Warp speed, Mr Sulu!

I have a new desk!

I used to work here:



Now, I work here!



And after a day of scientific research (did you know they can breed mice with multicoloured brains?) it was time for one of these.

Alive and well and growing

I didn't realise it had been that long. I've been busy getting my new contract (translating from home, but a regular supply of work), getting through some other work, heading back to Dublin to visit parents, and now in the midst of upgrading the entire office - new computer (well, new to me, but as it's himself's video editing machine it's more than capable of doing anything I want and more), new desk (new to me, bought from a friend moving abroad), new monitors (two! I've wanted two monitors ever since working with two in Spain last year), a riser for the monitors (minor hacking with some Ikea feet and a shelf) and last but not least a new router to carry the broadband signal through to the office - Swiss walls seem to be made of Kryponite, so the minute you move out of line of sight of the main router you lose almost all the signal.

Other than that, a good friend from Japan is coming over to visit in July/August, trying to line up some other friends to visit and also to work out if I go to Japan in November. I have an offer for another three-month contract in Spain, but a) if the current contract gets extended I'll prioritise that and b) I really, really want to go to Japan.

I bought a Kindle, which I had to import from the US, and annoyingly I can't buy a case from the UK from Amazon (because it's in the Kindle section and therefore they won't ship it outside of the UK) or from Play (because it's in the Electronics section and they only ship those inside the EU). I got so fed up I ordered a pattern online, and even bought an iron and found and prepared my long-neglected stash of fabric, but I haven't got around to trying to make it yet. I decided to try an easier coaster kit that I got in Japan, but then found I couldn't understand those instructions either, so it's waiting for the next bit of free time I have. Not this weekend - that's going to be assembling the desk and computer, and possibly the Swiss Japanese Friendship Society softball game, where I will take pictures and stay away from the balls.

I leave you with home-grown rocket salad, round 2, and my so far unkillable rocket plants and ready to harvest 'Asian greens'. The packet wasn't any more specific, so I don't know what they actually are, except they're not shiso.

Out and about

Now the whole Easter/visitor period is over, it's back to - well, lots of work! But I have managed to get out and find a few more curiosities.

For reasons best known to themselves, the Germans and Swiss go crazy for chocolate or baked bugs - strictly speaking, cockroaches - in May.



Pure Germanic engineering - a cherry stone remover, guaranteed for three years. For those few days of the year when you stone enough of them to wish you had something to do it for you...

So, so tempted by these. But we already have more storage boxes than we need...

Out, out!

We knew Easter was coming up sometime soon, really. We just didn't realise it was last week, so we didn't organise anything. Himself got some work done in preparation for being away on a work trip and I had a massive clearout, even going through all my jewellery supplies and throwing out and reorganising a whole pile of stuff. I've come to the realisation that I like not having boxes, cupboards or piles of stuff with unknown contents. Strange, given how lax I am at filing and how happy I am to just throw things everywhere (there's a reason why I can probably never live with my brother) but that's the way it is.

In other news, we decided to celebrate Easter by cooking some eggs. I came across a fantastic recipe for 宝袋の卵, eggs in treasure bags, or eggs in deep-fried tofu pockets if you want to be more prosaic. We tried the first one in a pre-made inari-zushi pocket, but it was too small for the egg. I had some abura-age on hand, so we tried that and it was perfect! And we made, um, seven of them in total, including the technically failed but perfectly edible first one. Himself has an amazing internal clock that allowed him to disregard the instructions and pull them out when they were just right, not quite hard but gooey instead of liquid. We used up the remaining inari-zushi pockets by filling them with rice seasoned with goma-shio and yukari, I cooked up some koya-dofu and we had some of the budo-mame I'd made the previous weekend. We were about halfway through it when we realised the entire meal was soy, rice and egg.



The only other remarkable thing we did was walk over the ridge to the lake and take the ferry over to Zurichhorn for a walk around the park. Photos are here! It amuses me that people go down to bikinis to sunbathe by the lake, and slightly surprises me that underwear seems to pass for bikinis here. There were several women in their bras, and one in bra and knickers.

I also got a lovely gift from a friend who spent Easter unwinding in Nice - the supreme de tomates makes an amazing pasta sauce. ^_^



Other than that, just been thinking. (Working too! But thinking...) While it's good to reexamine things every now and again, pulling the carpet out from under yourself is never fun. It may prove valuable - even necessary - in the long run, but it's never pleasant. I've been having trouble focusing, so I tend to flick back and forth between different things, and one thing I've been doing is reading through a blog written by a writer I kind of used to know when I was doing my first postgraduate degree. She kept on and never gave up on her writing, which I really admire. She had a lot to say about throwing things away and starting again, thousands of words of writing set aside when they just didn't quite work.

The thought makes me go cold. I've never written that much (not that I write anything anymore, unless you count user manuals and security guidelines) but I cannot imagine just... starting over. Except that sometimes it is the right thing. I know I sometimes try to stay with things for too long - which has come back to bite me nicely in the shape of a contested invoice from the first accountant I hired here, who I never really trusted but convinced myself to go along with until there were issues with my business registration. Sometimes, things are hard and that's just the way it is. But sometimes they're hard because you're doing them wrong. And sometimes, they're hard because they're the wrong thing to do. I just need to figure out which one is in play. I can see why people want to believe in fortune-telling. I miss my magic 8-ball.

She also has a wonderful post on the cold-blooded necessities of being a writer, and there's quite a bit of overlap in advice between writing and translating.

I can has cat!

No, we haven't finally gone out and got ourselves a cat.

I came home from posting letters, forms and cheques after my huge personal/financial/business paperwork clearout and buying a watering can to find a parcel in the postbox. From the UK. I checked the back and read the customs sticker. "Picture"?

Not only is it a fantastic picture, it's from Egaku: Draw for Japan which is raising money for the Japanese Red Cross. So not only do I get a great framed picture for my desk, the proceeds go to Japan too. Double rainbow!

Working like a bean

Beans are used in Japanese new year recipes as the word 'mame' means 'hard-working and diligent' as well as 'bean'. We had a very productive day yesterday, stripping down and washing all the mattress and pillow covers, getting everything dry and doing our normal washing, and - in a process started the night before - I cooked budo mame from a recipe at Just Bento.

Those who know me well will undoubtedly be clutching their aching sides and rolling around on the floor laughing, but I also planted some rocket and shiso in little troughs and put them out on the terrace. The only plant that has survived around me so far is a nigh-indestructible money plant I was given on my birthday many years ago as a cutting, which has somehow flourished in the face of - well, me forgetting to water it. It had a transplant into a new, larger pot a few weeks ago and is doing well.

Time to become fully conscious and go and get a watering can...

You spin me right round baby, right round

I took remarkably few photos of CERN for some reason. I was still under the influence of a nasty cold and far too little sleep, but still a shame. I'll just have to go back sometime. ^_^

Photo roundup

A few more photos from the phone that I haven't uploaded yet!



An amusing product name from Spain.



A tofu dog at a local Thai restaurant.




Not well-known film characters at all. Honest.



On the packaging of a set of two commemorative royal wedding teatowels that our guest brought us as a joke present. So... they're hazardous? Or you've checked they have no workmanship?

Pinball heaven

A new reason for no updates - we have been doing things, but I was working flat out to clear time for a trip to Geneva, in particular CERN, which went down beautifully with our guest on Friday. Photos soon, although I didn't take nearly as many as I thought I would. We had a nice lazy day yesterday with a barbecue to finish it off, himself and guest cycled up into the mountains today, and tomorrow - we totally forgot but it's perfect timing - it's Sächsilüüte! Nothing quite like an exploding snowman, lots of Swiss in medieval guild costume and, er, rather non-PC blacked-up Swiss "Arabs" running around on horseback.

In the meantime, here is what we were up to last Friday: a trip to the out of this world retro pinball and arcade paradise that is Outlane.

Done sulking

The case is unpacked and put away and most of the gifts have been posted (after a moment of confusion when my local post office told me they weren't accepting any post for Japan at all, but the larger one in town had no problems).

And we took advantage of the spring-like weather yesterday to head out to see the Haru Matsuri Japanese festival in Toss, just outside Winterthur. There was great origami by my friend Mr Yamaguchi, calligraphy on demand from Mr Nojima and plenty of fantastic food including traditional Japanese sweets, yakisoba, Japanese baked breads and bento boxes by the amazing Washoku AG.

I wasn't intending to go to the concert advertised, but Mr Yamaguchi reserved tickets for us so we went to see Kiraku - can't recommend them enough! It was a fantastic show and lots of fun. Photos of the Kiraku concert are here!

Postponed

After watching NHK and BBC all weekend and talking about it with himself, we decided to postpone our trip to Japan until the autumn. It took me about 48 hours to actually stop feeling awful about it - probably a mixture of not enough sleep, stress, too much watching disaster footage and guilt over letting people down after telling them that I was delaying for a day, a week - and then not coming. The Japan-11 tag I was using to identify emails with hotel bookings and meetings is now mostly on ITI Japanese Network emails about volunteer translation and interpreting and disaster relief efforts.

My case is still packed in the front room, and I've had to get bits and pieces out of it during the week but not had the heart to unpack properly yet. After the hard decision was made, I then had to write to everyone to tell them, cancel meetings with clients in Tokyo, cancel flights, cancel JR Rail Passes, cancel hotel reservations, cancel the mobile phone and wi-fi rental... it will take weeks before it's all sorted out. I just feel exhausted. But apart from staying away and not taking up resources, and donating to the relief effort (the Japanese Red Cross seem to be heavy on the ground out there, so they're getting my donations) there's not a lot I can do.

I leave you with a photo from the local DIY and gardening shop, where we went to try to find a bird box. The only ones they had were painted with hideous Disney Winnie the Pooh motifs, which put us off completely (not sure if the birds care). But they have scythe blades! And sickles! And machetes! Not sure what they think people are growing here.

Still in the land of chocolate, for now

After seeing how things are in Tokyo - mainly the transport disruption caused by the blackouts and the risk of magnitude 7 aftershocks - I have postponed my flight until 20 March. We're also looking at cancelling our flights to Tokyo and booking to Osaka or Nagoya instead. There is always a chance that we'll cancel completely and go in autumn instead, but we need to decide soon.

Maybe... Go... Stop...

Well, I should have put the clean washing into my case, checked my hand luggage for all the essentials and be going through security for my flight now, but I'm cooling my heels instead. My flight has been cancelled, but I have rebooked to fly tomorrow.

There's been some good coverage on BBC explaining how there cannot be another Chernobyl, which was good to hear against so many scare stories. I'm still expecting disruption but not any kind of nuclear disaster. The strong aftershocks are still a concern, though.

More later!

Wait for it...

I know I'm not the first person to suggest financial or legal penalties for out-of-season items, but it makes sense for governments. Imagine the boost to Switzerland's wealth if it fined places for selling all of this over a month early... the sheep chocolate cake is new to me though!

Chocolate. And Kitty.

It's funny how these things keep repeating themselves. To me, anyway.

I had a look around town on Saturday, checking out a Korean restaurant with a Japanese food shop - very nice selection and good prices - and dropped into the amazing chocolate shop in front of the station to drool-I mean select some gifts for clients in Tokyo.

One of the more amusing items in the shop were these solid chocolate cylinders for use with the Tete de Moine cheese slicers.

A slightly more disturbing discovery was these dress-up sticker packs - since when does Hello Kitty wear a bra?

I'm used to finding Kitty when I look for her, but I was not expecting to see her in a CD shop.

I did like this pun though. Just when you think the Swiss have no sense of humour.

Other than that, a quiet week. Accounts are done and sent to the accountant. Raining most of the day today which himself hopes will turn into snow if it lasts. Made chocolate coffee brownies, although they were seriously undercooked as I had them in a smaller pan than the recipe called for. Still edible, of course!

Say it louder - more chocolate!

Because, of course, what a deliciously chocolately moist cupcake needs is chocolate cream cheese frosting. Must stop celebrating special days with massive amounts of sugar. ^_^;

Say it with chocolate

Just made these - very nice chocolate cupcakes. I managed to misread the recipe and cooked them at the lower of the two temperatures instead of the higher, but they turned out really nicely - gooey without being too doughy, moist and rich and very chocolately indeed.

I also made some chocolate cream cheese frosting to go with them. Normally I don't modify recipes other than halving or doubling them as I have no idea what I'm doing. But when I saw how much icing sugar was involved I decided to add it until I had enough sweetness to take off some of the tang of the cream cheese and then leave it be. Gaining weight is not one of my objectives. -_-;

The invasion continues

She's even in Zurich now! Kitty-branded Mobil-style blocks seen in the large supermarket towards town.

While I was out

Just to get everything where it should be, here are some photos from my phone that I don't think I've posted up yet.

First, this was available at himself's office restaurant - edible crockery!

Amazingly, chocolate dorayaki in Spain!

Kittys are not just for Christmas. Well, maybe this one is.

A charmingly named childrens' toy shop.

And the best reason to go to Malaga - boquerones!

Just over a month to Japan!

I won't even start with the old "I'm not dead" joke.

We've been doing a lot of clearing out to make the place presentable for people coming over, to reorganise our storage space and just to figure out what's going on with all the stuff we have. We finally got all the cardboard from the move out into a recycling collection and gave up on shredding the huge stack of paper that needed it and brought it into himself's office for shredding instead. We picked up an Ikea shelving unit for free - had a little adventure getting it home on the train with a little rolling platform - and now have all the books out of the too-damp garage and cellar.

Other than that, the planning for Japan is almost complete. Waiting for a response from one guest house and then we need to get the Japan Rail passes (which we can get here in Zurich) and an official translation of himself's passport from the Swiss embassy in Tokyo so we have the option to rent a car. It's going to be expensive... so I'm determined to enjoy it!

I was at a rakugo event organised by the Zurich Japanese Society on Saturday - I didn't even know they existed until they handed out fliers for it at the Swiss Japanese Friendship Society's New Year party - but it was lots of fun and got to have another delicious bento from Washoku and some handmade Japanese sweets. They don't last, so I'm having the last one tonight, pumpkin paste in a glutinous rice wrapper. This is a photo of the bento from the Friendship Society's New Year party.

Work has been all on/all off as usual, so I'm trying to make the best of the downtime to make a start on the newsletter for my translators' group (which I foolishly offered to put together) and look into marketing myself. I don't enjoy selling myself - not sure if it's a confidence thing or just European reticence, maybe both - but I do need to generate more business.

Also been doing some baking, and really enjoying making this fool-proof recipe for blondies (no-chocolate brownies). Well, I did replace the nuts with chocolate and caramel chips. But mostly non-chocolate.

Zurich is unusually warm and flowers are starting to come up already - although there's every chance that winter will bite before spring arrives. Needless to say, the skiiers and snowboarders are despairing of the whole thing. Himself has a new board after ripping the bottom out of his old one on some rocks last year, so he's not taking it out until everything is white for a few feet down.

Round and round we go

Hello! Sorry for the long silence, lots going on but nothing really interesting.

However, I have finally got around to putting up my pictures of Ronda! Now that all the Christmas cards and New Year cards are finally out of the way...

Crafty and Christmassy

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


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


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


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

Dunkin'... what?

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

Admit it

This is what you always wanted for Christmas.

Photos from Granada!

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

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

Damn you, Ikea!

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

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

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

Interpretation at the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal

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

The saga ends!

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

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

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

Hi there, Sexi

I'm a sucker for a bad joke. The beautiful town of Almunecar, known as Sexi to the Phoenecians and (even better) Firmium Julium Sexi to the Romans, is an easy day out and was a great place to stop off on the way to see Matt and family halfway between Malaga and Almeria!

And I finally have the photos up as well! I'm very behind on both blogging and photos but will try to get caught up soon. I just need to stop working, having a life, or sleeping.

Hola!

As they say. Between work, commuting and keeping up with Japan Society commitments, I haven't been doing much. But there is a Bank holiday tomorrow and I'm away at the weekend!

In the meantime, more Random Malaga.

Hasta la vista

Just a quick note to say that I am still alive! We had an enforced day off yesterday due to a general strike (no transport to/from the office) so I spent it catching up with some of the mountain of Japan Society work I need to get done. I think my head is above water now.

Malaga has both a Dunnes Stores and a Sanrio shop. It's like an omen.

Photos from Malaga!

I did go for a wander around town last Saturday, so here are some photos of Malaga!

Paris!

A bit later than planned, here are the photos of our trip to Paris!

Hola!

I have arrived safely in Malaga! Currently in a temporary serviced apartment, probably until the end of the week, and then will move to a normal flat.

It's a change to go from having very little to write about (other than immigration procedure and cake) to having so much going on that I'd need another one of me to write about it (and preferably help the first me clear the backlog). But I will try to get caught up soon on all the news and photos. I'm looking at this weekend, if I don't spend it traisping around Malaga!