Denied

The paternoster in the Arts Tower is being serviced - so I won't be able to try going around the top this time. Damn. Maybe when I graduate...

I can't connect to the Uni wireless network for some reason, so am on a terminal with a broken keyboard - backspace doesn't work and neither do half the number keys on both the main and numeric sides. Explains why it took me so long to log in, since I couldn't see what was going wrong...

Friday was chaos. The Japan-UK Live message boards, which have been virtually silent since I started, suddenly had a burst of activity which ate into my post-in bed at 3am trying to pack time. I am eternally indebted to Z for not only taking some stuff of mine to store, but then taking even more stuff from work when I realised I didn't have the stomach for going to the post office at lunchtime and trying to send it from there. I will have to go back some time in November. For karaoke too, of course.

The project looks like it will be okay, although apparently the product has now been delayed - news to us. Many kind words were said to me as I left, which I was very happy about - we all worked hard and we got it done when it looked like it couldn't be.

Have done the Writing in Japanese exam and the presentation - both went okay, but would have been better with a modicum of preparation. Only myself to blame for that one, so I have to hope that the marking isn't too strict and my basic level is enough. I didn't want to have to say that but there it is.

I'm going to head off to dinner now with some of the staff, and also stop using this keyboard before I put it through the window.

Over the red line

We're still on 10-hour days. But somehow, we've done it. I was in late tonight trying to figure out if we'd missed anything when things went strange with the bug logging system, and had to move my own leaving drinks to tomorrow, but I think - I think - we've got everything. Unbelievable.

Some people had still gone to the pub, so we met up there and went to karaoke. I'm enjoying it more every time although I really have problems singing. I can now switch between my 'high' and 'low' voice within one song, even one sentence if all goes well, but it still sounds terrible. But lots of fun. Sang some Abba and REM, the obligatory Duran Duran (how is it I still remember the lyrics after all this time?) and completely messed up Gorillaz, which is turning into a weekly event.

And we may go again tomorrow, after the rearranged leaving drinks. Why not? I'm too tired to study anyway... although I do need to sort the packing out. I may need to arrange a second piece of hold luggage.

I am now officially dangerously tired, after messing up and accidentally sending one translation to the school mailing list in response to the wrong original email, thereby convincing myself I'd sent both and not sending one until someone realised a few days later. Dammit.

The only other news is that after Z sent me a link, I've been listening to a load of Gackt songs. I like.

Living for the weekend

It's Saturday. I'm having breakfast before going into work. I think that sums up the week nicely. If it wasn't a flagrant contravention of German labour law, they'd have us in tomorrow as well. Three of us from the UK team will be in to process, enter and fix a truly unreasonable number of bugs.

In other news, Iwase was fantastic as usual and it was a wonderful night out. I would come back here just so I could go there again, and I regret not going there more. Frankfurt has tube mice. And I saw a steam train last Saturday.

Working 10 hours a day - particularly when you know the next day holds more of the same - is pretty tiring and study hasn't had much of a look-in. Today will also be spent at work, working, if we're to have any chance of getting what needs to be done done by when it's needed. I had a brief fantasy of being there in body and studying at my desk but it is not to be.

So, feeling very underprepared for my exams... the plan was that I would spend 6 months translating and ace them, but instead I've spent 7 months reading and proofreading US English and occasionally modifying it. I'm sure it's a skill, it's just not the one I wanted.

Anyway... once more into the office and then I really need to pack. Everything.

Well, hello there

Sorry it's gone all quiet - I managed to respond to a busy week by feeling I had to do something when I got home and ended up staying up far too late and spending the week in a vicious cycle of tiredness. Still trying to recover, but feeling much better.

So... less than 2 weeks to go in Frankfurt. Less than 2 weeks to exams. Work will reach giddy new heights of busyness as of tomorrow, and I'm coming around to the fact that there is far more stuff in the flat than I have room in my case for.

I've drawn up a list of things I'm not going to take and will pass it around the UK team at work in case anyone wants anything. Anything else can stay for the next resident. Will have to a trial pack at the weekend. And organise some kind of going-away gathering for work.

Another development was finally getting a place on the Japan-UK Live! school exchange translation team, which is pretty quiet at the moment but could change, and also my first piece of work from a new client. They asked me for the first page as a trial and then asked me to do the rest, which I was delighted with - only to find an email in my inbox after getting home tonight to say I'd left a line out. Not fatal I suppose, but not what I wanted as a first impression.

It's birthday season, so we were out tonight with another birthday person from the UK team. I ended up getting the presents and was delighted that they were well received - amusing tshirts can be hard to get right. We have another birthday coming up in two weeks as well, and my farewell do, and I'm going back to the wonderful Iwase with Z for one last time on Wednesday.

Must pack some study in there somewhere.

The bar we ended up going to tonight is the same one we went to for G's birthday, and we always seem to have the most insane conversations there. Our new mottos for the place are "What happens in Klosterhof stays in Klosterhof" and "You shouldn't have had the first one". Definitely making our own fun.

Here's to not being killed by this week. One down, four crazy days to go...

Softly, softly...

I do have official permission to use my PC at work for doing non-work stuff, but still feels very strange...

I've put up some photos of my new place - I'll only be there for another 3 weeks. Strange thought.

Work is busy and likely to get busier. So, just to really interfere, I've taken on a part-time translation assignment working for Japan-UK Live, a UK/Japan message board site between twinned schools, and started playing Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass. Between that and attempting to study, I think I'll have to give up sleep...

Himself will be arriving later on, but there's only so much time I can spend at work before it gets strange. I think I will head out to the airport and have a few expensive coffees there and play Zelda... I really do get hopelessly addicted to these things, but (thankfully?) I'm not very good at the puzzle-solving and so tend to give up. But then come back later.

Denied!

The new flat is quite nice - but has no internet access. So, it will be quiet for a while. The other minor frustration was taking two days to figure out how to convert the sofa into a bed (not two days of continuous effort, I'd like to point out...)

Like most of the months of this year, September has kind of snuck up on me. I'll be in Japan next month!

... and it's now the same month as my exams. Really must concentrate.

Wonders of chemistry

Just got out of a bath with the Lush Mmm Melting Marshmallow Moment. Smells divine, my skin feels great - the promise of pink bathwater was scuppered by my water being slightly brown, so the end result was a kind of rosy dishwater.

This medical tar that I got at the Apotheke this morning is amazing. I only put a bandaid on to keep my hand dry in the bath, the scrape is almost healed. I was so impressed I even looked up the active ingredients. Povidone-Iodine is wonderful stuff. And all the other applications of Povidone... must rival the uses of water.

^______^

Well, I can honestly say this was one of the most fun birthdays I've had in a while!

A fairly standard day at work - apart from my managing to email people in the US and Australia to invite them out by not paying attention to the autocomplete on our email system - and we also got our keys, addresses and a checklist of what our apartments did and did not have. I should have internet by the weekend and curtains in two weeks. I'm on the far side of the estate that most of the UK team is already in, and it's a short walk to get a tram, then either go through the a station where I can connect to the U-bahn lines I need or else change earlier, get the S-bahn for one stop and then the U-bahn a little further along the line. Although the latter option has more changes, it can be faster as the trams get stuck in traffic so the underground S and U-bahns win out.

A few people had dropped out so I invited a German translator on my team who I've become quite friendly with - she didn't show, which I thought was odd... but I managed to get my mobile phone number wrong (yet again) so she wasn't able to contact me. We had dinner at a ramen restaurant no-one had been to and it was fantastic. Glad to have put a new place on the list. The staff figured out - probably when I was handed an enormous Lush bag containing the overwhelming Think Pink hat box - that I was the birthday girl, and when the bill came around my meal was free!

Then someone broached the idea of karaoke and we headed out just past the new flats to Star Room, where we had a fantastic time until they had to kick us out at midnight. Highlight for me was singing Hungry like the Wolf with my esteemed Welsh colleague, and listening to others singing tunes from Rocky Horror Picture show and I'm a Barbie Girl. I still have Duran Duran on the brain, and also Two-Mix's Just Wild Beat Communication after we speculated on anime songs old enough to be in the catalogue.

The tram was still running so those of us who didn't live in the area headed back to the main train station where we split up. I walked back and had a Life conversation with one of the recently returned translators, which was slightly spoiled when I managed in my tiredness to not step up enough onto a curb and fall. Skinned part of my right hand and whacked my knee. Got home while he very kindly carried my bag and hat box of Lush products. I estimate a bruise the size of Luxembourg.

After getting to bed at 1:30am, I decided to set my alarm for 8:00 and get in a little later than usual. I used the Ring of Roses shower stuff and it's very nice, although it doesn't feel as immediately moisturising as what I was using. Headed into work, swang past the Apotheke to get some arnica for the bruise and antiseptic cream for my hand (got the tar-like stuff I've only seen in hospital) and struggled to stay awake. Then there was another slice of the proverbial Chinese 'interesting life' - I had given my mobile number and a list of times when I could move, basically mornings or evenings after Tuesday, not during work hours as I have things to do. So, of course, I was given 40 minutes notice to move at 2:00pm.

Much swearing later, and with both project managers out, I asked the testers to tell my colleague where I'd gone and rushed back to the flat to stuff and close the one box I had, followed by throwing the contents of my wardrobes and all my books into a suitcase. Of course, this was the day the stairs get washed, so I had wet floors and circular staircase to contend with, as well as putting a cardboard box down on a wet surface!

I was all ready and standing by the door and just gone quarter past. But there was no-one else there... called the guy with the van. On the phone. Texted my colleague. Mr. Van and my neighbour were nowhere to be found. They finally showed at quarter to three, and were surprised to see me - as they'd been waiting for me in the lobby at 2:00. Well, if anyone had mentioned a lobby I would have been there too. Anyway.

The very silver lining in all this was that as I was standing by the door watching my neighbour's things being loaded in the people-carrier, a courier van pulled up and a man got out and came to our door. And rang my bell. He had a signed-for delivery for me, at a time when I would normally be chained to my desk. My birthday card from my parents! It was pass-the-parcel with the courier's rubber envelope, followed by An Post's and finally the real envelope. Thanks Mom and Dad!

We picked up a third person's things, headed out to his flat and then ours - my neighbour is not far from me in the new area. I will take some shots over the weekend, but it looks quite nice. The gardens were being maintained when we were there, and I'm on the third floor. I just dumped my stuff and turned around, so haven't had a good look around, but it's all white and newly painted and far larger than what I have at the moment. My bed is a sofabed which isn't so great, but I can live with it for a month! I will go back tomorrow and poke around.

I got back to work and went up through the supermarket to grab a sandwich for lunch. And realised I didn't have my swipe card. I had definitely had it when I left, as I swiped out. Somewhere between leaving the office, taking the U-bahn, packing at my place, getting out at the other guy's old flat, then at his new flat, then my neighbour's new flat and then mine... it had gone. I had to be very, very nice to HR and one of the senior translators to not get sent home to find it. In another minor miracle, I found it outside my front door at the old place when I got back. Phew.

So... going to have a quick bath with one of my pressies, and then finishing throwing the last few things into bags and hopefully will be able to take it all to the new place tomorrow. Via another birthday celebration!

Er, no...

I checked my mailbox with a little anticipation today, as several people have been kind enough to threaten to send me birthday cards.

What there was waiting for me is what I suspect is a German tax number. I was hoping to quietly leave the country, but there it is, listing my passport details and everything. Needless to say, it's all in German so I have no idea what it says, but I can guess at Finanzamt.

In other news, I don't have the new address I was meant to get on Friday, or the keys I was meant to have today, or any info whatsoever about what's going on. We were meant to be able to move this evening if we wanted to. All looks like it's going to go a bit pear-shaped.

Need to get more sleep - I have been sleeping, but not very soundly judging by how awake I feel (not very). Have spent most of the day refraining from being cranky at people for reasons that are not quite good enough.

Night of the unexpected

Today started off rainy and cool, but I decided to walk to work nonetheless as it's the only exercise I get. It started to rain in earnest as I got there, and I was just thinking myself lucky when I slid on the grating in front of the sliding doors - thankfully they didn't close until I got up again. Nobody going in in front of me (including one of my colleagues) noticed, but I had to stop and assess the condition of my left knee for a few minutes. Ow.

P, our resident lover of facts and knower of all internal quirks, issued a new arbitrary decision about how to treat certain kinds of text, complete with a Newspeak reference, so I spent far too long (not very long, but I had other things to do) reading up on 1984. Toyed with the idea of trying to teach myself Newspeak (I think it would be wonderful if the entire UK English team walked around speaking it) but forced myself to go back to work.

My fun and delightful foray into translation has now stopped and gone to be validated, so it's back to logging bugs for now. At least I escaped at 5:30 as I had far better things to do - namely meeting my brother, who finally came over on a business trip!

I met him at the Frankfurter Hof hotel - which looks amazing - near Goetheplatz. After gawking at his room, we headed out to walk down to Hauptwache, then to the main square and the bridge, back again and down Zeil and ending up at Iwase, which has got to be my favourite restaurant in Frankfurt, even though this is only the second time I've been there. Must go more often. We had a delicious meal - mixed sushi, deep-fried aubergine, and a tempura set for him and sashimi set for me. Chatted a bit with the waitress. I was very happy that I had got a reservation - I called 20 minutes after they opened for lunch and got seats at the counter - and ecstatic that they remembered me and one of the guys behind the counter called me Arline-chan!

After much talking about work and Japan and friends and so on, we headed out again and walked up to Eschenheimer Tor and back down towards the Deutsche Bank towers, which are not floodlit and so a bit difficult to find in Frankfurt's night skyline. It was when we got there that things got odd.

There seems to be no way in. There is a hoarding all the way around the building, with something that looks like a works entrance at the front. Brother will have to call and find out how to get in tomorrow.

As we went back to walk around the side of the building (by the Ivory Club 'Contemporary Colonial Cuisine' restaurant, with massive tusks in front of the door), we saw flashing police lights and bikes rode in to block the junction, followed by a police car. Followed by a few rollerbladers. Followed by lots of rollerbladers. Brother estimated about 250. After all that was over, we crossed the road to walk back to the hotel.

And then - rabbits. We were crossing the old city wall, which has grass and trees planted in it, and brother noticed something moving. There were about ten rabbits, just grazing away in the grass, really not that bothered by the people walking past, getting as close as they could or even taking photos.

And Frankfurt normally seems so boring.

Just slightly wrong

Thursday was odd - alarm clock had somehow gone an hour late during the night, leaving me thinking I was getting up early only to have to run to work. I was going to Dublin that evening, as Friday was a bank holiday*, and took the U-bahn - eventually, when the ticket machine stopped spitting my coins back at me. Then I realised I had left the power cable for my laptop at home and had to go back for it at lunchtime... if I'd known, I would have bought a day pass, but it was cheaper to buy a ticket to and from the flat and then out to the airport.

[*It wasn't a holiday in Hesse, where I work, but was in neighbouring Bavaria, where our head office is, so we got it anyway. Huzzah.]

Had a wonderful three days with Mom and Dad, generally sleeping, eating lovely food, going for walks and doing computer stuff. And annoying the cat, who is getting a little slower but you wouldn't want to start underestimating her just yet.

Flight back was delayed by over an hour and a half, but the pilot made good time and I got back just over an hour after I was due. Completely forgot to get milk, but managed to almost finish my current book (A Brief History of Misogyny by Jack Holland) and actually did finish the stack of post-it stickies with coloured ends that I had accumulated in Xerox. Went out and bought some more this morning and finished the book. Result.

Last week was a bit of an unmitigated failure. I was supposed to go back to studying, but ended up finding a source of fun eBooks and staying up far, far too late reading utter nonsense. Oh, don't get me wrong, it was (obviously) highly enjoyable. Just completely the wrong thing at the wrong time.

So, tonight a bit more successful in that I was actually reading something to do with the course, although I need to spend less time on the Social Science Readings and more on preparing for the exams, a mere six weeks away. Drilling on letter and report writing and kanji work, plus the second presentation (which I keep forgetting I have to do) are what I need to be doing.

This week won't be all study - my brother has wangled a business trip to Frankfurt, so I'll be going out with him tomorrow, and we're all off to see Batman on Thursday. Should be good.

And the weekends are also steadily being ticked off - this weekend free, next weekend move flat. Weekend after that himself is here, and the following weekend I'm in the Peak District at a hen and stag do, as I'll unfortunately be in Japan for the wedding. Weekend after that free, and the following weekend I wrap up my contract and leave Frankfurt - heading straight to Sheffield for exams.

Friday after that... Japan! Have been spending lots of happy hours online checking out locations and hotels and consulting with family. Can't wait - but lots to be done before then...

Sometimes a cat is just a cat

Apart from the absurdity of dressing a cat up to look like... a cat, this article has some comedy writing and a hilarious bit of machine translation. No, I don't know how 'potato' fits in. Found it while searching for hotels in Obuse (near Matsumoto in Nagano Prefecture) - Google decided I must have meant 'Abuse' instead.

Finally got around to making some hotel bookings for Japan! So happy to start making it all happen. We now have a hotel in Kanazawa, and one chosen for Tokyo. Starting to pencil in the other days as well. If I'm really lucky, I'll get to go to Hakone twice...

Poetry in motion

A bored colleague sent me this:

Fontpark 2.0

Amazing animations of kanji and kana being turned into pictures! Watch out for the martini...

Not that I've had much time to surf around finding interesting websites... I'm just finishing up now after having swiped out already to ensure I don't go over the mandatory 10-hour cap that German law enforces. And next week looks just as busy.

Weekend! Time to plan for Japan in October!

What comes after Pete Tong?

Two and a half days later, I finally finish the massive update that solves the unreliable data problem.

Only for it to break all the things depending on it because neither the project manager nor myself understood how it worked under the bonnet. It's all gone to IT to get yesterday's files restored, leaving people to recreate a day of work. Damn. I wish we had a better system for this. There are some things you just shouldn't use Excel for.

Oh, and the data is still unreliable. I found updates I should have found previously but didn't.

But even more seriously, I got home and was distracted by someone outside repeating and spelling out Z's name and flat number. It was our other co-workers in the building talking to the police - his flat was broken into during the day, new laptop taken.

And it seemed like such a nice area too.

I then realised while tidying up (too distracted to do the study I really should have started on this week, with getting up early and pulling 10-hour days) that I didn't know where my camera was. Desperate, I checked in places that weren't immediately visible and found it - I must have hidden it before going to Sheffield and completely forgotten.

I guess I'll put it back where I found it and take my laptop to work for a few days.

All gone a bit Pete Tong

We came to the conclusion around 5:00 yesterday at work that all the data I have gathered over the past month or so is unreliable. This is going to take a while to put right, and I don't really have a while. At least it was a little cooler today.

In other news, I have become embarrassingly addicted to 'Cinnamoroll's Saucer Snap' on the Sanrio website arcade.

Our resident bodybuilding Hong Kong-Australian HR man took us out for what must be one of the best Chinese meals I have ever had, in Jade near the Hauptbahnhof. We had soup with dumplings, baked fish, cuttlefish and mangetout, black pepper beef, sweet and sour pork and ma po tofu followed by watermelon and a sweet bean soup. For all six of us, with drinks, it was 88 Euro. Most highly recommended.

And I finally got to see the 'dodgy' area around the main station. Mostly well-lit and very business like 'Shop und Kino' places, so I doubt I was in the truly dangerous part, but it was all very neon. Tempted to go back and take pictures, but maybe not by myself...

For your amusement

It's a slow day. These sent to me by my esteemed colleague:

Mark Twain's The Awful German Language

The Onion's Courageous E-mail To Boss In Drafts Folder Since December - which would be funnier if it were less true.

Yes, but no

It is definitely cooler in the mornings, so I think I will carry on with this unholy early rising business. Although the afternoons are just as bad, at least I can go home sooner... There was a massive thunderstorm last night - lightning and thunder rolling on for ages - but it didn't help bring the temperature down very much. This morning is cool, but humid.

I went into the main shopping street yesterday afternoon to get a few things. Cash and a bank statement, some more mugicha (which I have become quite addicted to at the moment) and a bag. My beloved black waist pack - which I use as a shoulder bag - which was just the right size for a Lonely Planet and a small camera, had developed a rip which has now progressed into a hole large enough to put three fingers through. I reluctantly took all the charms and other bits off it and went to find something to use until the custom replacement I'm working on with a lady selling bags at the craft fair I was at a few weeks ago is ready.

So, something to last for two months until I'm back in the UK. Not a backpack, as they're too hot. And since I've started making my own lunch again, something big enough for the lunchbox would be nice. I ended up in a sports shop, where I finally got some camping cutlery - I've been looking for some for months so I don't have to keep getting plastic stuff from the supermarket all the time. Of course, I have to remember to bring it with me... I also saw a nice Sigg bottle - well, I saw the cute child bottle covers first, then looked at the adult bottles and found a 1L one that looked perfect for bringing mugicha into work. Why no cute covers for adults? Discrimination... mutters

Then I found the swanky 'sports' section - more of an exercise in branding and trendsetting. But I fell hard for two things, a Hawai'ian flower print belt (why the print is universally used on menswear I have no idea) and a messenger bag, just the right size, with a beautiful red and white on black crashing wave and chrysanthemum design, obviously Japanese inspired. Adjustable shoulder strap with a padded shoulder section in the same print, black on white chrysanthemum print lining, padded laptop pocket and lots of internal pockets and compartments, which I love. The belt was on sale, but still 20 EUR. The bag... was 70 EUR. I don't think I've ever spent that much on a bag. I'm going to try to sneak in a few hours of overtime...

Success!

Thursday brought feedback on the translation assignment for Social Studies - I got a fantastic mark for it, and I really enjoyed doing it although I spent most of the annotations picking holes in the author's thinking. I managed to mistranslate one word and get a passive the wrong way around in the last section, which threw the whole thing off, but apparently everyone had got the same word wrong. Most of the Social Studies sessions were a concerted attempt by the tutor to get us back on track and keep us on time as we kept talking around and off the topics. But very stimulating nonetheless.

The dissertation and annotated translation sessions were very interesting and helpful in terms of what you need to do. Unfortunately, I still have no idea which I want to do, or what I want to do at all. Either one, now that I've had them explained in detail, is a lot of work. But I can't submit a proposal until I've handed in my last essay, which will be in November as I'm going to ask for an extension.

Feedback on the presentations was good, although the debacle with the laptop put me well over time - the tutor assured me that it was just over five minutes since I got the slides up (we have five to eight minutes in the exam). I also passed the Japanese prose section, although I would have liked to do better. I really need to practice the letter and report sections and keep on reading in Japanese to get my marks up.

Most of the students managed to meet up on Thursday night for dinner, which was a lot of fun even if we were all ready to drop. The first-year students from my course were finished, as was the lone Japanese Language and Society student, although some were staying on to use the library. The librarian had unfortunately gone on holiday, as I wanted to ask her for some things...

Friday was mostly Social Studies, followed by feedback on the Japanese to English translation mock exam and final feedback. I was ready to drop. Coffee and chocolate every two hours, and even that wasn't doing me much good. I passed the Japanese to English mock with a strong mark - really happy with that. We finished up early and headed over to the pub for a quick drink with a few of the tutors and course staff.

I headed back to the library and was there until it closed at 7:00pm. Although there were several of us around, everyone disappeared off - that happened last year too, leaving me feeling quite alone at the end. I picked up a fried rice takeaway and headed back to the halls. Watched Appleseed Ex Machina - gets quite overblown at times, but extremely watchable and well, pre-cyborg Briareos is just fnar.

Between spending most of Wednesday night importing the Sheffield and SOAS library searches into a program called EndNote Web (referencing tool) and then half of Friday in the library building up lists of interesting books, I decided to take it easy on Saturday. First I got a day ticket on the tram and headed in to have a look around and most importantly get my hair cut. Then it was back to the halls to clear out and hand back my keys. I settled in to the outdoors area of the pub up the road with a trashy novel, determined to enjoy the sunny day.

I enjoyed it a little too much as I later found out - the back of my neck burned! I had some lunch and coffees, then moved on to wander around town and picked up some CDs. I had earlier wandered around Waterstones, and bought two brain-off novels (Dead Witch Walking and Magic Bites - both highly entertaining but prefer the latter) and also two 'worthier' volumes, A History of Misogyny and The Descent of Woman. I almost finished one book on the train, as we were delayed by signal problems. Himself had checked for anywhere open late, so we had a lovely Chinese meal before heading home.

On Sunday I was up to pack, then we went into town to meet up with friends for lunch before I headed off again. There was another delay with air traffic control in Frankfurt after a thunderstorm, but we weren't too late. I dawdled in the bookshop in the main station - which has English books - but ended up not getting anything. I really miss the library...

Monday was back to work and turns out we have a desk move. More searching of the content management system for updates, my brain was pretty much shut down by 3:00pm with the heat, and when I went to find my new desk it had no PC on it... so instead of trying to come in early to beat the heat, as I had planned, I now had to come in late so they could put a computer on the desk. Spent half of today waiting for the content management system to do a full checkout. Brain dead by 3:00 again. The German team said in a meeting that the paperwork for the air conditioning had only just been signed so it would be in in November. I can never tell when Germans are joking, but I have a horrible feeling they weren't.

So, I am going to try going in early tomorrow. I'm also making my own salad at the moment, as I'm sick of everything in the supermarket. And my beloved black bag, which I got in Loft in Nagoya back in 2002 or 2003, has finally developed a massive hole, graduated from the tear which I noticed before the craft fair. sigh

Although I decided I would have a week off, I did end up thinking about a topic for the presentation at the exam weekend - I think I'll do it on biofuels, the pros and cons and next stages. Should work in the same pattern as the last one. I'll do up a new study schedule at the weekend. And in the meantime, I bought the eBook of the sequel to Magic Bites, Magic Burns. More brain-off time.

Done and dusted

Today was predictably tough. It didn't help that I started it off taking far too long to reformat and print things in the Information Commons (aka library) and ended up running into the three-hour Japanese to English translation exam five minutes late having had no coffee in between. Three hours can seem like a very short time. I was just about all right until I put all my papers back together and saw the instruction in bold block capitals on the front page about writing on alternate lines... dammit. The tutor was thankfully not bothered.

The English to Japanese paper was harder than it looked - it was short, but long sentences with lots of clauses are hard to rearrange into decent-sounding Japanese, if I even really know what that sounds like. The presentation, apart from the hiccup of the office telling me that most definitely I was not to use my computer because one would be set up and ready to use with a USB stick - and then there being no computer set up. Fancy that. The tutor was completely unsurprised as she lent me her laptop.

We ran late on the presentations - both me and the guy before me kept answering questions for ages until we both took about half an hour each. It was good though. I panicked a bit but nothing substantial and hopefully it will be out of my system by the time the real thing comes around in September. We'll get feedback on that tomorrow and on the Japanese to English on Friday.

After running late on that I had a brief consultation with the Social Science Readings tutor, mainly to ask if it was okay to ask for an extension, as I'm going to be studying for the final exams until I leave Germany, and will be in Japan right up until the essay is due. I may need time in SOAS to get the essay to where it should be, but that will only happen in November.

Not only did June disappear, July is almost gone too, and the rest of the year seems to be pretty much accounted for...

We met up after the lectures and mocks were all over - the girls went to Meadowhall shopping center while the boys went for beer. We shopped until 9:00pm (I got some new shoes, as after destroying the laces on my current ones, I found that the upper has separated from the sole) and then went back to do beer. A few of us bowed out early due to exhaustion or to prepare for the seminars tomorrow. I'm too tired for that now, but will get to it tomorrow morning.

Our father who art in PANIC

I seem to have neglected to mention that the Arts Tower in Sheffield has a paternoster. I had seen it last year, but assumed the doors had been taken off for maintenance.

The woman who walked in in front of me on Monday got straight on it, but I baulked and watched it for a while before trying it. It's very like having an old funfair ride in the building. Other students have been happy to wait for the one other working lift to avoid the paternoster, but I use it every chance I get. It's still vaguely terrifying.

Especially yesterday, when we were on our way to a lecture theatre below ground. Now, I had planned to find out what happened when the paternoster reached the bottom of the building by putting a piece of paper on the floor of a car and watching to see if it came up again... for all I know the cars flip over. But I was so busy talking to one of the other students (who would go on it) that neither of us thought of it until we passed a dimly lit sign on the side of the lower ground floor, stating that the lift would now be going up.

Cue panic.

We were simply shunted to the right, and indeed started to go up. It's very disconcerting when you have concrete all around. But I suppose it had to be safe, or Health and Safety would have ripped it out of the building long ago.

Needless to say, I will continue to use it as often as possible while I'm here. But now, off to try to do some printing, which I was dreaming about last night. The halls have the hardest beds I can remember sleeping in. I have got a cheap rate on a hotel for the exams in September, now just need flights and train...