny day, colleagues giggling as they sent instant messages and BBC story about banks losing their case on charges were all quite unreal.
(For anyone interested, the text was 'Procurement of Comfort Women and their Lives as Sexual Slaves' by Y. Tanaka, in Japan's Comfort Women: Sexual Slavery and Prostitution during World War II and the US Occupation, London, Routledge 2002)
So, tonight I have to record my presentation and tomorrow it's report writing... I should be grateful for the chance to get all this done in work time, it would have been a really hard slog in the evenings and weekends otherwise. Speaking of which, it's nearly Friday again - I really should plan something. There's a bank holiday Thursday next week too.
After getting out of work on time, I ran up to my flat (No. 32, but actually on the 4th floor) and grabbed some washing and my box of powder, then went down to the basement - to find the machine in use, and unhelpfully it doesn't say how long it has left to go. So, back up again. That's my stairclimbing for the day.
Back at Uni
I finished off Unit 3, did all of Unit 4 and edited my presentation - left everything at work, forgetting that I needed the script for the presentation to record it. Oh well, I can do it tonight...
Today I'm bringing in Unit 5 and if I can get that done I'll see if I can start on my report-writing assignment on Friday. Getting quite into this now, it's like being back at my Japanese school.
One of the reasons I left everything at work yesterday was to run into the main shopping street and look at steamers and rice cookers. The only place I could find selling them was Saturn, they had one huge rice cooker (and I keep reading reviews saying that if you only put small amounts of rice in large cookers, it burns) and the steamers were much, much larger than I thought. Basically, it would have taken up all my food preparation space...
I also grabbed a ham & gouda sandwich from the supermarket on my way in - and in contrast to my experiences so far, it was the worst spongy, crumbly white bread I've had in a very long time.
Today I'm bringing in Unit 5 and if I can get that done I'll see if I can start on my report-writing assignment on Friday. Getting quite into this now, it's like being back at my Japanese school.
One of the reasons I left everything at work yesterday was to run into the main shopping street and look at steamers and rice cookers. The only place I could find selling them was Saturn, they had one huge rice cooker (and I keep reading reviews saying that if you only put small amounts of rice in large cookers, it burns) and the steamers were much, much larger than I thought. Basically, it would have taken up all my food preparation space...
I also grabbed a ham & gouda sandwich from the supermarket on my way in - and in contrast to my experiences so far, it was the worst spongy, crumbly white bread I've had in a very long time.
Tuesday, 22 April 2008
Zombie time
I was just about awake and staggering around when my doorbell went at 8:15am - it was the landlord with my receipts for the internet access and a promise of getting the hall light fixed. I hope my spiky-haired, pyjama-clad, non-glasses wearing demeanour didn't scare him too badly.
Work was insanely boring again. There were a few emails about something I'm no longer really involved in, then I set to work seriously damaging my brain by getting stuck in to my Social Studies module. I did manage to get most of it done... but I'm not sure I remember anything.
We had a planned power outage at lunch, so we headed off as a team to the Japanese restaurant near the Disney tower. Wonderful salt-fried fish with rice, soup, seasonal veg and pickles for me - others had sukiyaki, tempura or sashimi. Wonderful though it was, it took us nearly an hour and a half to get there, eat and get back, so we were all in until 6:30 or later.
It was so nice I spent a while on the internet looking for rice cookers - or possibly a steamer that does rice... but I wasn't sure if the shops closed at 7 or 8, and I wasn't going to make it very far by 7. So I contented myself with going to the supermarket next door and getting the ingredients for nikujaga, a Japanese stew. I didn't have the dashi fish stock, but it turned out pretty well. I'm quite proud of myself for doing my pilates and cooking on a evening when I felt like getting into bed as soon as I got home...
More boredom (and Social Studies) forecast for the rest of the week.
Work was insanely boring again. There were a few emails about something I'm no longer really involved in, then I set to work seriously damaging my brain by getting stuck in to my Social Studies module. I did manage to get most of it done... but I'm not sure I remember anything.
We had a planned power outage at lunch, so we headed off as a team to the Japanese restaurant near the Disney tower. Wonderful salt-fried fish with rice, soup, seasonal veg and pickles for me - others had sukiyaki, tempura or sashimi. Wonderful though it was, it took us nearly an hour and a half to get there, eat and get back, so we were all in until 6:30 or later.
It was so nice I spent a while on the internet looking for rice cookers - or possibly a steamer that does rice... but I wasn't sure if the shops closed at 7 or 8, and I wasn't going to make it very far by 7. So I contented myself with going to the supermarket next door and getting the ingredients for nikujaga, a Japanese stew. I didn't have the dashi fish stock, but it turned out pretty well. I'm quite proud of myself for doing my pilates and cooking on a evening when I felt like getting into bed as soon as I got home...
More boredom (and Social Studies) forecast for the rest of the week.
Monday, 21 April 2008
Worth getting up early for
My doorbell just went - I have no idea how to operate the buzzer, so I just ran downstairs. Mr. Bock (there's an umlaut in there) turned out to be a young, cheerful and pleasant shaven-headed man in company body-warmer. He seemed genuinely pleased with the chocolate-covered strawberries I had as a thank-you. It's hard enough to buy anything for guys I do know, let alone ones I don't.
The box was covered in customs tape - they had cut open the bottom and removed the packing list from its outside packet, then put it inside the box. Everyone seems to have had this packet before me. I wasn't charged anything though - maybe they don't count postage...
Anyway, it's just as cute as it looked on the site.
The box was covered in customs tape - they had cut open the bottom and removed the packing list from its outside packet, then put it inside the box. Everyone seems to have had this packet before me. I wasn't charged anything though - maybe they don't count postage...
Anyway, it's just as cute as it looked on the site.
Sunday, 20 April 2008
Good deeds...
... never go unpunished, as Mom likes to say. But not always.
Despite thinking about heading to the zoo or taking one of the tourist cruises, I spent today sleeping in (needed), getting my IM software to speak to AIM (horrific! Required installing additional software, creating an account on a server goodness knows where and getting my own AIM account) and feeling ill - not sure why, I ate exactly the same things I had yesterday and I was fine then.
I did get a lot done on my Japanese Spoken Language assignment which is due in on Friday. I must do a test reading to see if it comes out at 2 or 10 minutes (the usual margin of error for me if it's supposed to be 5).
And I checked the noticeboard for my MA year for Japanese Spoken Language to see if there was anything new, and found a plea for good Japanese internet radio. I had a look, was quite disappointed by NHK, but persevered and was rewarded with a weekly Ghibli podcast from Tokyo FM! It's busily downloading now. Joy.
Despite thinking about heading to the zoo or taking one of the tourist cruises, I spent today sleeping in (needed), getting my IM software to speak to AIM (horrific! Required installing additional software, creating an account on a server goodness knows where and getting my own AIM account) and feeling ill - not sure why, I ate exactly the same things I had yesterday and I was fine then.
I did get a lot done on my Japanese Spoken Language assignment which is due in on Friday. I must do a test reading to see if it comes out at 2 or 10 minutes (the usual margin of error for me if it's supposed to be 5).
And I checked the noticeboard for my MA year for Japanese Spoken Language to see if there was anything new, and found a plea for good Japanese internet radio. I had a look, was quite disappointed by NHK, but persevered and was rewarded with a weekly Ghibli podcast from Tokyo FM! It's busily downloading now. Joy.
Saturday, 19 April 2008
Eureka
While not getting a good night's sleep and rampant boredom may be to blame for some of my zombiness this week, another potential culprit has stepped up. Although the classic symptom of swollen eyelids hasn't shown, the distinctive itching in the inner ear finally did. It happens every year, and I still never recognise it until I've been feeling out of sorts for a week - yep, my hayfever is back.
In another feat of what-would-we-do-without-the-internet, I looked up the generic name for the active ingredient in my favourite antihistamine and managed to get it at the local pharmacy, in its generic form, for 7 Euro for 20 tablets. Result.
The weather forecast was spot on, it's raining and grey and chilly. It's supposed to be better tomorrow. I'll write my postcards for Japan - they didn't have any 1 Euro stamps at the post office, but I have some 55 cent ones with poppies and 45 cent ones with daisies instead. I should also do some more work on my presentation - which needs to be turned into a 5-minute recording by next Friday - but I feel more like studying German. I'm sick of sounding like I have a mental age of 2.
In other news, I've been asked to consider staying on until the end of September (a month longer than my current contract) to work on a new project. Fine in principle, and they have signed off my holidays for the craft fair I'm doing and my residential week. Need to be careful about being in Japan at the right time for my brother getting there after Mongolia though. And, like the project that has just ended, I won't be doing any translation. Just supporting the people using English as a source and spotting errors in the existing translation. No idea if I'll be allowed to correct them or not yet.
It's incredibly frustrating. I came here to translate, not edit. I know editing and checking are also valuable skills, but they're not the ones I'm after right now... I may have to try to find something to do on the side to get the experience I want.
In another feat of what-would-we-do-without-the-internet, I looked up the generic name for the active ingredient in my favourite antihistamine and managed to get it at the local pharmacy, in its generic form, for 7 Euro for 20 tablets. Result.
The weather forecast was spot on, it's raining and grey and chilly. It's supposed to be better tomorrow. I'll write my postcards for Japan - they didn't have any 1 Euro stamps at the post office, but I have some 55 cent ones with poppies and 45 cent ones with daisies instead. I should also do some more work on my presentation - which needs to be turned into a 5-minute recording by next Friday - but I feel more like studying German. I'm sick of sounding like I have a mental age of 2.
In other news, I've been asked to consider staying on until the end of September (a month longer than my current contract) to work on a new project. Fine in principle, and they have signed off my holidays for the craft fair I'm doing and my residential week. Need to be careful about being in Japan at the right time for my brother getting there after Mongolia though. And, like the project that has just ended, I won't be doing any translation. Just supporting the people using English as a source and spotting errors in the existing translation. No idea if I'll be allowed to correct them or not yet.
It's incredibly frustrating. I came here to translate, not edit. I know editing and checking are also valuable skills, but they're not the ones I'm after right now... I may have to try to find something to do on the side to get the experience I want.
Friday, 18 April 2008
A whole new challenge
I was gearing up to try to deal with a 'we called but you weren't in' card from the post office, but what I got was that plus the business card of someone who I think is doing plumbing work in the building next door. Apparently, he has my package.
Do Royal Mail or An Post do this? Hand packages over to tradesmen who aren't even working in the place?
Anyway, a short and painful phone conversation later, the nice man will be here at 7:30am on Monday with my package. I'll be getting up early then.
WTF?!, as they say.
Do Royal Mail or An Post do this? Hand packages over to tradesmen who aren't even working in the place?
Anyway, a short and painful phone conversation later, the nice man will be here at 7:30am on Monday with my package. I'll be getting up early then.
WTF?!, as they say.
Thursday, 17 April 2008
Phew
Just sent in my mini annotated translation, which is a weight off my mind. I really liked having the time to go through it again and again - I kept seeing new things each time, and felt like I really got to grips with what the author was trying to say. It's not a feeling I've had often, and it was a good one.
For anyone who's interested, it was part of a essay by Miyazaki Hayao from the collection Shuppatsuten ('Starting Points'). I would put the name in kanji, but Firefox is cranky and not accepting Japanese input. So much for the bulletproofness of Macs.
I will officially be off the project I'm on at the moment next week, which will mean a little less wait-and-hurry-up, I hope. Today was particularly bad, where I'd bored myself into a stupor by the time any work turned up about 3pm. It makes it so hard to concentrate on what I'm supposed to be doing. A mistake in the terminology lists and the producer asking me to get someone to proofread my changing 3 words (so I had a typo in the files - I was the one who found and corrected it and it's not like the Japanese head office noticed when they approved the change - end rant) didn't help.
Bought some postcards, but feel too braindead to write them tonight - all for Japan.
Should really do something on the weekend - Z is organising dinner on Friday, so I think he's finally been paid - but I may just sleep and play sloth. Despite thinking I slept better this week I was still fairly shattered today. Unless it is just the boredom.
There is an easy option for a day out - even on Sunday! - in the form of the Zoo. Saturday is forecast to be cold and raining, so it might be a good day to be in anyway.
For anyone who's interested, it was part of a essay by Miyazaki Hayao from the collection Shuppatsuten ('Starting Points'). I would put the name in kanji, but Firefox is cranky and not accepting Japanese input. So much for the bulletproofness of Macs.
I will officially be off the project I'm on at the moment next week, which will mean a little less wait-and-hurry-up, I hope. Today was particularly bad, where I'd bored myself into a stupor by the time any work turned up about 3pm. It makes it so hard to concentrate on what I'm supposed to be doing. A mistake in the terminology lists and the producer asking me to get someone to proofread my changing 3 words (so I had a typo in the files - I was the one who found and corrected it and it's not like the Japanese head office noticed when they approved the change - end rant) didn't help.
Bought some postcards, but feel too braindead to write them tonight - all for Japan.
Should really do something on the weekend - Z is organising dinner on Friday, so I think he's finally been paid - but I may just sleep and play sloth. Despite thinking I slept better this week I was still fairly shattered today. Unless it is just the boredom.
There is an easy option for a day out - even on Sunday! - in the form of the Zoo. Saturday is forecast to be cold and raining, so it might be a good day to be in anyway.
Tuesday, 15 April 2008
The best laid plans
Just as I finally thought I was getting to grips with my MA work, I realise that not only does my translation need to be with the department on Friday... they want it by post. Plan B - applied for an extension, researched the German equivalent of Special Delivery, wrote reminders to myself in big block capitals to print everything out at work on Thursday, and bought some A4 envelopes on the way home.
Only to find that in response to my request for an extension, the department quite happily said I could email it all. In complete contrast to the schedule and the Handbook they so love referring me to. Anyone need some envelopes?
They also forgot to put the translation for the Social Studies course (the one where each unit is taking me several days) in the course pack, so that is coming - guess - in the post.
At least I've finally finished the glossary checking at work. I may get my brain back.
Only to find that in response to my request for an extension, the department quite happily said I could email it all. In complete contrast to the schedule and the Handbook they so love referring me to. Anyone need some envelopes?
They also forgot to put the translation for the Social Studies course (the one where each unit is taking me several days) in the course pack, so that is coming - guess - in the post.
At least I've finally finished the glossary checking at work. I may get my brain back.
Sunday, 13 April 2008
Crash
We appear to be having a massive thunderstorm. I wondered what the noise was - I had my headphones on while studying and only noticed when I got up to get something. (Listening to UNKLE remixes atm, forgot how good they were).
Saturday, 12 April 2008
A whole degree too far
I'm trying to finish up my Sheffield annotated translation - the first half of the first essay in Miyazaki Hayao's book 出発点 (Shuppatsuten or Starting Points). In it he speculates on why anime is so popular among 12-15 year olds. I decided to have a look online to see if I could find anything to say if that was still the case or not...
... and came across a whole load of people who are taking it all way too seriously. I love the stuff, but the idea of being 'a social scientist specializing in otaku studies' or my 'research interest' being 'the English-language "boy's love" manga's [sic] online fan community' is a bit much.
... and came across a whole load of people who are taking it all way too seriously. I love the stuff, but the idea of being 'a social scientist specializing in otaku studies' or my 'research interest' being 'the English-language "boy's love" manga's [sic] online fan community' is a bit much.
Rain check
I was most grateful for my new USB memory stick on Thursday, as I didn't have anything to do other than edit my Translator's Introduction and read the instructions for my practice presentation until about 2pm. Then the terminology checking was finally available with Japanese, and it's going to take another 2-3 days to finish. It's the kind of thing that leaves you completely cross-eyed, dazed and unable to spot your own name in a list. But anyway.
There was a notice on Thursday morning for going out to see the Luminale, a festival of light that is on for a week every year in Frankfurt and surrounds. I hadn't realised it was on... even if I walk into town, I'm on the near side of the main shopping area and so didn't go past any of the museum or riverside installations. I passed on it on Thursday, thinking I'd get a decent night's sleep and go on Friday instead with the camera.
I spent Friday - the last day of the Luminale - looking at rain. The temperature had dropped drastically and I reluctantly decided that there was no way I was taking the camera out. (I'm sure getting rain in the lens doesn't harm it, but it makes me nervous... You can see some pictures of the festival here.)
Instead I met up with Z and G and we went to Iroha, a very nice Japanese restaurant near Eschenheimer Tor (aka the Disney Tower). M, an Italian translator joined us and after G headed home we went to an Italian bar-restaurant near our building. It was, without a doubt, the liveliest place we've been to since we got to Frankfurt. The decor is great, there was a buzz from the crowd and the food looked lovely (we will go there another time to eat).
M was giving out about Z not drinking (religious reasons) - I thought he was going to drop when I told him I didn't either. He complained vociferously about it with the Italian owner, who looked equally unimpressed. He had been planning to treat me to a glass of Zaccagnini, which is made near his home town. (If anyone manages to try some please let me know what it was like!)
After a chat we headed home - it's great when you find somewhere nice within a few minutes walk - and I stayed up watching some anime. Saturday morning is for sleeping in after all.
I headed out around midday, walking up to a bookshop near G's where I'd seen something I wanted to buy as a present - but that was several weeks ago and it was gone. Damn. The sun was out and I had to stop to take off my jumper, even with just a t-shirt under my coat I was nearly too hot. I headed into town, and was walking past a guy in his late twenties or early thirties when two cyclists came towards us (cycling on the pavement is de rigeur here, in or out of the cycle lane and regardless of whether or not there is actually enough room). I passed him quickly and moved over in front of him to let the cyclists through.
The reason why I mention that is that it was the only thing I could think of that might have pissed him off. A moment later he stepped on the heel of my shoe, and when I looked back he said something to me that obviously wasn't an apology. I said sorry, I don't speak German, to which he replied 'Speak German?' and then went off in German again. He spoke quite a bit before saying a pointed 'goodbye' in English. I slowed down and let him get ahead of me, trying to figure out what it was all about.
He stopped, turned around and watched me coming as if waiting for me. I walked to the nearest crossing and stood next to some people, using looking for traffic as an excuse to see where he was. I lost sight of him, but after I crossed I could see that he had stayed on that side of the road and I dropped even further back on the other, feeling more like the stranger in the strange land than ever. After wandering around and not concentrating on what I'd come in for, I got some t-shirts and a set of hand weights for my pilates and went home via the supermarket. Nothing like a ham and cheese sandwich to make you feel better.
This afternoon I've mainly been failing to make a huge amount of progress on my Sheffield work, some of which is due in next Friday and some more the Friday after. I also need to do some washing, but when I walked downstairs to the washing machine (down four stories, then outside and into the basement) someone was using it, so I had to walk back up - I'll try again later. Here's hoping things get back into sync.
There was a notice on Thursday morning for going out to see the Luminale, a festival of light that is on for a week every year in Frankfurt and surrounds. I hadn't realised it was on... even if I walk into town, I'm on the near side of the main shopping area and so didn't go past any of the museum or riverside installations. I passed on it on Thursday, thinking I'd get a decent night's sleep and go on Friday instead with the camera.
I spent Friday - the last day of the Luminale - looking at rain. The temperature had dropped drastically and I reluctantly decided that there was no way I was taking the camera out. (I'm sure getting rain in the lens doesn't harm it, but it makes me nervous... You can see some pictures of the festival here.)
Instead I met up with Z and G and we went to Iroha, a very nice Japanese restaurant near Eschenheimer Tor (aka the Disney Tower). M, an Italian translator joined us and after G headed home we went to an Italian bar-restaurant near our building. It was, without a doubt, the liveliest place we've been to since we got to Frankfurt. The decor is great, there was a buzz from the crowd and the food looked lovely (we will go there another time to eat).
M was giving out about Z not drinking (religious reasons) - I thought he was going to drop when I told him I didn't either. He complained vociferously about it with the Italian owner, who looked equally unimpressed. He had been planning to treat me to a glass of Zaccagnini, which is made near his home town. (If anyone manages to try some please let me know what it was like!)
After a chat we headed home - it's great when you find somewhere nice within a few minutes walk - and I stayed up watching some anime. Saturday morning is for sleeping in after all.
I headed out around midday, walking up to a bookshop near G's where I'd seen something I wanted to buy as a present - but that was several weeks ago and it was gone. Damn. The sun was out and I had to stop to take off my jumper, even with just a t-shirt under my coat I was nearly too hot. I headed into town, and was walking past a guy in his late twenties or early thirties when two cyclists came towards us (cycling on the pavement is de rigeur here, in or out of the cycle lane and regardless of whether or not there is actually enough room). I passed him quickly and moved over in front of him to let the cyclists through.
The reason why I mention that is that it was the only thing I could think of that might have pissed him off. A moment later he stepped on the heel of my shoe, and when I looked back he said something to me that obviously wasn't an apology. I said sorry, I don't speak German, to which he replied 'Speak German?' and then went off in German again. He spoke quite a bit before saying a pointed 'goodbye' in English. I slowed down and let him get ahead of me, trying to figure out what it was all about.
He stopped, turned around and watched me coming as if waiting for me. I walked to the nearest crossing and stood next to some people, using looking for traffic as an excuse to see where he was. I lost sight of him, but after I crossed I could see that he had stayed on that side of the road and I dropped even further back on the other, feeling more like the stranger in the strange land than ever. After wandering around and not concentrating on what I'd come in for, I got some t-shirts and a set of hand weights for my pilates and went home via the supermarket. Nothing like a ham and cheese sandwich to make you feel better.
This afternoon I've mainly been failing to make a huge amount of progress on my Sheffield work, some of which is due in next Friday and some more the Friday after. I also need to do some washing, but when I walked downstairs to the washing machine (down four stories, then outside and into the basement) someone was using it, so I had to walk back up - I'll try again later. Here's hoping things get back into sync.
Wednesday, 9 April 2008
Wrong, wrong, wrong
This is, unbelievably, a new game for the Nintendo DS.
Link to Flash/Windows Media/Quicktime video trailer (3:45)
The worst is that at the end, they promise that you'll learn 'living English'...
Link to Flash/Windows Media/Quicktime video trailer (3:45)
The worst is that at the end, they promise that you'll learn 'living English'...
Seeing red
Walking into work yesterday, I saw something that I have seen before - but not up so close! Two small squirrels - they looked like babies to me, but could just be a smaller species - were scampering up the road towards the park I cut by the corner of on my walk. They hopped out onto the road, then back onto the pavement when a car came by. I stopped near the corner as one backtracked, and it ran past about a foot away. It was red! I have no idea if it was a bona fide red squirrel or if squirrels are different here. Z, who had left the building just after me, caught up with me at that point.
I got my PIN number. I appear to have been paid my first three invoices in one go. Today was wet and miserable, so I abandoned my plan to walk over to the electronics shop near G's and instead took the U-bahn into the centre of town and went to another branch there to get some DVDs to back up onto and clear some space on the hard drive, and also a USB memory stick so that I can take some Sheffield stuff into work. I suspect that my days of doing nothing apart from jumping on the four or five bugs reported will soon be at an end (the project ends at the end of next week) but I really have done all the playing of the game and surfing on the internet that I can stand. I'd rather study.
I got my PIN number. I appear to have been paid my first three invoices in one go. Today was wet and miserable, so I abandoned my plan to walk over to the electronics shop near G's and instead took the U-bahn into the centre of town and went to another branch there to get some DVDs to back up onto and clear some space on the hard drive, and also a USB memory stick so that I can take some Sheffield stuff into work. I suspect that my days of doing nothing apart from jumping on the four or five bugs reported will soon be at an end (the project ends at the end of next week) but I really have done all the playing of the game and surfing on the internet that I can stand. I'd rather study.
Monday, 7 April 2008
White out
Even after hearing David's tale of woe about getting back to London (held over Heathrow until fuel ran low because one runway was closed by snow, went to Birmingham to fill the tank, then back to Heathrow and waiting for a gate) I never thought of it snowing here. It had been cold but nowhere near freezing on Sunday night.
So it was with some surprise that I walked out this morning to be greeted by a good 3cm crust of snow on the cars, although it was mostly melting and running off roofs to hit unwary passers-by. I regretted not having my gloves. I spent a good part of the day staring out the windows at the snow being blown around by high winds, although it had calmed down (and mostly melted) by the time I went home.
Good news was that I have been paid, although I'm still waiting for my PIN so I can access the money without going to the bank. The other bit of good news is that the agent for the flats has agreed to bring down the price of our internet access, which was ridiculously high.
Other than that, still trying to get through work for Sheffield. My annotated translation is due end of next week, my presentation topic the week after, and I need to keep on working on the social sciences one as each unit is taking me at least a day to complete. If I don't keep on top of it, I am going to be in trouble...
Had my dashi-iri miso for the first time today - it's miso (fermented soy bean paste) with a fish stock blended into it, making it an instant Japanese soup base. It was absolutely delicious. I think I will be going for this in future...
So it was with some surprise that I walked out this morning to be greeted by a good 3cm crust of snow on the cars, although it was mostly melting and running off roofs to hit unwary passers-by. I regretted not having my gloves. I spent a good part of the day staring out the windows at the snow being blown around by high winds, although it had calmed down (and mostly melted) by the time I went home.
Good news was that I have been paid, although I'm still waiting for my PIN so I can access the money without going to the bank. The other bit of good news is that the agent for the flats has agreed to bring down the price of our internet access, which was ridiculously high.
Other than that, still trying to get through work for Sheffield. My annotated translation is due end of next week, my presentation topic the week after, and I need to keep on working on the social sciences one as each unit is taking me at least a day to complete. If I don't keep on top of it, I am going to be in trouble...
Had my dashi-iri miso for the first time today - it's miso (fermented soy bean paste) with a fish stock blended into it, making it an instant Japanese soup base. It was absolutely delicious. I think I will be going for this in future...
Sunday, 6 April 2008
Big spender
After sleeping in on Saturday morning, doing not much and finally doing some homework for Sheffield, I decided that having 3 Euro in my pocket when I had plenty of money in the UK was silly, and the overseas withdrawal charge be damned. My bank appear to finally be showing it as a separate item, so at least I knew what it was.
I used the ever useful Google Maps to find local cash machines (Geldautomaten) but it only showed me some banks - ATM got others but also something completely different with the same acronym. I decided to look for 'bank' instead and found one just across the road from the U-bahn station. Being a Saturday afternoon it was of course closed, and there were no cash machines outside. Yet more ways in which Germany is like Japan.
(And there is a version of Japlish - such as the lingerie ad with the strapline 'Just feel like a volcano'.)
I gave up and headed into town, as I knew there were cash machines in external walls there. I used one that Z had used a few weeks ago, belonging to what seems to be the local co-op. There was the usual will-it-won't-it moment as it did its international authorisation voodoo, but then it made a soft but unmistakable cash-dispensing noise. Going from an empty wallet to a full one is a nice feeling - a bit like from an empty stomach to a full one.
Making my way to the main street (Zeil) I picked up a battery charger (which was 8 Euro when identical ones next to it were 10, result) with two high capacity Ni-MH batteries, some more socks (despite going back to the UK for more clothes, I seem to have left half my socks there) and finally to the Asian shop we'd found before, where I treated myself to a gorgeous green-glazed ramen bowl (the bowls I have are so shallow you can't even put a full can of soup in them), some udon and soba noodles and some miso as well as a pair of chopsticks. The idea of eating noodles without chopsticks is somehow deeply wrong.
I walked back to the Rewe supermarket near the flat, which despite being reasonably large manages not to have much of a selection. I got some supplies and some crisps and Quark with herbs for going to G's the next day and headed home. My wallet was 45 Euro lighter, but I was much happier.
Got back to doing my homework, didn't realise how long I'd been out and ended up finishing the unit (reading about methodological issues in historical research - in Japanese) at 1:30am. Lots of chatting to David in NY and watching videos of kittens and bunny rabbits from the internet did not help - what did people do before broadband...
So, slept in again today and did some more work and off to G's soon for fighting games and such nonsense.
I used the ever useful Google Maps to find local cash machines (Geldautomaten) but it only showed me some banks - ATM got others but also something completely different with the same acronym. I decided to look for 'bank' instead and found one just across the road from the U-bahn station. Being a Saturday afternoon it was of course closed, and there were no cash machines outside. Yet more ways in which Germany is like Japan.
(And there is a version of Japlish - such as the lingerie ad with the strapline 'Just feel like a volcano'.)
I gave up and headed into town, as I knew there were cash machines in external walls there. I used one that Z had used a few weeks ago, belonging to what seems to be the local co-op. There was the usual will-it-won't-it moment as it did its international authorisation voodoo, but then it made a soft but unmistakable cash-dispensing noise. Going from an empty wallet to a full one is a nice feeling - a bit like from an empty stomach to a full one.
Making my way to the main street (Zeil) I picked up a battery charger (which was 8 Euro when identical ones next to it were 10, result) with two high capacity Ni-MH batteries, some more socks (despite going back to the UK for more clothes, I seem to have left half my socks there) and finally to the Asian shop we'd found before, where I treated myself to a gorgeous green-glazed ramen bowl (the bowls I have are so shallow you can't even put a full can of soup in them), some udon and soba noodles and some miso as well as a pair of chopsticks. The idea of eating noodles without chopsticks is somehow deeply wrong.
I walked back to the Rewe supermarket near the flat, which despite being reasonably large manages not to have much of a selection. I got some supplies and some crisps and Quark with herbs for going to G's the next day and headed home. My wallet was 45 Euro lighter, but I was much happier.
Got back to doing my homework, didn't realise how long I'd been out and ended up finishing the unit (reading about methodological issues in historical research - in Japanese) at 1:30am. Lots of chatting to David in NY and watching videos of kittens and bunny rabbits from the internet did not help - what did people do before broadband...
So, slept in again today and did some more work and off to G's soon for fighting games and such nonsense.
Saturday, 5 April 2008
No, this is reality
Some American children apparently unable to distinguish between anime and real life.
Reminds of the Father Ted gag - "No, Dougal. Small - far away."
Reminds of the Father Ted gag - "No, Dougal. Small - far away."
Friday, 4 April 2008
Business as usual
Friday already! Sorry there haven't been any posts but there's not much to report.
The weather is getting a little milder, and I'm still enjoying the walk to and from work. It's at the point where you still need a coat or a sweater but not both, and the hat and gloves are staying at home.
Work has been quite frustrating, with the usual bursts of high activity and panic followed by long periods of waiting for it to happen again. It puts me in a strange, detached state of mind. I don't know if it's that or too much coffee or something else, but I haven't been sleeping too well.
That combined with still waiting for my bank card means that I've been staying in in the evenings, doing some study for Sheffield as I'm a little behind, and chatting online with David.
So - no news, but all is well!
The weather is getting a little milder, and I'm still enjoying the walk to and from work. It's at the point where you still need a coat or a sweater but not both, and the hat and gloves are staying at home.
Work has been quite frustrating, with the usual bursts of high activity and panic followed by long periods of waiting for it to happen again. It puts me in a strange, detached state of mind. I don't know if it's that or too much coffee or something else, but I haven't been sleeping too well.
That combined with still waiting for my bank card means that I've been staying in in the evenings, doing some study for Sheffield as I'm a little behind, and chatting online with David.
So - no news, but all is well!
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