Crafty and Christmassy

Took a day out from work - the stuff I'm still doing that seems to fill all my non-traditional working hours and eat into my sleep - yesterday, to find a bead shop that I'd seen while wandering around with my first (and possibly only) guest (apart from himself). It's called "Docombi" and is in the Galerias Goya in Malaga.


It was pretty good! Nothing terribly expensive, a nice range of Swarovski crystal, Czech glass and Delicas, as well as some really nice and unusual glass, resin and shell pieces. I went quite mad and got several of everything I like and some things that I'd never wear myself but think would make a cool set of earrings. The shop was manned by two blokes, but seemed to have a healthy stream of customers and despite being crammed and having lots of stock on the floor was actually quite interesting. And my madness only cost me 40 Euro, so I can't complain.


The Galerias Goya has loads of very nice small alternative shops and looks like a great place if you're stuck for a present. Half of them were closed with no idea of opening hours, as is par for the course here. Here was a knitting/handicrafts store in the basement.


And all the Christmas lights are up! Not on yet, but there.

Dunkin'... what?

It was Dunkin' Donuts in Japan, but seems to be Dunkin' Coffee here. The coffee is terrible, but the donut holes come in a cardboard bus!

Admit it

This is what you always wanted for Christmas.

Photos from Granada!

It only took me three weeks to get these up... I took way too many photos, and culled almost half!

But here is the beauty of the Alhambra and the Nasrid Palaces, and the Generalife and its gardens.

Damn you, Ikea!

I went to Ikea in Malaga for some bed sheets, and only bed sheets. Knowing you have to carry everything back at the end of the contract is a great motivator.

But no, Ikea had to have this ridiculously cute fabric fruit basket. And I spent several minutes fruitlessly (haha) searching the huge bin for the vegetable basket. Twice. I appear to be a sucker for fabric mushrooms, carrots and cabbage.

While I went there looking for an inexpensive and serviceable fitted sheet and duvet cover set (not that you need a duvet here, it's 16 C today), I ended up getting the Beata Orkide set - one of the more expensive ones but I love it and will take it back home and use it there.

Interpretation at the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal

A series of fascinating posts on interpretation at the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal on the Unprofessional Translation blog: Bilingualism and the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal, Bilingualism and the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal (2) and Bilingualism and the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal - Conclusion.

The saga ends!

After five months of frantic phone calls, scrambling to get documentation, personally going in to Kantonal authorities to get paperwork and generally struggling with the system - I have my Auslanderausweis!

It's a good thing I had already decided to go back to Zurich this weekend - there was a letter waiting for me from the Adliswil town hall asking me to come in with my passport and a photo. I handed them over to the lovely Ms Angst and two minutes later after stamping the photo into the card and getting me to sign it, I had my 5 year residency permit! (Good thing they didn't give me the 6-month one, otherwise I'd have had to apply for the next one while I was picking up this one.)

It's now scanned and sent to various people who need it, like my health insurer and bank. It kind of has the wrong address - c\o himself - but it's good enough for a celebration!