Today started out just as hot as yesterday, but the rain started after lunch and carried on all day - I'm now sitting beside a large open window, and I'm a bit cold but it's so nice after yesterday that I'm loving it.
Making progress with my translation assignment for the residential week, and hope to switch on to something else soon. The weekend will be reserved for the thing I'm most worried about, the presentation. I need to get a bit of grammar study in too. I also really need to improve my kanji and handwriting skills, but I'm not sure I can do anything with them in two and a bit weeks...
Other than that, some things are much cheaper here than in the UK - I got 50 Loratadine (active ingredient of Clarityn) for 16 Euro, and also got some free glasses wipes and green tea flavoured sugar free gum in the bag with them. I already had some glasses wipes - 1.50 Euro for 20 - to clean the DS with.
I will be moving at the end of the month - Nintendo have decided to move all their contracts to a new agency and so all the contractors are being moved. No concrete news on where, just that we need to move 31 July and we'll have free internet. It also probably means I'll have to go and update my registration, so another trip to the local government offices... At least I'll have a few days to get my German together after the residential!
Thursday, 3 July 2008
Tuesday, 1 July 2008
Not the best day on record...
30 degrees. And that was when I checked at about 7pm, so it could well have been hotter during the day. Was completely zombified at work. Really hoping the air con does arrive soon (it has been promised for next week).
Got home just in time to say hi to someone taking their laundry down to the basement... which is what I was hoping to do. I had even left work bang on time after getting in a little earlier than usual - mainly because the internet connection was down. So, I got ready to go to the laundrette instead.
I decided to have an ice lolly - only to find that the teeny freezer on top of my mini-fridge really doesn't work. They were mush. I should throw out everything else in there as well...
But I got a machine and dryer right away at the laundrette, and another resident has fixed the internet connection, and I have a litre of water and a cold glass of caffeinated soft drink. And I did play my Japanese learning games at the laundrette, and treated myself to an ice cream from the place across the road from there. So, not all bad.
Got home just in time to say hi to someone taking their laundry down to the basement... which is what I was hoping to do. I had even left work bang on time after getting in a little earlier than usual - mainly because the internet connection was down. So, I got ready to go to the laundrette instead.
I decided to have an ice lolly - only to find that the teeny freezer on top of my mini-fridge really doesn't work. They were mush. I should throw out everything else in there as well...
But I got a machine and dryer right away at the laundrette, and another resident has fixed the internet connection, and I have a litre of water and a cold glass of caffeinated soft drink. And I did play my Japanese learning games at the laundrette, and treated myself to an ice cream from the place across the road from there. So, not all bad.
Sunday, 29 June 2008
Castles and funiculars and gummi bears, oh my!
Photos are here!
Well, I was going to lie down for a bit after getting home, but Mr. Saxophone downstairs has decided to practice, so...
The day started off with the traditional mad rush for the train - for myself and Z anyway, C was there in good time. We all piled on and then found our seats, changed at Mannheim and from there on to Heidelberg. Most of the journey was spent listening to or talking about each others' music.
We got to the station, went and got our 'Heidelberg Cards' which - if you get the two-day ones instead of the one-day ones - give you free use of the funicular railway, free entrance to the castle and the Pharmacy Museum, and lots of discounts in other places. Out at the front of the tourist office we got a 4-person day pass for public transport to cover the three of us, and off we went!
Unfortunately, we went the wrong way. After about 10 minutes on the bus, we figured out that we were not going towards the city centre. The timetables do that annoying thing of listing all stops instead of just the ones the bus is going to in the relevant direction. We jumped off and raced for the bus across the road - thankfully German cars do stop at crossings. A little later we went past the main transport hub - which is nowhere near the station - and then piled off at the funicular terminal.
We ran up to the gates and popped our two-day tickets in, laughing at the huge queue of primary children barely kept under control by parents. Until we realised that although the two-day passes might entitle us to free use of the funicular, they weren't actually tickets. In the queue we got to get our free tickets.
Although we stood near the front window, there was a huge panel behind the driver which meant we could see next to nothing - it didn't matter that much as we were soon whisked up to the castle (which is only a 10 minute walk up the hill). A short stroll up a cobbled slope later, we were inside the castle grounds - I'll leave that to the photos! The guided tour was interesting, but I found it hard to keep my mind on it. Not sure if it was the guide's French accent or just an attack of tiredness. The World Cup has been rough in terms of getting much sleep, as the Germans (and pretty much everyone else here, such as the Turks) tend to stay at home and roar at the TV, followed by driving around sounding their horns. They were more subdued after their defeat last night.
We dived into the Pharmacy Museum, which was interesting for free and had some fantastic cards in the gift shop, and then stopped for a coffee before heading back to the funicular - stopping again briefly for C to buy a hat. We just need a feather for it now. One stop up and we got out of the lower (new) funicular and transferred to the upper (historical) funicular. Apart from the whole being-a-funicular (you all know about my fascination with them by now, as well as cable cars, and trams, and ferris wheels) it hit a 40% gradient at the end. It was like going up a rocket launch track. We stopped to admire the view, failed to get any food and then headed back down again.
Once back down from 500ft above sea level, we crossed the old town through the old market square to the river bank, across the old bridge and over to my must-see item - the Philosophers' Walk! Yes, anything for a gag - in this case contrasting it with the Path of Philosophy in Kyoto (which Dad has the most amazing postcard-worthy pictures of with cherry trees in full bloom). We started up the winding cobbled path, walled on both sides, as it snaked its way up the steep hill. Now, I had made a bad choice that morning in wearing my MBTs, which are the most comfortable walking shoes I've ever had, but are utterly useless verging on dangerous if the ground is uneven or sloped. And this was a lot of both. After we'd got to the point where we were level with the castle on the other side of the river, and realised we were still directly over the old bridge and therefore possibly not actually on the Walk at all, we took photos and headed back down. I'll try again when I've worked on my cardio. And have different shoes on.
After that we headed back across the bridge and into the cobbled streets around the market square, stopping for dinner at a nice place with outside tables. I had some delicious pork in a cream and mushroom sauce - a little heavy on the white wine. It came with something called spargel (not sure about the spelling) which initially looked like noodles but I think may have been shredded fried cheese. I mostly left it alone.
I dragged the guys back along the road to a shop with a gummi bear logo that we'd passed while we were wandering around. We only just got in before they closed, but it was worth it! There were endless flavours of gummi bears, old favourites like marshmallow strawberries and even playboy/playgirl jellies! I got a mixed pack of sample sizes for the team and a big bag of coffee-flavoured jellies for me. (I later repented and brought them into work for my project team...) Fully stocked on sugar, we went back to the bus stop and back to the station for our train.
We were ticket-checked on every train, by plain-clothes inspectors on the first train on the way back - they also had the police meet them at the terminus to discuss something with a young man in our car. I still can't get used to the police being armed here. We checked out the bookshop with English books in the train station and then went our separate ways. C later found out that the gummi bear shop has a branch in Frankurt, so we're doomed.
The adventure for today was heading down to the Japanese bookshop at lunchtime to see if we could get anything interesting in their pre-closing-for-refurbishment sale - I didn't in the end, as nothing discounted was that interesting (I already have plenty of reading material I haven't read yet) and anything that was interesting was too expensive and could wait until I got to Japan.
I am horribly tired. It was a battle to even keep my eyes open at some points today, despite coffee, diet coke and coffee gummis (aka sugar). I think I will be hitting the mattress early tonight, neighbours willing.
Well, I was going to lie down for a bit after getting home, but Mr. Saxophone downstairs has decided to practice, so...
The day started off with the traditional mad rush for the train - for myself and Z anyway, C was there in good time. We all piled on and then found our seats, changed at Mannheim and from there on to Heidelberg. Most of the journey was spent listening to or talking about each others' music.
We got to the station, went and got our 'Heidelberg Cards' which - if you get the two-day ones instead of the one-day ones - give you free use of the funicular railway, free entrance to the castle and the Pharmacy Museum, and lots of discounts in other places. Out at the front of the tourist office we got a 4-person day pass for public transport to cover the three of us, and off we went!
Unfortunately, we went the wrong way. After about 10 minutes on the bus, we figured out that we were not going towards the city centre. The timetables do that annoying thing of listing all stops instead of just the ones the bus is going to in the relevant direction. We jumped off and raced for the bus across the road - thankfully German cars do stop at crossings. A little later we went past the main transport hub - which is nowhere near the station - and then piled off at the funicular terminal.
We ran up to the gates and popped our two-day tickets in, laughing at the huge queue of primary children barely kept under control by parents. Until we realised that although the two-day passes might entitle us to free use of the funicular, they weren't actually tickets. In the queue we got to get our free tickets.
Although we stood near the front window, there was a huge panel behind the driver which meant we could see next to nothing - it didn't matter that much as we were soon whisked up to the castle (which is only a 10 minute walk up the hill). A short stroll up a cobbled slope later, we were inside the castle grounds - I'll leave that to the photos! The guided tour was interesting, but I found it hard to keep my mind on it. Not sure if it was the guide's French accent or just an attack of tiredness. The World Cup has been rough in terms of getting much sleep, as the Germans (and pretty much everyone else here, such as the Turks) tend to stay at home and roar at the TV, followed by driving around sounding their horns. They were more subdued after their defeat last night.
We dived into the Pharmacy Museum, which was interesting for free and had some fantastic cards in the gift shop, and then stopped for a coffee before heading back to the funicular - stopping again briefly for C to buy a hat. We just need a feather for it now. One stop up and we got out of the lower (new) funicular and transferred to the upper (historical) funicular. Apart from the whole being-a-funicular (you all know about my fascination with them by now, as well as cable cars, and trams, and ferris wheels) it hit a 40% gradient at the end. It was like going up a rocket launch track. We stopped to admire the view, failed to get any food and then headed back down again.
Once back down from 500ft above sea level, we crossed the old town through the old market square to the river bank, across the old bridge and over to my must-see item - the Philosophers' Walk! Yes, anything for a gag - in this case contrasting it with the Path of Philosophy in Kyoto (which Dad has the most amazing postcard-worthy pictures of with cherry trees in full bloom). We started up the winding cobbled path, walled on both sides, as it snaked its way up the steep hill. Now, I had made a bad choice that morning in wearing my MBTs, which are the most comfortable walking shoes I've ever had, but are utterly useless verging on dangerous if the ground is uneven or sloped. And this was a lot of both. After we'd got to the point where we were level with the castle on the other side of the river, and realised we were still directly over the old bridge and therefore possibly not actually on the Walk at all, we took photos and headed back down. I'll try again when I've worked on my cardio. And have different shoes on.
After that we headed back across the bridge and into the cobbled streets around the market square, stopping for dinner at a nice place with outside tables. I had some delicious pork in a cream and mushroom sauce - a little heavy on the white wine. It came with something called spargel (not sure about the spelling) which initially looked like noodles but I think may have been shredded fried cheese. I mostly left it alone.
I dragged the guys back along the road to a shop with a gummi bear logo that we'd passed while we were wandering around. We only just got in before they closed, but it was worth it! There were endless flavours of gummi bears, old favourites like marshmallow strawberries and even playboy/playgirl jellies! I got a mixed pack of sample sizes for the team and a big bag of coffee-flavoured jellies for me. (I later repented and brought them into work for my project team...) Fully stocked on sugar, we went back to the bus stop and back to the station for our train.
We were ticket-checked on every train, by plain-clothes inspectors on the first train on the way back - they also had the police meet them at the terminus to discuss something with a young man in our car. I still can't get used to the police being armed here. We checked out the bookshop with English books in the train station and then went our separate ways. C later found out that the gummi bear shop has a branch in Frankurt, so we're doomed.
The adventure for today was heading down to the Japanese bookshop at lunchtime to see if we could get anything interesting in their pre-closing-for-refurbishment sale - I didn't in the end, as nothing discounted was that interesting (I already have plenty of reading material I haven't read yet) and anything that was interesting was too expensive and could wait until I got to Japan.
I am horribly tired. It was a battle to even keep my eyes open at some points today, despite coffee, diet coke and coffee gummis (aka sugar). I think I will be hitting the mattress early tonight, neighbours willing.
Friday, 27 June 2008
Protection
I have fallen in love with screen protectors. My initial experience with the DS ones was mixed - the top screen one went on perfectly but the floppier touch screen one ended up with air bubbles and then I put a small scratch on it when trying to get them out with a credit card. I put it aside until the following night and managed to get them all out with the stylus... and the result is fantastic. The scratchy area in the center of the touch screen (which can be completely blamed on the Kanji training game) is gone and both screens look great. The thing still looks completely battered, mind you.
Today I took the camera in to the electronics shop and ended up getting the cheapest of the cases I was looking at - it fits the camera perfectly, although the pockets have flaps that don't close them completely (can see loose batteries falling out). All the really expensive ones were too big - the whole reason I was looking for a new case is because I already have a huge one - and/or had velcro inside them which is just going to damage the camera. And then - screen protectors! I'm trying the toothpaste dermabrasion on the camera's LCD screen at the moment, as it's covered in small scratches from being carried out of its case, and then I will apply the screen protector ready for taking it out tomorrow. I actually don't use the screen most of the time, as it kills the batteries, but it will be nice to have it looking better.
I ended up staying up late last night, and then was subjected to someone playing lounge music at 1:30am. So, after having headphones in all day, I then ended up with ear plugs all night. My inner ears were not thanking me this morning.
Better get to bed at a reasonable hour tonight - Heidelberg awaits...
Today I took the camera in to the electronics shop and ended up getting the cheapest of the cases I was looking at - it fits the camera perfectly, although the pockets have flaps that don't close them completely (can see loose batteries falling out). All the really expensive ones were too big - the whole reason I was looking for a new case is because I already have a huge one - and/or had velcro inside them which is just going to damage the camera. And then - screen protectors! I'm trying the toothpaste dermabrasion on the camera's LCD screen at the moment, as it's covered in small scratches from being carried out of its case, and then I will apply the screen protector ready for taking it out tomorrow. I actually don't use the screen most of the time, as it kills the batteries, but it will be nice to have it looking better.
I ended up staying up late last night, and then was subjected to someone playing lounge music at 1:30am. So, after having headphones in all day, I then ended up with ear plugs all night. My inner ears were not thanking me this morning.
Better get to bed at a reasonable hour tonight - Heidelberg awaits...
Wednesday, 25 June 2008
No, nay, never
I will be going to the local Mexican no more, as I was awake until 3:00am with my stomach trying to implode upon itself. Still not back to normal.
Have a trip to Heidelberg set up for Saturday with Z and another friend from work, should be good. Will take my camera in on Friday and see if I can't get a smaller case. I never use the lens adaptor, which is almost as large as the camera itself, so the case for both of them is far larger than I would like. The local electronics shop has a good selection of them, which I will peruse on the way to former team leader's birthday drinks.
In other news, it rained all day but even now as it's trailing off the humidity is right back up again. Oh well.
Have a trip to Heidelberg set up for Saturday with Z and another friend from work, should be good. Will take my camera in on Friday and see if I can't get a smaller case. I never use the lens adaptor, which is almost as large as the camera itself, so the case for both of them is far larger than I would like. The local electronics shop has a good selection of them, which I will peruse on the way to former team leader's birthday drinks.
In other news, it rained all day but even now as it's trailing off the humidity is right back up again. Oh well.
Monday, 23 June 2008
Fontainebleau photos!
We ended up using David's camera most of the time - it's much, much smaller than mine - and he has put up his pictures of Fontainebleau!
Sunday, 22 June 2008
Retail and forward planning
Having spent the entire week sitting on my rear end at work or at home, I decided to go out on Saturday into town to at least get out of the flat. First stop was the Japanese bookshop OCS, where they were discounting various items in preparation for closing for refurbishment next month - I picked up a translation of The Lazy Man's Guide to Enlightenment and some Nora Roberts book, as I find them easy to read in English. I even got a free newspaper, which will be handy for revision... not so long to go, as I realised when counting up free weekends to go exploring before the mock exams.
I also used my credit note from the headset I couldn't use with my Mac at the electronics shop, getting some AAA rechargeable batteries for my Sennheiser headphones and a screen protector kit for my DS. I got the same cashier who had given me the credit note originally, and she was incredibly animated about the whole thing. I didn't understand a word, of course.
Then it was into C&A where I picked up some Hello Kitty socks (too amusing to pass by) and a mobile phone 'sock' (black with a cute cartoony white rabbit with a lollipop) to put my new music player in, as even sitting in the outside pocket of my bag the protective case is getting quite scratched. It will make it impossible to operate, as it's all done by touch screen, but hey. It's only a 20 minute walk to work.
I got slightly lost on the way back through trying to avoid the main shopping street, but found the supermarket and picked up some supplies for the rest of the weekend. Including gooseberries! Haven't seen them in ages.
Today, I did a study plan (just have to stick to it now) and more thinking about Japan - where to be when, what trains are available and where to stay. Then I gave my DS a microdermabrasion! A highly amusing tip found on a website, basically use a tiny bit of toothpaste (which contains fine abrasive) and spread it over the screen, leave to dry and then scrub off. It has helped, although there are also some crumbs trapped in the casing that I'm going to get out by the Official Nintendo method of a toothbrush before I put the screen protectors on.
After all that I thought I'd read my book of Kenji Miyazawa short stories that I'd bout the last time I was in OCS, only to find that I hadn't been paying attention and had in fact bought a poetry collection. I will wimp out of that and read either Kino's Journey or something else instead...
I also used my credit note from the headset I couldn't use with my Mac at the electronics shop, getting some AAA rechargeable batteries for my Sennheiser headphones and a screen protector kit for my DS. I got the same cashier who had given me the credit note originally, and she was incredibly animated about the whole thing. I didn't understand a word, of course.
Then it was into C&A where I picked up some Hello Kitty socks (too amusing to pass by) and a mobile phone 'sock' (black with a cute cartoony white rabbit with a lollipop) to put my new music player in, as even sitting in the outside pocket of my bag the protective case is getting quite scratched. It will make it impossible to operate, as it's all done by touch screen, but hey. It's only a 20 minute walk to work.
I got slightly lost on the way back through trying to avoid the main shopping street, but found the supermarket and picked up some supplies for the rest of the weekend. Including gooseberries! Haven't seen them in ages.
Today, I did a study plan (just have to stick to it now) and more thinking about Japan - where to be when, what trains are available and where to stay. Then I gave my DS a microdermabrasion! A highly amusing tip found on a website, basically use a tiny bit of toothpaste (which contains fine abrasive) and spread it over the screen, leave to dry and then scrub off. It has helped, although there are also some crumbs trapped in the casing that I'm going to get out by the Official Nintendo method of a toothbrush before I put the screen protectors on.
After all that I thought I'd read my book of Kenji Miyazawa short stories that I'd bout the last time I was in OCS, only to find that I hadn't been paying attention and had in fact bought a poetry collection. I will wimp out of that and read either Kino's Journey or something else instead...
Tuesday, 17 June 2008
Quotes and words
From my reading of the BBC website (which really has gone downhill in terms of quality of English):
'"We are carrying out executions by selecting the people whom we can execute with a feeling of confidence and responsibility," Japanese Minister of Justice Hatoyama Kunio told a news conference.' (Full story here)
'But this ... is nothing compared to an e-mail sent by an extremely powerful person at JP Morgan encouraging his investment banking team to be more human. In it he said: "Take the time today to call a client and tell them you love them. They won't forget you made the call." Indeed. I'm sure the client would remember such a call for a very long time.
'If love has no place in the language of business, neither does passion. Passion, says the dictionary, means a strong sexual desire or the suffering of Christ at the crucifixion. In other words it doesn't really have an awful lot to do with a typical day in the office - unless things have gone very wrong indeed.' (Article by Lucy Kellaway, 'Are you going forward? Then stop now)
And this - amazing torn paper art - look out for the parachuting tanuki and Christopher Walken!
'"We are carrying out executions by selecting the people whom we can execute with a feeling of confidence and responsibility," Japanese Minister of Justice Hatoyama Kunio told a news conference.' (Full story here)
'But this ... is nothing compared to an e-mail sent by an extremely powerful person at JP Morgan encouraging his investment banking team to be more human. In it he said: "Take the time today to call a client and tell them you love them. They won't forget you made the call." Indeed. I'm sure the client would remember such a call for a very long time.
'If love has no place in the language of business, neither does passion. Passion, says the dictionary, means a strong sexual desire or the suffering of Christ at the crucifixion. In other words it doesn't really have an awful lot to do with a typical day in the office - unless things have gone very wrong indeed.' (Article by Lucy Kellaway, 'Are you going forward? Then stop now)
And this - amazing torn paper art - look out for the parachuting tanuki and Christopher Walken!
Monday, 16 June 2008
Singing in the rain
Getting to Paris was fairly smooth, but the legendary Charles de Gaulle Airport wasn't about to let it be that easy. I got through Frankfurt without having my passport checked even once - I picked up my boarding card by inserting my bank card into an automated checkin machine, then scanned the bar code on it to get past the gate and into the aircraft. David had a slight delay, but the real fun began when we realised that we had landed in different terminals. In the end I asked him to aim for the RER (mass transit commuter lines) in his terminal and I'd just try to find him. The shuttle between terminals is a bit like an old-style rollercoaster ride and takes forever.
Then it was out into Paris' public transport system, which rumbled along to Chatelet-les-Halles, the metro station I was most afraid of when I lived there as a kid. The RER section wasn't as bad as I remembered the metro part being - more people and more lights. Then it was one more stop to Gare de Lyon, which we would leave from the next morning. Despite it being nearly 11pm there were open cafes, and we had warm goat's cheese salad and a Savoyarde flammkuchen with mushrooms, cheese and bacon. I navigated from the station to the hotel, then David navigated us back when I got hopelessly off track. The Hotel des Trois Gares was neatly tucked into a corner at the end of a footbridge across a canal and we had a nice quiet night there (the only downside about the place was the miniscule lift - you would want to be friendly to use it).
The next morning, after commiserating with the man on reception about France's defeat by the Netherlands the night before and seeing Ireland's 'No' vote splashed across the front pages, we headed to Gare de Lyon and grabbed some warm drinks before boarding a train for Fontainebleau-Avon. It was not a good morning for coffee - at the hotel it was stewed and cold (a rare combination) and at the station more like water. Half of the hour-long journey was spent sitting at an intermediate station, but then we arrived through steadily increasing amounts of forest to Fontainebleau. Or, maybe more accurately, to its outskirts. Not realising the scale of the map we walked in, which took almost half an hour. But we found the hotel easily, and they let us check in and get the key card early. We headed out for a pizza and dessert at a cafe next door - narrowly avoiding a rain shower - and then headed back in to plan but ended up sleeping for a while... obviously we both needed it.
We spent the rest of the evening watching Stardust on DVD, which was a lot of fun. My favourite line of the movie: "But you were a mouse! You wanted cheese!" We realised at one point that as David had brought me over some clothes, my new music player, a very large pair of noise-cancelling headphones and a USB headset - there was no way I was going to get everything back in to my rucksack along with my laptop and camera (which I didn't really need anyway as David had brought his much smaller one). So, case swap it was. Must bring it back in July.
Somewhat more refreshed the next morning, we left our cases at the very nice Hotel Napoleon and headed out. After picking up a map of the Forest of Fontainebleau, I realised that Nemours, where we went on family holidays when we lived in Paris, was quite a bit further than I had thought and would probably require a return to the train station. Damn. The weather was also quite unsettled, with half an hour of sunshine followed by ten minutes of torrential rain. Not really the kind of weather you want for going and rambling around (and knowing me, getting lost in) a forest, no matter how lovely the rocks are.
We resigned ourselves to staying in the town where we could find shelter, which was no bad thing. Lunch was had at a cafe and patisserie we had seen the day before, some nice quiches followed by a raspberry souffle for himself and a coffee religieuse that almost made me ill - I seem to have lost my sugar tolerance somewhat. There were plenty of places in the town to wander around and buildings to admire, then we explored the chateau gardens and did a quick bit of boating on the carp lake (just got out in time as it started to rain again - although we were equally worried about being capsized by one of the giant fish). We even went on a horse-drawn carriage ride through the French Garden and out a little way into the forest, which was lovely but made you appreciate modern suspension. Amazing how even rain can be enjoyable when you're somewhere else on holiday.
After spending a few hours around the chateau and realising that the weather wasn't going to improve, we set off for the station again, this time by bus. The train back was much quicker, and we were in Gare de Lyon over half an hour before we had planned.
For the next half an hour or so, we were reminded why we don't come to France very often. The Japanese restaurant we had seen on Friday was closed, as were the Chinese and Italian ones. Which left the Fruits de Mer (seafood) and Savoyarde restaurants - none of which had a 'vegetarian option' beyond plain omelette. Eventually we got tired of walking around the area - particularly as the number of open restaurants decreased as we went away from the station - and instead headed for the airport.
That was equally bad, and we ended up having slightly stale mozarella and tomato and ham and cheese sandwiches at a terminal cafe. After splitting up to head off to our checkins, I found that my flight was delayed by a technical fault which had caused a delay on the incoming craft, which was then followed after boarding by some passengers from another flight deciding they didn't want to transfer to this one, so their bags had to be found and offloaded. Between that and the irregular evening trains from the airport (filled with celebrating Turkish supporters), I got home about 1:00 am.
Monday was thankfully quiet at work, and although one of the MA seminars was supposed to have started yesterday there was nothing on the bulletin boards, so as I was geared up to do something I instead redesigned my j-trans site. It's still not perfect but at least looks a lot better.
Then it was out into Paris' public transport system, which rumbled along to Chatelet-les-Halles, the metro station I was most afraid of when I lived there as a kid. The RER section wasn't as bad as I remembered the metro part being - more people and more lights. Then it was one more stop to Gare de Lyon, which we would leave from the next morning. Despite it being nearly 11pm there were open cafes, and we had warm goat's cheese salad and a Savoyarde flammkuchen with mushrooms, cheese and bacon. I navigated from the station to the hotel, then David navigated us back when I got hopelessly off track. The Hotel des Trois Gares was neatly tucked into a corner at the end of a footbridge across a canal and we had a nice quiet night there (the only downside about the place was the miniscule lift - you would want to be friendly to use it).
The next morning, after commiserating with the man on reception about France's defeat by the Netherlands the night before and seeing Ireland's 'No' vote splashed across the front pages, we headed to Gare de Lyon and grabbed some warm drinks before boarding a train for Fontainebleau-Avon. It was not a good morning for coffee - at the hotel it was stewed and cold (a rare combination) and at the station more like water. Half of the hour-long journey was spent sitting at an intermediate station, but then we arrived through steadily increasing amounts of forest to Fontainebleau. Or, maybe more accurately, to its outskirts. Not realising the scale of the map we walked in, which took almost half an hour. But we found the hotel easily, and they let us check in and get the key card early. We headed out for a pizza and dessert at a cafe next door - narrowly avoiding a rain shower - and then headed back in to plan but ended up sleeping for a while... obviously we both needed it.
We spent the rest of the evening watching Stardust on DVD, which was a lot of fun. My favourite line of the movie: "But you were a mouse! You wanted cheese!" We realised at one point that as David had brought me over some clothes, my new music player, a very large pair of noise-cancelling headphones and a USB headset - there was no way I was going to get everything back in to my rucksack along with my laptop and camera (which I didn't really need anyway as David had brought his much smaller one). So, case swap it was. Must bring it back in July.
Somewhat more refreshed the next morning, we left our cases at the very nice Hotel Napoleon and headed out. After picking up a map of the Forest of Fontainebleau, I realised that Nemours, where we went on family holidays when we lived in Paris, was quite a bit further than I had thought and would probably require a return to the train station. Damn. The weather was also quite unsettled, with half an hour of sunshine followed by ten minutes of torrential rain. Not really the kind of weather you want for going and rambling around (and knowing me, getting lost in) a forest, no matter how lovely the rocks are.
We resigned ourselves to staying in the town where we could find shelter, which was no bad thing. Lunch was had at a cafe and patisserie we had seen the day before, some nice quiches followed by a raspberry souffle for himself and a coffee religieuse that almost made me ill - I seem to have lost my sugar tolerance somewhat. There were plenty of places in the town to wander around and buildings to admire, then we explored the chateau gardens and did a quick bit of boating on the carp lake (just got out in time as it started to rain again - although we were equally worried about being capsized by one of the giant fish). We even went on a horse-drawn carriage ride through the French Garden and out a little way into the forest, which was lovely but made you appreciate modern suspension. Amazing how even rain can be enjoyable when you're somewhere else on holiday.
After spending a few hours around the chateau and realising that the weather wasn't going to improve, we set off for the station again, this time by bus. The train back was much quicker, and we were in Gare de Lyon over half an hour before we had planned.
For the next half an hour or so, we were reminded why we don't come to France very often. The Japanese restaurant we had seen on Friday was closed, as were the Chinese and Italian ones. Which left the Fruits de Mer (seafood) and Savoyarde restaurants - none of which had a 'vegetarian option' beyond plain omelette. Eventually we got tired of walking around the area - particularly as the number of open restaurants decreased as we went away from the station - and instead headed for the airport.
That was equally bad, and we ended up having slightly stale mozarella and tomato and ham and cheese sandwiches at a terminal cafe. After splitting up to head off to our checkins, I found that my flight was delayed by a technical fault which had caused a delay on the incoming craft, which was then followed after boarding by some passengers from another flight deciding they didn't want to transfer to this one, so their bags had to be found and offloaded. Between that and the irregular evening trains from the airport (filled with celebrating Turkish supporters), I got home about 1:00 am.
Monday was thankfully quiet at work, and although one of the MA seminars was supposed to have started yesterday there was nothing on the bulletin boards, so as I was geared up to do something I instead redesigned my j-trans site. It's still not perfect but at least looks a lot better.
Friday, 13 June 2008
Touch base
It was a fairly hectic day yesterday, but first back to the long walk.
I thought I was one of the last to leave the office, running out at 5:45 which is when we were meant to be registering at the tent. The park was just down the road, but it was absolutely immense and it took me a while to find any tents, let alone the Nintendo one. When I finally found it, and the other UK translators doing the run, I was still in plenty of time - someone had obviously added a cat-herding margin to the arrival times.
A pleasant surprise was that the company t-shirts were actually quite nice - normally they're things you'd be embarrassed to wear after the event unless decorating, but I'll definitely wear mine in public. We also had inflatable batons to make noise with, and there was a lot of it as we headed off en masse after a group photo (there's no way they got everyone in without a panoramic lens). We filed out of the park, joking about how we were all wearing 'Wii Fit' t-shirts but were being passed out by pretty much everyone else, including some very fit-looking people from Panasonic.
It was a fair walk before we even got to the start area, and it was jam packed. There was some idea of organising yourself by your projected race time, but no-one seemed to be paying it any attention (which came back to bite us later). We stood around commenting on other people's t-shirts (one had 'we love this meeting!') and groaning at the choice of music (themes from Rocky and Chariots of Fire). After several '5-4-3-2-1!' announcements, we finally started to move forward, although it was another few minutes before we got to the start gate. But the crowd was very good-natured, and kept doing Mexican waves while standing around.
G and I walked the whole thing, but didn't do too badly at 50 minutes for 3.5 miles. The worst part was being pushed past by people running, as no-one had lined up by race time (it was simply too crowded to do anything like that) and although they were letting people out in batches the road (2-3 lanes) was still too narrow to allow everyone to be where they wanted. We ended up hugging the side of the barriers, but people still tried to undertake us. After a while the runners from both start gates joined up as we got to use both sides of a 4-lane dual carriageway, which made things much easier.
There were loads of cheering fans standing outside offices, and samba dancers for some reason. Other Nintendo people stopped to talk to us as they passed (which they generally did) and before too long we were passing the 5km markers and trying to figure out what 3.5 miles was in km. The end gate was a fairly subdued affair, with people raising their arms to run through in front of some cameras. From there we carried on walking until we were back in the park - we never did find the places to pick up our post-race JP Morgan t-shirts but we weren't that bothered. Cold drinks were foremost in our minds, and with those supplied we headed back to the company tent. The sight of the queue for the BBQ - and the amount of fat some of the stuff was frying in - put myself and G off and we had some biscuits instead.
I ended up sitting next to the producer from my previous project, a gregarious Frenchman with a love of any chocolate over 60% cocoa (and a corresponding hatred and scorn of anything less). Various areas had begun to hurt, mainly my calves and front of my thighs, followed by the backs of my hips (I did the whole thing in my MBTs, as they're simply the most comfortable walking shoes ever, so long as it's on a flat surface). My neck started hurting as well and I tried stretching it out, which he noticed and pushed his thumbs into the top of my shoulders, and agreed that I was indeed very stiff.
Then he took my hand and started pressing his thumb into various parts of it, which was fine until he reached the area above my thumb on the side of the hand - then it hurt like hell. "Are you sleeping well? You're not sleeping well, and you're depleted." I was frankly amazed - I haven't been sleeping well in Frankfurt, and gave up eating properly in the heat as I had no appetite. Turns out he has been informally studying shiatsu for years, and loved to use it to ease his wife's aches and pains when she was pregnant.
If any guys are reading this, this is a skill that will help you pull. He gives the best backrub, if G and P's reactions were anything to go by (actually, if we'd video-taped P and you didn't know what was happening...). I, unfortunately, was judged too tense for him to be able to do anything there and then, but I was still most impressed. Quite interested in it now.
Thursday was spent crunching through possible localisation issues in files at work - it's always fascinating to talk about it with someone else and see how differently people can think. Now we just need to close down as many as we can and leave as few changes to implement as possible. After that I concentrated on checking my translation, which I also spent most of the night doing. It started raining about 4pm, and I was only in a t-shirt as it's been way too hot for weeks. Bought a brolly in the supermarket.
I've bought some music online in anticipation of getting my shiny new player from David tonight, and am having a lot of enjoyment listening to Sunglasses at Night (Sean Finn and Gino Montesano, Moog Radio Mix) and Dangerous Power (Gabriel Dresden feat. Sean Burton, Gabriel Dresden Extended Mix).
But now it's time to pack the laptop, get a fleece and get to work! Paris and Fontainebleau await!
I thought I was one of the last to leave the office, running out at 5:45 which is when we were meant to be registering at the tent. The park was just down the road, but it was absolutely immense and it took me a while to find any tents, let alone the Nintendo one. When I finally found it, and the other UK translators doing the run, I was still in plenty of time - someone had obviously added a cat-herding margin to the arrival times.
A pleasant surprise was that the company t-shirts were actually quite nice - normally they're things you'd be embarrassed to wear after the event unless decorating, but I'll definitely wear mine in public. We also had inflatable batons to make noise with, and there was a lot of it as we headed off en masse after a group photo (there's no way they got everyone in without a panoramic lens). We filed out of the park, joking about how we were all wearing 'Wii Fit' t-shirts but were being passed out by pretty much everyone else, including some very fit-looking people from Panasonic.
It was a fair walk before we even got to the start area, and it was jam packed. There was some idea of organising yourself by your projected race time, but no-one seemed to be paying it any attention (which came back to bite us later). We stood around commenting on other people's t-shirts (one had 'we love this meeting!') and groaning at the choice of music (themes from Rocky and Chariots of Fire). After several '5-4-3-2-1!' announcements, we finally started to move forward, although it was another few minutes before we got to the start gate. But the crowd was very good-natured, and kept doing Mexican waves while standing around.
G and I walked the whole thing, but didn't do too badly at 50 minutes for 3.5 miles. The worst part was being pushed past by people running, as no-one had lined up by race time (it was simply too crowded to do anything like that) and although they were letting people out in batches the road (2-3 lanes) was still too narrow to allow everyone to be where they wanted. We ended up hugging the side of the barriers, but people still tried to undertake us. After a while the runners from both start gates joined up as we got to use both sides of a 4-lane dual carriageway, which made things much easier.
There were loads of cheering fans standing outside offices, and samba dancers for some reason. Other Nintendo people stopped to talk to us as they passed (which they generally did) and before too long we were passing the 5km markers and trying to figure out what 3.5 miles was in km. The end gate was a fairly subdued affair, with people raising their arms to run through in front of some cameras. From there we carried on walking until we were back in the park - we never did find the places to pick up our post-race JP Morgan t-shirts but we weren't that bothered. Cold drinks were foremost in our minds, and with those supplied we headed back to the company tent. The sight of the queue for the BBQ - and the amount of fat some of the stuff was frying in - put myself and G off and we had some biscuits instead.
I ended up sitting next to the producer from my previous project, a gregarious Frenchman with a love of any chocolate over 60% cocoa (and a corresponding hatred and scorn of anything less). Various areas had begun to hurt, mainly my calves and front of my thighs, followed by the backs of my hips (I did the whole thing in my MBTs, as they're simply the most comfortable walking shoes ever, so long as it's on a flat surface). My neck started hurting as well and I tried stretching it out, which he noticed and pushed his thumbs into the top of my shoulders, and agreed that I was indeed very stiff.
Then he took my hand and started pressing his thumb into various parts of it, which was fine until he reached the area above my thumb on the side of the hand - then it hurt like hell. "Are you sleeping well? You're not sleeping well, and you're depleted." I was frankly amazed - I haven't been sleeping well in Frankfurt, and gave up eating properly in the heat as I had no appetite. Turns out he has been informally studying shiatsu for years, and loved to use it to ease his wife's aches and pains when she was pregnant.
If any guys are reading this, this is a skill that will help you pull. He gives the best backrub, if G and P's reactions were anything to go by (actually, if we'd video-taped P and you didn't know what was happening...). I, unfortunately, was judged too tense for him to be able to do anything there and then, but I was still most impressed. Quite interested in it now.
Thursday was spent crunching through possible localisation issues in files at work - it's always fascinating to talk about it with someone else and see how differently people can think. Now we just need to close down as many as we can and leave as few changes to implement as possible. After that I concentrated on checking my translation, which I also spent most of the night doing. It started raining about 4pm, and I was only in a t-shirt as it's been way too hot for weeks. Bought a brolly in the supermarket.
I've bought some music online in anticipation of getting my shiny new player from David tonight, and am having a lot of enjoyment listening to Sunglasses at Night (Sean Finn and Gino Montesano, Moog Radio Mix) and Dangerous Power (Gabriel Dresden feat. Sean Burton, Gabriel Dresden Extended Mix).
But now it's time to pack the laptop, get a fleece and get to work! Paris and Fontainebleau await!
Wednesday, 11 June 2008
All walked out
Have dragged myself home from the 3.5 mile JP Morgan Chase Corporate Challenge, one nice t-shirt to show for it. I'm going to be very, very stiff tomorrow.
Tuesday, 10 June 2008
Something funny
Again, a genuine search - this time for weasel words, to find a nicer way of describing the cop-out of saying 'most people would agree that...' without providing any evidence for my feminism nationalism translation - has led to some new gems.
Follow it through glittering generality to The Society for Propaganda Analysis, then Argumentum ad numerum through to Communal reinforcement and finally you will arrive... at the wonders of truthiness. Keep going until you find the report on the speech at the 2006 White House Correspondents' Association Dinner.
I hope it makes you laugh - albeit in a rather painful way - as much as it did me.
Follow it through glittering generality to The Society for Propaganda Analysis, then Argumentum ad numerum through to Communal reinforcement and finally you will arrive... at the wonders of truthiness. Keep going until you find the report on the speech at the 2006 White House Correspondents' Association Dinner.
I hope it makes you laugh - albeit in a rather painful way - as much as it did me.
Monday, 9 June 2008
Run!
I completely forgot that I'd signed up to do a charity 3.5k run (after being assured that not only could I walk it, I would probably have to as there were so many people involved). And forgot when it was, so was worried it was this Friday or weekend, when I will not be here. Unhelpfully, the reminders in work were vague in a 'less than 2 weeks to go!' way but not actually giving a date. The internet informs me that it's Wednesday, so I will trundle along with loads of others from work and go to a huge BBQ afterwards. Should be fun.
Finally finished translating feminism nationalism over the weekend. Now I just have to check what I've done (especially the last section) and try to make it into acceptable English. It's hard when I'm not sure what some of the passages are trying to say, or when I don't understand the theory behind them. But such are uni assignments, particularly when you're trying to do something vaguely advanced in a field you know little about.
Amusing factoid I found today - there is a Black Day in South Korea. Nothing racial, I stumbled upon it while looking up Baumkuchen (legitimate work-related search!), which led me to White Day, which led me to Black Day. Seen my past failure at baking pretty much anything, I am in no hurry to try a traditional Baumkuchen...
Other than that, all getting a bit existential, in a what-am-I-doing way. Some colleagues have the chance to work closely with their teams or project managers, or actually translate, and so show what they can do, which I am quite envious of (the chance rather than the people). What I'm working on at the moment is checking US English text for anything unacceptable and/or incomprehensible in UK English, which while worthy in its own way is quite boring and simple work. I'm not stretching myself in any way, there isn't much to make an impression (let alone impress) with and although the pay is excellent the work itself isn't getting me anywhere.
My self-motivation is slipping (has slipped?) and without it there's not much to keep me going. While I feel I learned the hard way that trying hard for a lost cause (aka flogging a dead horse?) just ends up driving me crazy, I'm afraid of becoming sloppy and missing a chance if it does present itself, or simply messing up at some point.
And while saying all that, I have to laugh - it's nothing that hasn't happened to pretty much everyone else, including me, and the answer is the same as it's always been. Somehow, bootstrapping.
Finally finished translating feminism nationalism over the weekend. Now I just have to check what I've done (especially the last section) and try to make it into acceptable English. It's hard when I'm not sure what some of the passages are trying to say, or when I don't understand the theory behind them. But such are uni assignments, particularly when you're trying to do something vaguely advanced in a field you know little about.
Amusing factoid I found today - there is a Black Day in South Korea. Nothing racial, I stumbled upon it while looking up Baumkuchen (legitimate work-related search!), which led me to White Day, which led me to Black Day. Seen my past failure at baking pretty much anything, I am in no hurry to try a traditional Baumkuchen...
Other than that, all getting a bit existential, in a what-am-I-doing way. Some colleagues have the chance to work closely with their teams or project managers, or actually translate, and so show what they can do, which I am quite envious of (the chance rather than the people). What I'm working on at the moment is checking US English text for anything unacceptable and/or incomprehensible in UK English, which while worthy in its own way is quite boring and simple work. I'm not stretching myself in any way, there isn't much to make an impression (let alone impress) with and although the pay is excellent the work itself isn't getting me anywhere.
My self-motivation is slipping (has slipped?) and without it there's not much to keep me going. While I feel I learned the hard way that trying hard for a lost cause (aka flogging a dead horse?) just ends up driving me crazy, I'm afraid of becoming sloppy and missing a chance if it does present itself, or simply messing up at some point.
And while saying all that, I have to laugh - it's nothing that hasn't happened to pretty much everyone else, including me, and the answer is the same as it's always been. Somehow, bootstrapping.
Saturday, 7 June 2008
Too damn hot
Yes, it's still hot. Not quite as bad as it was, but it's been hot for so long that I'm feeling really worn down and light-headed most of the time. So, hiding out in my room reading rather than going out at the weekends, which means not much in the way of news.
Himself has been wonderful and ordered my new mp3 player, headphones and USB headset for me. Can't wait to see him next weekend.
Still trying to drag myself through this feminism nationalism translation. If nothing else it's turning into an interesting impromptu history lesson as I try to place some names - female anarchists executed for treason in the Meiji era.
Quote for the day: "Not unusually, tradition in Japan held that femaleness and an individual identity and destiny were oxymoronic. Thus, when the Tokugawa (1603-1867) authorities chose to execute a woman, she would be given a man's name. This was not unlike the view of progressive medieval Buddhists that enlightenment was not, after all, out of the reach of women. In male bodies, transformed at the point of death through the grace of Amida Buddha, they might gain immediate entry to the Pure Land. Either style of 'annihilation' meant dying a 'man'. However, after the Meiji imperial restoration of 1868, Western-style modernity brought with it a new view of women as modern citizens. The Meiji Constitution, Civil Code and political assembly laws fell far short of according them equality in terms of their rights or duties to the nation, yet the new criminal code promulgated in 1880 spelt a certain equality for women in granting them equal access to criminality."
From 'Resistance to Difference: Sexual Equality and its Law-ful and Out-law (Anarchist) Advocates in Imperial Japan' by Hélène Bowen Raddeker
Himself has been wonderful and ordered my new mp3 player, headphones and USB headset for me. Can't wait to see him next weekend.
Still trying to drag myself through this feminism nationalism translation. If nothing else it's turning into an interesting impromptu history lesson as I try to place some names - female anarchists executed for treason in the Meiji era.
Quote for the day: "Not unusually, tradition in Japan held that femaleness and an individual identity and destiny were oxymoronic. Thus, when the Tokugawa (1603-1867) authorities chose to execute a woman, she would be given a man's name. This was not unlike the view of progressive medieval Buddhists that enlightenment was not, after all, out of the reach of women. In male bodies, transformed at the point of death through the grace of Amida Buddha, they might gain immediate entry to the Pure Land. Either style of 'annihilation' meant dying a 'man'. However, after the Meiji imperial restoration of 1868, Western-style modernity brought with it a new view of women as modern citizens. The Meiji Constitution, Civil Code and political assembly laws fell far short of according them equality in terms of their rights or duties to the nation, yet the new criminal code promulgated in 1880 spelt a certain equality for women in granting them equal access to criminality."
From 'Resistance to Difference: Sexual Equality and its Law-ful and Out-law (Anarchist) Advocates in Imperial Japan' by Hélène Bowen Raddeker
Thursday, 5 June 2008
Now you've done it
I've booked my flights for Japan in October! Finnair are having a seat sale, with Heathrow to Nagoya or Osaka for a mere £392.90. I'm leaving on Oct 3, arriving early on Oct 4 and there until the morning of Oct 26. The three week JR railpass and rental mobile will be sorted out later...
Not much else - it's still too hot. Went out to Yumeya, a ramen restaurant near the Frankfurt Messe exhibition center. It was fun, if quite disorganised on the service front. Not expensive either.
Really, really must concentrate on getting this feminist nationalist translation done this weekend so I can run away to Fontainebleau with himself next weekend. Shall bring the camera - I know I haven't been doing much around Frankfurt recently. There aren't many people interested in going places, and I'm sorry to say my German is still non-existent so I'm still quite nervous. But I should make an effort to at least see Heidelberg and one town on the Romance Road that seems near enough.
June already... been here three months. It feels like it, in that way that you get used to places, but also not in that I feel like I haven't got that much done. Another three months (or possibly four, the one month extension I was promised has not shown up yet) and it's all over. For now anyway.
But I have other things to worry about - I'm managing to read a small newspaper article a day on the Asahi Shimbun website, but as soon as I get back from France I need to start preparing for the residential weekend, which means reading short stories, reviewing the report-writing and preparing visual aids for the presentation. There's quite a lot of work to be done there, so I just hope I have the willpower for it...
Not much else - it's still too hot. Went out to Yumeya, a ramen restaurant near the Frankfurt Messe exhibition center. It was fun, if quite disorganised on the service front. Not expensive either.
Really, really must concentrate on getting this feminist nationalist translation done this weekend so I can run away to Fontainebleau with himself next weekend. Shall bring the camera - I know I haven't been doing much around Frankfurt recently. There aren't many people interested in going places, and I'm sorry to say my German is still non-existent so I'm still quite nervous. But I should make an effort to at least see Heidelberg and one town on the Romance Road that seems near enough.
June already... been here three months. It feels like it, in that way that you get used to places, but also not in that I feel like I haven't got that much done. Another three months (or possibly four, the one month extension I was promised has not shown up yet) and it's all over. For now anyway.
But I have other things to worry about - I'm managing to read a small newspaper article a day on the Asahi Shimbun website, but as soon as I get back from France I need to start preparing for the residential weekend, which means reading short stories, reviewing the report-writing and preparing visual aids for the presentation. There's quite a lot of work to be done there, so I just hope I have the willpower for it...
Tuesday, 3 June 2008
yes, yes, YES!!
As the ad goes. I finally got my hair cut (goes a bit like this) which makes me feel like I've taken off a woolly hat. Which is good, as the weather continues to be stupidly hot.
In other news, having far too much fun looking at places to go with my brother and his other half in Japan in October (Tokyo, Matsumoto, Obuse, Inuyama and Kanazawa on the list so far) and generally managing to avoid the MA translation I should be doing.
In other news, having far too much fun looking at places to go with my brother and his other half in Japan in October (Tokyo, Matsumoto, Obuse, Inuyama and Kanazawa on the list so far) and generally managing to avoid the MA translation I should be doing.
Friday, 30 May 2008
Victory! (again)
I have an appointment for a haircut. Woo.
The Italians have been measuring the heat in the office, and apparently it hit 31 Celsius on Wednesday. Thursday was equally bad, but Friday was bearable. I did go out on Wednesday and buy four new light tops, and a headset for using Skype now I've paid in to be able to call normal phones.
Except the MacBook Pros don't come with a microphone port. They come with a line-in port, which normal headsets can't use. So, I can't use it. Need to get myself a USB headset or some kind of external amp or sound card. Spent a huge amount of time researching what will or won't work and think I have found one now that I can use.
Had a massive thunderstorm last night with constant thunder and lightning, and another one has just moved in. At least it will cool things down a bit. It's hard to concentrate on anything with it so hot, but I have at least managed to buy a card for my cousin's wedding (although I've managed to lose his address) and write to my homestay family in Japan.
My brother has finally firmed up his dates for Mongolia, so I can start plotting my next trip to Japan. Finnair are having a seat sale, and seem to make the journey via Helsinki faster than Emirates via Dubai. The direct flights are all over £800, much as I would love to go direct again.
The Italians have been measuring the heat in the office, and apparently it hit 31 Celsius on Wednesday. Thursday was equally bad, but Friday was bearable. I did go out on Wednesday and buy four new light tops, and a headset for using Skype now I've paid in to be able to call normal phones.
Except the MacBook Pros don't come with a microphone port. They come with a line-in port, which normal headsets can't use. So, I can't use it. Need to get myself a USB headset or some kind of external amp or sound card. Spent a huge amount of time researching what will or won't work and think I have found one now that I can use.
Had a massive thunderstorm last night with constant thunder and lightning, and another one has just moved in. At least it will cool things down a bit. It's hard to concentrate on anything with it so hot, but I have at least managed to buy a card for my cousin's wedding (although I've managed to lose his address) and write to my homestay family in Japan.
My brother has finally firmed up his dates for Mongolia, so I can start plotting my next trip to Japan. Finnair are having a seat sale, and seem to make the journey via Helsinki faster than Emirates via Dubai. The direct flights are all over £800, much as I would love to go direct again.
Wednesday, 28 May 2008
Round and round and round we go
For anyone wondering what on earth I'm talking about with kumihimo, here's a photo of my attempts so far. One of them is being used a decorative dangle on my bag, as I wove it around a clip. I'm not sure if the thinner ones are meant to twist as mine do... But still an awful lot of fun and really relaxing.
Yesterday was too hot. It was the kind of day where you either are dressed, or move, but not both. Everything I own seems to be too heavy. Yesterday was 23 degrees - today, tomorrow and Friday are supposed to be 29. I'm going to melt.
Still trying to get a haircut.
Yesterday was too hot. It was the kind of day where you either are dressed, or move, but not both. Everything I own seems to be too heavy. Yesterday was 23 degrees - today, tomorrow and Friday are supposed to be 29. I'm going to melt.
Still trying to get a haircut.
Tuesday, 27 May 2008
The horror is in the post
Love these Hammer House of Horror commemorative stamps from Royal Mail - along with the Carry On ones.
Not sure what it says about the contents of what it's on though...
Not sure what it says about the contents of what it's on though...
Monday, 26 May 2008
Oops
Apparently, I can lose track of time while doing kumihimo. I was planning on being in bed early tonight...
Easily distracted
I ended up undoing the kumihimo cord and redoing it - then undoing it again after realising I'd got the pattern wrong. How I did that I don't know, as it is literally weave-by-numbers. But on the third go I cut a new thread for the cross-weave so that it would be long enough to use up all the other cords, and wove away while watching a video - I now have a very nice red, gold and brown cord attached to a clip!
I don't have a weight to keep it tense and so keep the weave even, but I found that just holding the braid as it comes from the disc worked nicely. Very happy with it for a third first attempt...
But I really shouldn't be doing it in the morning before work. Need to run now.
I don't have a weight to keep it tense and so keep the weave even, but I found that just holding the braid as it comes from the disc worked nicely. Very happy with it for a third first attempt...
But I really shouldn't be doing it in the morning before work. Need to run now.
Sunday, 25 May 2008
Not too bad
As predicted, Friday felt like being called into work on a Saturday, Saturday felt like Sunday and Sunday didn't know what to do with itself. Such is a bank holiday Thursday.
Managed to get some things done - finally did a jewellery repair that I've had since Easter. I needed a few beads for it, so went to search for bead shops in Frankfurt without much hope - I'd searched before and found naught. But someone had posted a question about it a few days earlier on an 'answers' site and I got addresses for two places - the first of which had what I wanted (which was nothing special) and I also caved in and bought a kumihimo set and some carabiners with chains to weave onto. The second store was much larger and nicer, with a larger range of beads, and there too I was unable to resist buying something - in this case a set of 6 butterfly and dragonfly stamps and a set of blue/green ink pads. I know, I shouldn't. But I did.
The other thing I was on the lookout for was headphones. I found a real hi-fi shop, which predictably enough only stocked serious merchandise - 300 and 400 Euro Sennheiser headphones. The strange thing is that I can get both the headphones and the iAudio D2 much cheaper in the UK than here, even taking the strong Euro into account. But I can't seem to pay for them with my German bank card, so I'll have to see if I can get them delivered to a non-cardholder address (always a bit of a pain).
Otherwise, I finished the first section of the Social Science Readings translation, and read the central part we don't have to translate. I still have some way to go before I finish (due on June 13) but at least I've cracked the ice.
Went out to dinner last night with Z to the Thai place around the corner - cheap and cheerful (6 Euro main course) but tasty and just what we were looking for. He sent me one of his songs in production, and I am extremely impressed.
So, I'm now sitting surrounded by rattail (satin cord, in case you think it's something strange) and templates. I translated the kumihimo booklet online from German to English, and although not all of it made sense, I found a video that cleared up most things and actually making one piece has made a lot of the rest obvious. One bit I missed was that some threads have to be longer than others, so my 'finished item' has uneven straggly tails, but I quite like it anyway.
Managed to get some things done - finally did a jewellery repair that I've had since Easter. I needed a few beads for it, so went to search for bead shops in Frankfurt without much hope - I'd searched before and found naught. But someone had posted a question about it a few days earlier on an 'answers' site and I got addresses for two places - the first of which had what I wanted (which was nothing special) and I also caved in and bought a kumihimo set and some carabiners with chains to weave onto. The second store was much larger and nicer, with a larger range of beads, and there too I was unable to resist buying something - in this case a set of 6 butterfly and dragonfly stamps and a set of blue/green ink pads. I know, I shouldn't. But I did.
The other thing I was on the lookout for was headphones. I found a real hi-fi shop, which predictably enough only stocked serious merchandise - 300 and 400 Euro Sennheiser headphones. The strange thing is that I can get both the headphones and the iAudio D2 much cheaper in the UK than here, even taking the strong Euro into account. But I can't seem to pay for them with my German bank card, so I'll have to see if I can get them delivered to a non-cardholder address (always a bit of a pain).
Otherwise, I finished the first section of the Social Science Readings translation, and read the central part we don't have to translate. I still have some way to go before I finish (due on June 13) but at least I've cracked the ice.
Went out to dinner last night with Z to the Thai place around the corner - cheap and cheerful (6 Euro main course) but tasty and just what we were looking for. He sent me one of his songs in production, and I am extremely impressed.
So, I'm now sitting surrounded by rattail (satin cord, in case you think it's something strange) and templates. I translated the kumihimo booklet online from German to English, and although not all of it made sense, I found a video that cleared up most things and actually making one piece has made a lot of the rest obvious. One bit I missed was that some threads have to be longer than others, so my 'finished item' has uneven straggly tails, but I quite like it anyway.
Friday, 23 May 2008
It's dead, Jim
I had a few things I was going to do on the bank holiday yesterday - and did exactly none of them. I slept for 12 hours, watched videos and listened to music and generally faffed around.
Today, the content management system misbehaved to the extent that I managed to get about half of what I was hoping to done, and the rest of the day rechecking files it hadn't loaded properly the first time. I get paid for this.
My beloved and heavily used iAudio G2 has bitten the dust. It was declaring its 1GB disk full although there was nothing on it, so I proceeded to do a firmware update, which fixed that last time. No such luck - it went from being recognisable but full on the Mac to being recognisable on the Windows virtual machine only, and then to only being seen as a defective USB mass storage device. Oh well. I have had it for ages, and used it most days in that time. It has earned its eternal rest.
I'm currently interested it its younger sibling, the iAudio D2, and a pair of out-of-ear earphones. While I hate the way they look, my inner ears are starting to feel funny, possibly because due to the complete and total lack of soundproofing in these flats, I always have headphones on when listening to anything. I'm still not convinced that my hearing is 100%, despite a visit to the Royal Berkshire.
And now - the weekend, where I will attempt to do what I should have done yesterday.
Today, the content management system misbehaved to the extent that I managed to get about half of what I was hoping to done, and the rest of the day rechecking files it hadn't loaded properly the first time. I get paid for this.
My beloved and heavily used iAudio G2 has bitten the dust. It was declaring its 1GB disk full although there was nothing on it, so I proceeded to do a firmware update, which fixed that last time. No such luck - it went from being recognisable but full on the Mac to being recognisable on the Windows virtual machine only, and then to only being seen as a defective USB mass storage device. Oh well. I have had it for ages, and used it most days in that time. It has earned its eternal rest.
I'm currently interested it its younger sibling, the iAudio D2, and a pair of out-of-ear earphones. While I hate the way they look, my inner ears are starting to feel funny, possibly because due to the complete and total lack of soundproofing in these flats, I always have headphones on when listening to anything. I'm still not convinced that my hearing is 100%, despite a visit to the Royal Berkshire.
And now - the weekend, where I will attempt to do what I should have done yesterday.
Wednesday, 21 May 2008
Dream and nightmare
This morning went swimmingly. Oh, I did my usual (this must be the right stop - oh no, the destination looks wrong - cross to other bus stop - bus arrives - tells me I need the other direction - RUN across dual carriageway and only catch bus because it is late) but I was at UPS as they opened, paid my money, got my package and had a good 25 minutes opening everything and reading manuals before the bus arrived.
And I spent the entire day - I kid you not - merging files on the content management system. So I've played some of all three games...
My new neighbour downstairs might be from the music school. I think he's playing saxophone. I can hear it over my own music with headphones in, and it's given me a raging headache in the 20 minutes I've been home.
Bank holiday tomorrow. Must get a few things done that I've been waiting to do. I just hope Mr. Saxophone is out.
And I spent the entire day - I kid you not - merging files on the content management system. So I've played some of all three games...
My new neighbour downstairs might be from the music school. I think he's playing saxophone. I can hear it over my own music with headphones in, and it's given me a raging headache in the 20 minutes I've been home.
Bank holiday tomorrow. Must get a few things done that I've been waiting to do. I just hope Mr. Saxophone is out.
Tuesday, 20 May 2008
German efficiency?
Dad mentioned on the phone that the TGV booking website is allegedly the worst. No, I can beat it...
Frankfurt's route planner was sending me out two towns to the east before coming back in. Hence the hour journey and unknown fare.
It was only when I used Google Maps (no, not just plugging it because himself works for them) that I realised what on earth was happening. And that there was a U-Bahn station close by that I might be able to walk from. And when I traced the route, I could clearly see a tram on the street.
So, it's now down to a short hop to Willy-Brant-Platz and then Tram 11 to Hugo-Junkers-Strasse. 42 minutes. Or the S-Bahn to the next town east and then a bus. 33 minutes.
I'm sure it's something to do with not defining where I'm going in terms that the site can understand, but it doesn't exactly help me plan my journey...
Frankfurt's route planner was sending me out two towns to the east before coming back in. Hence the hour journey and unknown fare.
It was only when I used Google Maps (no, not just plugging it because himself works for them) that I realised what on earth was happening. And that there was a U-Bahn station close by that I might be able to walk from. And when I traced the route, I could clearly see a tram on the street.
So, it's now down to a short hop to Willy-Brant-Platz and then Tram 11 to Hugo-Junkers-Strasse. 42 minutes. Or the S-Bahn to the next town east and then a bus. 33 minutes.
I'm sure it's something to do with not defining where I'm going in terms that the site can understand, but it doesn't exactly help me plan my journey...
Adventure calls
Or disaster. It's not clear which it will be...
I could have sworn I checked my mailbox yesterday, but when I checked it today I found two 'we tried to deliver' notices from UPS for the order I placed ages ago for some Japanese language software on the DS - one of the games was out of stock for weeks.
The postal system here has a nasty habit of sending things back, so after hastily online-translating the options I called up and asked for delivery to 'a nearby UPS Centre' - there's one around the corner!
I called the UPS number and after a reasonable start, the conversation degenerated to the point where the call handler switched to English. I got the street name and number for my pickup and was assured I could pay what I assume is import tax.
'Nearby' must be some kind of euphemism. The UPS Center is in a massive industrial park way out on the east side of the city, out by the docks. Google Maps came through for me again, pinpointing the street even though I'd left out a hyphen. The Frankfurt public transport site was far less helpful until I switched to searching on the larger street the UPS Centre is off - it will take me just over an hour on a combination of U-bahn, commuter train and bus to get anywhere near the place.
They're open from 8am to 9pm, so I'll try to get there tomorrow am - and get into work on time...
I could have sworn I checked my mailbox yesterday, but when I checked it today I found two 'we tried to deliver' notices from UPS for the order I placed ages ago for some Japanese language software on the DS - one of the games was out of stock for weeks.
The postal system here has a nasty habit of sending things back, so after hastily online-translating the options I called up and asked for delivery to 'a nearby UPS Centre' - there's one around the corner!
I called the UPS number and after a reasonable start, the conversation degenerated to the point where the call handler switched to English. I got the street name and number for my pickup and was assured I could pay what I assume is import tax.
'Nearby' must be some kind of euphemism. The UPS Center is in a massive industrial park way out on the east side of the city, out by the docks. Google Maps came through for me again, pinpointing the street even though I'd left out a hyphen. The Frankfurt public transport site was far less helpful until I switched to searching on the larger street the UPS Centre is off - it will take me just over an hour on a combination of U-bahn, commuter train and bus to get anywhere near the place.
They're open from 8am to 9pm, so I'll try to get there tomorrow am - and get into work on time...
Monday, 19 May 2008
Weekender
After the morning of misfortune, I met up with A as promised at Frankfurt Hauptbahnhof. We headed back to mine to drop his case and then had a quick lunch at the Italian place near Iroha. From there we wandered through the historic Romerplatz and through to the river, where we took the 100 minute cruise up and down the river. The boat was bigger than the one I'd taken before for the cruise and Night of the Museums - maybe they're getting into high season. We could hear all the commentary, although it was playing a minute or so after we'd passed whatever they were talking about.
For dinner we tried out a place with a terrace on top of the Galeria department store, but it didn't do much in the way of food. We ended up at the bar at Eschenheimer Tor, where they forgot my cheeseburger. When it did come, I stopped eating the chips halfway through as they seemed a bit funny. And spent most of the night being kept up by having to go to the loo. If it wasn't that, it would have been the party at the house next door. At least A judged the inflatable mattress to be comfortable, and it was large enough.
On Sunday morning, mindful of what might or might not be open, we headed to the Main Tower, passing some really nice parks that trace the old town walls. After the airport-style security check (where they let a man with a pocket knife through...) we got into the lifts, which had a panel showing you where in the building you were and how fast the lift was going - I think we hit 18kmph. The view from the top (190m) was fantastic and it is definitely on my list of Places to Bring People.
Next stop was Fressgasse, supposed to be Frankfurt's one-street stop for all things gourmet. It was however very quiet and many places were closed. After deciding against anything too outrageous, we ended up having sandwiches and coffee at a really nice place that I'll definitely go to again.
Suitably fortified, we got back on the U-bahn and headed to the Sudbahnhof and connected with the No. 14 tram. It all looked very urban until the stop before ours, when we suddenly came into trees and the tram started to climb slightly. By the time we got off, you couldn't see any trace of Frankfurt. We headed off in one direction and found an arboretum and the City Forest House, full of interactive exhibits for kids. It also had a very impressive map of the city and forest with height gradations, and we could see there was a lake not far from the tram stop, so we set off back there with brief pauses to rescue a snail and investigate some kind of dragon mascot.
After crossing the tracks, we headed off in one direction and found some streams, but also a dead end (coming up against allotments) and then went uphill, which we thought couldn't be right. Back to the tram station and map - the only maps were on each side of the tram stop, and there was almost no signposting. The fact that neither of us has any sense of direction didn't help, but we weren't desperate to get anywhere. It was a glorious day and nice to be out of the city. We finally found the lake, took photos and staggered off to a rest stop for beer and diet coke.
Then it was back to the city center and another new discovery for dinner - although it took us a little while to find, the Historical Stork Restaurant was lovely and had great food - veal with mushrooms in cream sauce with noodles with butter and white truffle oil. And very reasonable, compared to Iwase.
Finally it was the traditional sprint for the station, but we got there with 5 minutes to spare and I waved A off. As he'd said, it was great to have someone familiar to chat to, and I was hit by a wave of loneliness as I watched the train fill up. Giving in to the urge to treat myself - but wanting to carry on avoiding sweeties as I had been doing so successfully for that week - I stumbled across a huge selection of novels in English in a bookshop in the station and bought a crime thriller.
Which came in very handy today, which finally was not party time at the laundrette.
But all in all a fantastic weekend - three new places to take people and a comfy mattress to put them up on.
For dinner we tried out a place with a terrace on top of the Galeria department store, but it didn't do much in the way of food. We ended up at the bar at Eschenheimer Tor, where they forgot my cheeseburger. When it did come, I stopped eating the chips halfway through as they seemed a bit funny. And spent most of the night being kept up by having to go to the loo. If it wasn't that, it would have been the party at the house next door. At least A judged the inflatable mattress to be comfortable, and it was large enough.
On Sunday morning, mindful of what might or might not be open, we headed to the Main Tower, passing some really nice parks that trace the old town walls. After the airport-style security check (where they let a man with a pocket knife through...) we got into the lifts, which had a panel showing you where in the building you were and how fast the lift was going - I think we hit 18kmph. The view from the top (190m) was fantastic and it is definitely on my list of Places to Bring People.
Next stop was Fressgasse, supposed to be Frankfurt's one-street stop for all things gourmet. It was however very quiet and many places were closed. After deciding against anything too outrageous, we ended up having sandwiches and coffee at a really nice place that I'll definitely go to again.
Suitably fortified, we got back on the U-bahn and headed to the Sudbahnhof and connected with the No. 14 tram. It all looked very urban until the stop before ours, when we suddenly came into trees and the tram started to climb slightly. By the time we got off, you couldn't see any trace of Frankfurt. We headed off in one direction and found an arboretum and the City Forest House, full of interactive exhibits for kids. It also had a very impressive map of the city and forest with height gradations, and we could see there was a lake not far from the tram stop, so we set off back there with brief pauses to rescue a snail and investigate some kind of dragon mascot.
After crossing the tracks, we headed off in one direction and found some streams, but also a dead end (coming up against allotments) and then went uphill, which we thought couldn't be right. Back to the tram station and map - the only maps were on each side of the tram stop, and there was almost no signposting. The fact that neither of us has any sense of direction didn't help, but we weren't desperate to get anywhere. It was a glorious day and nice to be out of the city. We finally found the lake, took photos and staggered off to a rest stop for beer and diet coke.
Then it was back to the city center and another new discovery for dinner - although it took us a little while to find, the Historical Stork Restaurant was lovely and had great food - veal with mushrooms in cream sauce with noodles with butter and white truffle oil. And very reasonable, compared to Iwase.
Finally it was the traditional sprint for the station, but we got there with 5 minutes to spare and I waved A off. As he'd said, it was great to have someone familiar to chat to, and I was hit by a wave of loneliness as I watched the train fill up. Giving in to the urge to treat myself - but wanting to carry on avoiding sweeties as I had been doing so successfully for that week - I stumbled across a huge selection of novels in English in a bookshop in the station and bought a crime thriller.
Which came in very handy today, which finally was not party time at the laundrette.
But all in all a fantastic weekend - three new places to take people and a comfy mattress to put them up on.
Sunday, 18 May 2008
And on and on
The Mac is again convinced that the hard drive on my music player is full, despite there being nothing on it. I think I've at least remembered how I fixed it last time, although I think it involved a laborious firmware upgrade.
I walked into town to look for tops - found only one I liked which looked great on the hanger but not on me. Gave up and went to walk to the Hauptbanhof.
Despite being convinced I had gone in the right direction, none of the streets were what they should have been. I gave up and once again got the U-Bahn.
I walked into town to look for tops - found only one I liked which looked great on the hanger but not on me. Gave up and went to walk to the Hauptbanhof.
Despite being convinced I had gone in the right direction, none of the streets were what they should have been. I gave up and once again got the U-Bahn.
Saturday, 17 May 2008
Plan C, anyone?
If I thought Wednesday nights were party time at the laundrette, I was wrong. The true party time is Saturday morning. All 18 washing machines and 6 dryers in use.
Have hidden the washing. It would have been a nice walk if it wasn't so damn hot out. Will now have to wait until Monday night before I can try again...
I might just go into town and buy some more tops.
Have hidden the washing. It would have been a nice walk if it wasn't so damn hot out. Will now have to wait until Monday night before I can try again...
I might just go into town and buy some more tops.
Visitor
After work on Thursday I ran into town to pick up an inflatable mattress and pillow plus pump as I have company! A friend of David's working in Munich is coming up for the weekend. I just hope the mattress is okay, as it was a choice between slightly too small and far too big...
The plan for this morning was to tidy up between loads of washing - as usual in hot weather it seems to breed in the corner when I'm not looking - but the washing machine in the basement is on the blink. So I now have to run to the laundrette and hope I have enough time before having to meet my visitor at the station. Great way to start an early Saturday morning.
Work is as usual. The heat in the office makes it very difficult not to get sleepy. My team are working themselves up to request reference books as they put together a style guide, but apparently 10 books requested a year ago turned into one book received last week. I am starting to get a bit disheartened that not only will I be doing no translation (no boost to language skills) but I will be reading over-the-top American English until September.
Anyway. Time to bring the guidebook to the laundrette...
The plan for this morning was to tidy up between loads of washing - as usual in hot weather it seems to breed in the corner when I'm not looking - but the washing machine in the basement is on the blink. So I now have to run to the laundrette and hope I have enough time before having to meet my visitor at the station. Great way to start an early Saturday morning.
Work is as usual. The heat in the office makes it very difficult not to get sleepy. My team are working themselves up to request reference books as they put together a style guide, but apparently 10 books requested a year ago turned into one book received last week. I am starting to get a bit disheartened that not only will I be doing no translation (no boost to language skills) but I will be reading over-the-top American English until September.
Anyway. Time to bring the guidebook to the laundrette...
Wednesday, 14 May 2008
... and relax
Had a wonderful long weekend - after an annoying start, with Aer Lingus supplying no information whatsoever about delays until we were halfway through the flight, I met up with himself at Dublin Airport and we headed out to my parents. Much talking, laughing, eating, walking on the beach and playing with the cat ensued, along with some computer fixing.
I got back on Monday night and got down to some actual work on Tuesday - after a week of having almost nothing to do, it was a relief although I really can get used to having free time... I was good and ate at the salad bar at lunch, but suffered for it - I think the sweetcorn had been left out too long. Today was more of the same work-wise, along with some objectively petty discussions about grammar and punctuation that have been dredged up by some of the translators starting to write up an in-house style. At the end of the day, it's not important if we put spaces before and/or after ellipsis denoting a pause in speech or not. It would be nice to do it either rightly or wrongly consistently, if anyone can ever agree on what right is. At least my stomach was happy with the Chinese food counter in the supermarket.
I have booked my flights to the UK for the craft fair and university residential week in July. I also have a guest arriving on Saturday, so one thing I have to do in the next day or so is go and purchase an inflatable mattress. And think of fun places to go.
I started on the translation for the Social Sciences course tonight, and ended up spending most of the evening finding other things quoting a quote I was looking up. Ah, the supreme time-wasting potential of the internet. As usual for this course, it turned out to be immensely depressing if worthy reading.
"They [fascism and religious fundamentalism] both come from very primitive parts of us that have always been the default setting of our species: amity toward our in-group, enmity toward out-groups, hierarchical deference to alpha male figures, a powerful identification with our territory, and so forth. It is that brutal default setting that all civilizations have tried to raise us above, but it is always a fragile thing, civilization, and has to be achieved over and over and over again." (Sermon: Living Under Fascism) I may not agree completely with the list of causes, but definitely do about civilisation.
It has gone hot and stuffy, especially at work where there is no air conditioning (apparently it's been promised for years now) - I need to try to get to sleep on time to have a chance of surviving the day. The heating is off and the window open, so let's hope that does the trick.
I got back on Monday night and got down to some actual work on Tuesday - after a week of having almost nothing to do, it was a relief although I really can get used to having free time... I was good and ate at the salad bar at lunch, but suffered for it - I think the sweetcorn had been left out too long. Today was more of the same work-wise, along with some objectively petty discussions about grammar and punctuation that have been dredged up by some of the translators starting to write up an in-house style. At the end of the day, it's not important if we put spaces before and/or after ellipsis denoting a pause in speech or not. It would be nice to do it either rightly or wrongly consistently, if anyone can ever agree on what right is. At least my stomach was happy with the Chinese food counter in the supermarket.
I have booked my flights to the UK for the craft fair and university residential week in July. I also have a guest arriving on Saturday, so one thing I have to do in the next day or so is go and purchase an inflatable mattress. And think of fun places to go.
I started on the translation for the Social Sciences course tonight, and ended up spending most of the evening finding other things quoting a quote I was looking up. Ah, the supreme time-wasting potential of the internet. As usual for this course, it turned out to be immensely depressing if worthy reading.
"They [fascism and religious fundamentalism] both come from very primitive parts of us that have always been the default setting of our species: amity toward our in-group, enmity toward out-groups, hierarchical deference to alpha male figures, a powerful identification with our territory, and so forth. It is that brutal default setting that all civilizations have tried to raise us above, but it is always a fragile thing, civilization, and has to be achieved over and over and over again." (Sermon: Living Under Fascism) I may not agree completely with the list of causes, but definitely do about civilisation.
It has gone hot and stuffy, especially at work where there is no air conditioning (apparently it's been promised for years now) - I need to try to get to sleep on time to have a chance of surviving the day. The heating is off and the window open, so let's hope that does the trick.
Wednesday, 7 May 2008
Party time!
It seems that 7:30pm on a Wednesday is the time to do your laundry.
After heading down to the basement to try to use the washing machine, I found that it was in use with another load piled next to it - and I still don't know if the dryer is fixed. So, after a sandwich I headed off to the laundrette which is a pleasant 10 minutes walk away.
It was packed. I got the last of the 18 washing machines and had to wait about 20 minutes for a dryer as two were on the blink. The pay machine wasn't giving change, so I ended up paying for about 40 minutes in the dryer, a huge Miele professional affair, and everything came out bone dry and so hot you couldn't touch any zips or buttons.
And while is it nice to not have to repeatedly go up and down the stairs and worry about whether the machine is in use, and it costs about the same (when I can get change anyway), I have to say that folding my undies while two men sit beside me singing and drinking beer is not my idea of a fun time. I ended up folding everything else first and creating a barricade of jeans and fleeces between us so I could fold with some privacy...
After heading down to the basement to try to use the washing machine, I found that it was in use with another load piled next to it - and I still don't know if the dryer is fixed. So, after a sandwich I headed off to the laundrette which is a pleasant 10 minutes walk away.
It was packed. I got the last of the 18 washing machines and had to wait about 20 minutes for a dryer as two were on the blink. The pay machine wasn't giving change, so I ended up paying for about 40 minutes in the dryer, a huge Miele professional affair, and everything came out bone dry and so hot you couldn't touch any zips or buttons.
And while is it nice to not have to repeatedly go up and down the stairs and worry about whether the machine is in use, and it costs about the same (when I can get change anyway), I have to say that folding my undies while two men sit beside me singing and drinking beer is not my idea of a fun time. I ended up folding everything else first and creating a barricade of jeans and fleeces between us so I could fold with some privacy...
Monday, 5 May 2008
Yes, it really is
One other thing that happened on Sunday was lots of being talked to by older German ladies who don't seem to mind that we're not getting most of what they say. The first one was outside our building, ringing all the doorbells that had German names - I think someone's car was blocking her in the courtyard behind us.
The next time was when we got to the cemetary in Wiesbaden - the button for the pedestrian crossing wasn't working and the ladies who had been on the bus with us sounded like they were cross about it. We did get one bit of German vocabulary out of it though - or rather confirmation that 'das ist kaput' is real German!
The next time was when we got to the cemetary in Wiesbaden - the button for the pedestrian crossing wasn't working and the ladies who had been on the bus with us sounded like they were cross about it. We did get one bit of German vocabulary out of it though - or rather confirmation that 'das ist kaput' is real German!
Sunday, 4 May 2008
Brain like a sieve
I don't even have the hayfever to blame for this (that has largely cleared up). I wanted to write my assessed report today, so I could review it during the week and send it on Thursday as I'm flying to Dublin on Friday.
Except the first half of it, which I wrote in work, and the soft copies of the newspaper articles, which I painstakingly typed up in work, are on my memory stick - still plugged into my machine at work.
Okay, I'll do the Social Studies translation... or I would, except that the glossary I made during the week is - you guessed it - on the memory stick, which I managed to leave in work on Friday.
Another coffee and some practice at newspaper articles and short stories, or some grammar study... not that my brain seems to be up to much today.
Except the first half of it, which I wrote in work, and the soft copies of the newspaper articles, which I painstakingly typed up in work, are on my memory stick - still plugged into my machine at work.
Okay, I'll do the Social Studies translation... or I would, except that the glossary I made during the week is - you guessed it - on the memory stick, which I managed to leave in work on Friday.
Another coffee and some practice at newspaper articles and short stories, or some grammar study... not that my brain seems to be up to much today.
Hunt for the Red Baron
Photos are here!
I woke up early on Saturday and checked my maps to get to the Japanese bookshop I'd found online - and while doing so finally found the opening hours. It wasn't open until 10:00 so I hung around for a while and then headed in. I found it easily, and it has a good if small selection of books, magazines and comics with a scattering of Japanese food and 'fancy goods' like origami paper. I got a book of short stories by Miyazawa Kenji and one on 'How to be a proper member of society' (there are many of these quasi-etiquette books in Japanese), both on sale for 3 Euro. The full-price books are quite expensive, but all I want is some reading practice. I also got some writing paper, one of my favourite soft drinks and - after some advice from the very friendly staff - some powdered bonito stock to use in my nikujaga recipe. I stopped by the supermarket near the flat to get the ingredients, but they had no beef so it's going to be done with chicken this time.
Z was walking in to do his shopping as I was walking out, we stopped and chatted and I went home to get more information on Wiesbaden. Then at 1:00 we headed out! First stop was Hauptwache station, where we got the S-Bahn commuter service to Wiesbaden, which took just over 45 minutes. Google maps helpfully shows bus stops and what buses they're for, so after we coaxed some all-day bus tickets out of the machines we jumped on the No. 16 east to the Sudfriedhof cemetary. It was huge, spacious and much more like a park than a graveyard. The directions weren't great, but we eventually found what we were looking for - the grave of Manfred von Richthofen, the Red Baron.
He's been buried three times - once by the other side, with full military honours, near Amiens, then moved to a state war cemetary in Berlin, then moved again after his surviving brother Bolko asked for him to be buried in the family grave in Wiesbaden when Berlin was divided and Manfred's grave could only be visited by special permission as it was right up alongside the Russian zone. Both Manfred and his other brother Lothar were awarded the highest honour in Germany, 'pour le Merit'.
We headed back to the main train station and stopped for an ice cream - it was an absolutely glorious day, and we saw a temperature sign saying 20 degrees Centigrade. Z had a chocolate and cream sundae that rapidly degenerated into a lake of chocolate, and I had a scoop of chocolate, mocha and amaretto. You wouldn't want to drive after the amaretto.
Then it was back on the bus, this time the No. 1 north to Nerotal, a hill overlooking the town. The main attraction - for me anyway - is the Nerobergbahn, Europe's only water ballast funicular! The traditional stepped cars operate as a pair, with the car at the top of the hill pumped full of water to weigh it down - the driver of the downhill car controls the rate of release of water to ensure the uphill car is pulled smoothly to the top, then the water is dumped at the bottom of the hill and pumped back up again to be reused!
We wandered around the top of the hill for a while, admiring the view and the stone amphitheatre (and the rope/treetop adventure centre, just like the one in Bracknell Forest) before setting off to find a church built on the hill. We initially went the wrong way - Z was foolish enough to let me read the map - and wondered how you can't find an Orthodox church with five gold domes on the top of a hill. We came back to where we started, realised where we went wrong and soon saw the domes glinting through the forest. The church was being restored so we couldn't go in, but the outside and the view were impressive.
After a calf-killing return up the hill, we got back on the Nerobergbahn and took the No. 1 bus to the town centre. It had just gone 6:00pm, so the shops were closed with only some cafes and restaurants still open. We wandered around the old town and saw the church and market hall, then opted to get back to Frankfurt for dinner.
We went to the Japanese restaurant we'd happened across while wandering around the city a few weeks ago, Iwase. It is tiny, and we just managed to get two seats at the counter between reservations - the place is booked solid. There are about 16 seats plus 8 at the counter, and it is popular! Compared to our other favourite, Iroha, it was expensive but definitely worth it. I had a tempura set (with rice and soup) and some fried aubergine, and Z had a large sashimi plate set. I paid 30 Euro and his was 38 Euro, but it was delicious. We got talking to the people behind the counter - who had already guessed where we worked, as they said the only foreigners who spoke good Japanese were from Nintendo. They actually said 'like a native', which I was most chuffed by.
The owner had actually met the previous two presidents of Nintendo when they were over visiting - and there were a lot of Japanese there as well, always a good sign. They also operated a Japanese bar system, with multiple bottles of the same thing with the owners' names written on them behind the counter. We will definitely be back, although it's not something we could do every week. After chatting over refills of green tea, we finally headed back via a different supermarket that has a much better selection - must go there instead.
So, all in all, a fantastic day. I'd definitely go back to Wiesbaden and explore the town centre. And Iwase is officially a new favourite place. It was a glorious day, I had company and all went well.
The shadow over it all was waiting for me when I got home - an email from a friend working in Munich, who was suggesting days to come up and visit. Nothing wrong with with that, except that he was leaving Germany for tax reasons and after a morning looking up various contractor and government websites, I think I may have to pay tax here too. Although the UK's tax year runs from April - so I don't become non-resident while I'm here - the German tax year is the calendar year and they consider me automatically resident for tax purposes after I've been here for 183 days. In theory I should be paying German tax on income earned in Germany regardless of length of stay, but if it's under 183 days they assume it's covered under the double taxation agreements with the UK. I may need some professional help with this one...
I woke up early on Saturday and checked my maps to get to the Japanese bookshop I'd found online - and while doing so finally found the opening hours. It wasn't open until 10:00 so I hung around for a while and then headed in. I found it easily, and it has a good if small selection of books, magazines and comics with a scattering of Japanese food and 'fancy goods' like origami paper. I got a book of short stories by Miyazawa Kenji and one on 'How to be a proper member of society' (there are many of these quasi-etiquette books in Japanese), both on sale for 3 Euro. The full-price books are quite expensive, but all I want is some reading practice. I also got some writing paper, one of my favourite soft drinks and - after some advice from the very friendly staff - some powdered bonito stock to use in my nikujaga recipe. I stopped by the supermarket near the flat to get the ingredients, but they had no beef so it's going to be done with chicken this time.
Z was walking in to do his shopping as I was walking out, we stopped and chatted and I went home to get more information on Wiesbaden. Then at 1:00 we headed out! First stop was Hauptwache station, where we got the S-Bahn commuter service to Wiesbaden, which took just over 45 minutes. Google maps helpfully shows bus stops and what buses they're for, so after we coaxed some all-day bus tickets out of the machines we jumped on the No. 16 east to the Sudfriedhof cemetary. It was huge, spacious and much more like a park than a graveyard. The directions weren't great, but we eventually found what we were looking for - the grave of Manfred von Richthofen, the Red Baron.
He's been buried three times - once by the other side, with full military honours, near Amiens, then moved to a state war cemetary in Berlin, then moved again after his surviving brother Bolko asked for him to be buried in the family grave in Wiesbaden when Berlin was divided and Manfred's grave could only be visited by special permission as it was right up alongside the Russian zone. Both Manfred and his other brother Lothar were awarded the highest honour in Germany, 'pour le Merit'.
We headed back to the main train station and stopped for an ice cream - it was an absolutely glorious day, and we saw a temperature sign saying 20 degrees Centigrade. Z had a chocolate and cream sundae that rapidly degenerated into a lake of chocolate, and I had a scoop of chocolate, mocha and amaretto. You wouldn't want to drive after the amaretto.
Then it was back on the bus, this time the No. 1 north to Nerotal, a hill overlooking the town. The main attraction - for me anyway - is the Nerobergbahn, Europe's only water ballast funicular! The traditional stepped cars operate as a pair, with the car at the top of the hill pumped full of water to weigh it down - the driver of the downhill car controls the rate of release of water to ensure the uphill car is pulled smoothly to the top, then the water is dumped at the bottom of the hill and pumped back up again to be reused!
We wandered around the top of the hill for a while, admiring the view and the stone amphitheatre (and the rope/treetop adventure centre, just like the one in Bracknell Forest) before setting off to find a church built on the hill. We initially went the wrong way - Z was foolish enough to let me read the map - and wondered how you can't find an Orthodox church with five gold domes on the top of a hill. We came back to where we started, realised where we went wrong and soon saw the domes glinting through the forest. The church was being restored so we couldn't go in, but the outside and the view were impressive.
After a calf-killing return up the hill, we got back on the Nerobergbahn and took the No. 1 bus to the town centre. It had just gone 6:00pm, so the shops were closed with only some cafes and restaurants still open. We wandered around the old town and saw the church and market hall, then opted to get back to Frankfurt for dinner.
We went to the Japanese restaurant we'd happened across while wandering around the city a few weeks ago, Iwase. It is tiny, and we just managed to get two seats at the counter between reservations - the place is booked solid. There are about 16 seats plus 8 at the counter, and it is popular! Compared to our other favourite, Iroha, it was expensive but definitely worth it. I had a tempura set (with rice and soup) and some fried aubergine, and Z had a large sashimi plate set. I paid 30 Euro and his was 38 Euro, but it was delicious. We got talking to the people behind the counter - who had already guessed where we worked, as they said the only foreigners who spoke good Japanese were from Nintendo. They actually said 'like a native', which I was most chuffed by.
The owner had actually met the previous two presidents of Nintendo when they were over visiting - and there were a lot of Japanese there as well, always a good sign. They also operated a Japanese bar system, with multiple bottles of the same thing with the owners' names written on them behind the counter. We will definitely be back, although it's not something we could do every week. After chatting over refills of green tea, we finally headed back via a different supermarket that has a much better selection - must go there instead.
So, all in all, a fantastic day. I'd definitely go back to Wiesbaden and explore the town centre. And Iwase is officially a new favourite place. It was a glorious day, I had company and all went well.
The shadow over it all was waiting for me when I got home - an email from a friend working in Munich, who was suggesting days to come up and visit. Nothing wrong with with that, except that he was leaving Germany for tax reasons and after a morning looking up various contractor and government websites, I think I may have to pay tax here too. Although the UK's tax year runs from April - so I don't become non-resident while I'm here - the German tax year is the calendar year and they consider me automatically resident for tax purposes after I've been here for 183 days. In theory I should be paying German tax on income earned in Germany regardless of length of stay, but if it's under 183 days they assume it's covered under the double taxation agreements with the UK. I may need some professional help with this one...
Friday, 2 May 2008
Playtime is officially over
My new project at work is kicking off, I move to a new desk on the other side of the building on Monday. I will in all likelihood still spend lunchtimes with the other English translators though.
Which is not to say that I won't have any free time at all... I just can't continue doing other things quite as blatantly as I have been doing, i.e. printouts of MA assignments all over my desk.
I finally managed to get Firefox working (proxy issues) which means I can use the marvellous Rikaichan plugin, which is a pop-up Japanese-English (or -German or -French or -Russian) dictionary which activates when you hover over a Japanese word on a web page. Saving Word assignments as html and using Rikaichan on them is a great time-saver.
Which is not to say that I won't have any free time at all... I just can't continue doing other things quite as blatantly as I have been doing, i.e. printouts of MA assignments all over my desk.
I finally managed to get Firefox working (proxy issues) which means I can use the marvellous Rikaichan plugin, which is a pop-up Japanese-English (or -German or -French or -Russian) dictionary which activates when you hover over a Japanese word on a web page. Saving Word assignments as html and using Rikaichan on them is a great time-saver.
Minor miracle
I actually said something unrehearsed in German.
At the post office, I had my practiced lines for 'How much will it cost to send this package to England?' (it was going to Wales, but they don't seem to know where that is) and 'How much will it cost to send this letter to Ireland?' It all went off well and I even understood the numbers. It cost 9.30 Euro, I handed over a 50 Euro bill and then heard myself saying 'I have the 30'.
Wow. My first spontaneous German. Nothing amazing, but a first.
The second minor miracle was when I was nearly at the office - there's a big dual carriageway with signals to cross each one, so you have to wait in the centre for the next light. However, the woman crossing towards me must have seen the light on the far side and thought it was for her - it's the only thing I can think of - because she crossed as three lanes of traffic started moving off and turning left. Somehow, she wasn't hit and nobody crashed into anyone, although there are now some impressive tyre marks on the road. She seemed to have no idea, she just smiled vaguely at the man who nearly hit her.
At the post office, I had my practiced lines for 'How much will it cost to send this package to England?' (it was going to Wales, but they don't seem to know where that is) and 'How much will it cost to send this letter to Ireland?' It all went off well and I even understood the numbers. It cost 9.30 Euro, I handed over a 50 Euro bill and then heard myself saying 'I have the 30'.
Wow. My first spontaneous German. Nothing amazing, but a first.
The second minor miracle was when I was nearly at the office - there's a big dual carriageway with signals to cross each one, so you have to wait in the centre for the next light. However, the woman crossing towards me must have seen the light on the far side and thought it was for her - it's the only thing I can think of - because she crossed as three lanes of traffic started moving off and turning left. Somehow, she wasn't hit and nobody crashed into anyone, although there are now some impressive tyre marks on the road. She seemed to have no idea, she just smiled vaguely at the man who nearly hit her.
Wednesday, 30 April 2008
Use with caution
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.
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.
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...
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