Woke up an hour early, still on Swiss time. Have caught up with some emails I needed to answer - I'm always annoyed when people flake out on me and don't respond, so I have to not do it myself.
Still surrounded by boxes, but less of them and they have the contents written on the top and have been logged in a packing list and someone is going to print them for us before the movers arrive. A day early. We were going to go into London and treat ourselves to a hotel for the last night we're here - now without a bed - but we have return tickets already bought from Reading so we're going to keep the inflatable bed out and just crash here instead.
Seen lots of people, didn't managed to catch others. Had two Japanese meals on Thurs and wound up the staff at the new Jamie Oliver Italian restaurant in Reading last night. Just have to keep on going and get everything ready to go, including the Amazon order that arrived yesterday. Bought N.K. Jemisin's The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, the complete Ouran High School Host Club, Afro Samurai (it was cheap enough on Blu-Ray to buy on a whim), Barry Atkins' More Than a Game and a book on vegetarian sushi for himself along with the Lekue Makisu sushi mat which for reasons best known to Amazon is arriving a week later than everything else and after we leave.
Must get dressed and clear the front room. This isn't over yet.
Oh, and apparently the Sheffield exam board met on Thursday but I haven't got final results yet. Will have to harrass the office. Ah, how nostalgic.
Saturday 29 May 2010
Monday 24 May 2010
Interesting times
Well, that will teach me to complain about not having enough work. Client A emailed me last Monday with a huge project to get done in 2 weeks. Great, thank you! Then Client B checks in with a project I could get done in a day, and is games related. I'll take that, thank you! Then... Client C pops up asking for some small but short turnaround work. Um, yes, let's split this with someone else and I'll get you my bit in 2 days...
The worst of the crush is over and I'm now concentrating on my big file which has a lovely amount of repetition in it which the translation tools handles all by itself. It's dull, but relatively easy and definitely makes me happy I have the translation tool.
I did the two training exams on Sunday, while hiding out in himself's office while our broadband was down - thankfully just a fault instead of their billing section cutting us off thinking we hadn't paid again. Today is a bank holiday in Zurich and we went out to pick up a van to collect a shelving unit from a colleague of himself's who is moving back to the US. Except it wouldn't fit in the van. Himself and colleague managed to take out one side and some shelves with a hammer, so it fit in the end, but we were looking around for irate neighbours if not the police.
The weekend has been gloriously sunny and 31 degrees today, although it's clouded over now. May has just disappeared, and we're off to the UK on Wed night to pack up and finalise all our stuff. I hope a week will be enough. The leasehold extension for the flats has gone through, so we can now put ours on the market, although the two that are up for sale have been so for some time now.
Particularly looking forward to Thurs, when I'll meet up with people at the Japan Society to discuss doing more work with them, and meet up with people for dinner!
Oh, and I shall be waiting for my official exam board results for the MA on May 27, and for a decision on my application to the IoL on June 5. Fingers crossed they all go smoothly.
The worst of the crush is over and I'm now concentrating on my big file which has a lovely amount of repetition in it which the translation tools handles all by itself. It's dull, but relatively easy and definitely makes me happy I have the translation tool.
I did the two training exams on Sunday, while hiding out in himself's office while our broadband was down - thankfully just a fault instead of their billing section cutting us off thinking we hadn't paid again. Today is a bank holiday in Zurich and we went out to pick up a van to collect a shelving unit from a colleague of himself's who is moving back to the US. Except it wouldn't fit in the van. Himself and colleague managed to take out one side and some shelves with a hammer, so it fit in the end, but we were looking around for irate neighbours if not the police.
The weekend has been gloriously sunny and 31 degrees today, although it's clouded over now. May has just disappeared, and we're off to the UK on Wed night to pack up and finalise all our stuff. I hope a week will be enough. The leasehold extension for the flats has gone through, so we can now put ours on the market, although the two that are up for sale have been so for some time now.
Particularly looking forward to Thurs, when I'll meet up with people at the Japan Society to discuss doing more work with them, and meet up with people for dinner!
Oh, and I shall be waiting for my official exam board results for the MA on May 27, and for a decision on my application to the IoL on June 5. Fingers crossed they all go smoothly.
Monday 10 May 2010
Ook! Ook!
This goes in with Freelance Folder as something to read when I'm feeling a bit beaten around the head by my chosen profession: No Peanuts! for Translators - a collection of confidence-boosting writings on rates and the value (monetary and otherwise) of translation.
And another one!
Despite getting a terrible night's sleep on Wednesday I had a very productive day on Thursday with a good German lesson and lots of work done on two sites where I'm trying to integrate content from a blog onto a static web page.
As part of that I started looking around for good blogs on general translation, Japanese-English translation and games translation. I've found many of the first so far and am about to start following another possibly infinite chain of blogs about English. I think I should take a break.
Spent Friday in two 3-hour training sessions for my chosen translation tool, which were good but not absolutely required for the exams - I may do the other two exams I want to get without the training sessions. I don't believe that the certification you get for them is absolutely necessary, but it's professional development. And I have time for that now, so I may as well use it.
The birds in the garden are still routinely decimating the two feeders we hang out for them, and himself was concerned that they might need different food if they're raising young, so we went into the pet shops in town to look for some mealworms. We didn't get any, but at least got to see some very cute animals. Well, I find spiders cute - not everyone does...
In other news, I managed to successfully raise a rate offered by a client with everyone happy with the end result and baked two half-batches of muffins, one black sesame and one green tea. Making the two batches distracted me to the extent that I forgot to add the oil to the green tea batch, which came out squat and heavy (still very edible). But I am easily distracted.
Getting back into playing my 漢字検定試験 and 美文字 games on the DS. That and trying to finish Dragon Quest: Chapters of the Chosen. I still have to adjust to the feast and famine cycle. Staring at my laptop waiting for work to come in doesn't help, but neither does endless surfing. I'm not on holiday, I'm waiting for work. And what else is there to do but polish up my skills?
As part of that I started looking around for good blogs on general translation, Japanese-English translation and games translation. I've found many of the first so far and am about to start following another possibly infinite chain of blogs about English. I think I should take a break.
Spent Friday in two 3-hour training sessions for my chosen translation tool, which were good but not absolutely required for the exams - I may do the other two exams I want to get without the training sessions. I don't believe that the certification you get for them is absolutely necessary, but it's professional development. And I have time for that now, so I may as well use it.
The birds in the garden are still routinely decimating the two feeders we hang out for them, and himself was concerned that they might need different food if they're raising young, so we went into the pet shops in town to look for some mealworms. We didn't get any, but at least got to see some very cute animals. Well, I find spiders cute - not everyone does...
In other news, I managed to successfully raise a rate offered by a client with everyone happy with the end result and baked two half-batches of muffins, one black sesame and one green tea. Making the two batches distracted me to the extent that I forgot to add the oil to the green tea batch, which came out squat and heavy (still very edible). But I am easily distracted.
Getting back into playing my 漢字検定試験 and 美文字 games on the DS. That and trying to finish Dragon Quest: Chapters of the Chosen. I still have to adjust to the feast and famine cycle. Staring at my laptop waiting for work to come in doesn't help, but neither does endless surfing. I'm not on holiday, I'm waiting for work. And what else is there to do but polish up my skills?
Wednesday 5 May 2010
Tortillas and aliens and the Japan Society, oh my
I've been invited by the Japan Society to take on more work for their Japan-UK Live! school exchange/twinning project: checking translations by other Japanese to English translators, helping to plan some of the exchange themes, testing a new website and encouraging UK teachers to keep their links going. Hoping to get stuck into that in the next few weeks! I've also booked a training day on Friday, getting "certified" in my chosen translation tool. I don't think it's entirely worth it, but I need to get back into using it to get the most out of it, and as I learned it on the job and as a project manager instead of a translator I'm sure there are bits I missed. I also get a massive discount on the training and exams through a translation website I'm a member of - wouldn't contemplate it otherwise.
We're back in the UK from May 26 - June 1, and this time the movers are booked. Everything is going into a van on the morning of June 1 and being driven over by a moving company. While I dread another round of throwing out and giving away (especially as the less precious things are now gone) it will be a great relief to have it done, over a year after we started. The silver lining is an email from Oxfam - they raised £258.09 from the sale of my donated goods, and can also get over £70 in Gift Aid (as I'm still a UK taxpayer). That's a fitting end for so many books, CDs, DVDs and comics.
Had a fun night last Saturday with some friends over for our attempt at Mexican cooking - fill-it-yourself tortillas made with Quorn pieces. All very nice and accompanied by Belgian, French, English and even African beer! (Barley ice tea for me.) And a box of Luxemburgerlis, which always go down well. We then all watched District 9 together, and agreed unanimously that some of the very small injuries that happen to the protagonist earlier on are far more flinch-inducing that the massive acts of gore that follow. It's all too easy to imagine the smaller ones happening, I suppose.
I went to one of the spouses' association dinners last night, at the Japanese oKara restaurant, which I recommended. I had the sashimi special and I have to say I wasn't that impressed - the tonkatsu was amazing though. And there should be a warning on udon noodles for people who aren't used to chopsticks.
Weather has been quite bad all week, with wind and rain and general gloom. There was even snow forecast. So long as we don't get an ash cloud.
We're back in the UK from May 26 - June 1, and this time the movers are booked. Everything is going into a van on the morning of June 1 and being driven over by a moving company. While I dread another round of throwing out and giving away (especially as the less precious things are now gone) it will be a great relief to have it done, over a year after we started. The silver lining is an email from Oxfam - they raised £258.09 from the sale of my donated goods, and can also get over £70 in Gift Aid (as I'm still a UK taxpayer). That's a fitting end for so many books, CDs, DVDs and comics.
Had a fun night last Saturday with some friends over for our attempt at Mexican cooking - fill-it-yourself tortillas made with Quorn pieces. All very nice and accompanied by Belgian, French, English and even African beer! (Barley ice tea for me.) And a box of Luxemburgerlis, which always go down well. We then all watched District 9 together, and agreed unanimously that some of the very small injuries that happen to the protagonist earlier on are far more flinch-inducing that the massive acts of gore that follow. It's all too easy to imagine the smaller ones happening, I suppose.
I went to one of the spouses' association dinners last night, at the Japanese oKara restaurant, which I recommended. I had the sashimi special and I have to say I wasn't that impressed - the tonkatsu was amazing though. And there should be a warning on udon noodles for people who aren't used to chopsticks.
Weather has been quite bad all week, with wind and rain and general gloom. There was even snow forecast. So long as we don't get an ash cloud.
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