Last night, I finally fell asleep at about 3.30 am. I hate not being able to sleep as I lie there thinking “argh, fall asleep, you’ve got to get up again in 5 / 4/ 3 hours”. I don’t suppose it helps.
The alarm rang at its customary 7.30 am, I rolled over, turned it off, [...]
Filed under: Translation, Trials, Triumphs on June 9th, 2009 | Comments Off
Some friends from London arranged to come and stay overnight last night on their way from the Big Smoke to their seaside holiday destination. I warned them in my hospitable way that they were more than welcome to come but due to the unpredictable nature of my work I couldn’t really say in advance that [...]
Filed under: Translation, Triumphs on March 26th, 2009 | 4 Comments »
The phone at Tiggywinkle Translations has just rung. As I may have mentioned before this is not a terribly usual occurence as 99% of my interaction with clients takes place by e-mail. It was my new best friend, Georg, wanting to discuss what sounds like a very interesting but also quite scary project. Scary [...]
Filed under: Germany, Translation, Triumphs on October 24th, 2008 | 2 Comments »
for your expressions of support. Things have calmed down a bit now – the mountain is still there to climb but I am not being bombarded by falling boulders. (Exaggerate? Qui, MOI?).
I’m hoping that Monday tea time doesn’t come tooooooo quickly in one sense as I have got to cram a lot in before [...]
Filed under: Community, Germany, Translation, Trials, Triumphs on October 17th, 2008 | Comments Off
Well, that didn’t take long! Herr Klient started “dutzing” me this morning. So now we’re Georg and Kerensa with Du, Dich and Dir* all over the place. I wonder what the next step is? Drinks?! Ha.
*Capitalised because that’s the convention when you write to someone – although I’ve noticed lots of people [...]
Filed under: Germany, Translation, Triumphs on October 14th, 2008 | Comments Off
getting to know all about you!
Anyone who learned French, German or Spanish at school will remember that there are two forms of address*; the formal (vous, Sie, usted) used for people you don’t know well or where respect is required and the informal (tu, Du, tú) for family, friends and – erm – animals.
Since the [...]
Filed under: Germany, Translation, Triumphs on October 13th, 2008 | 4 Comments »
All my German clients have the day off today for their national day. I think HandyAndy must have picked up along the way that today is a holiday. I have seen neither hide nor hair of him yet and he’s usually on the doorstep at 8 o’clock.
In other news: a prospective new client in [...]
Filed under: Austria, Germany, Translation, Triumphs on October 3rd, 2008 | Comments Off
Diddle diddle, tiddle diddle, diddle diddle, tiddle diddle, Gloria! Gloria! In excelsis Deo.
This morning, my self-employed handyman friend arrived at 8 o’clock to start on the decorating. As HandyAndy is also a bit short of work at the moment, we had done a deal that he would work on decorating the spare room at [...]
Filed under: Translation, Triumphs on October 2nd, 2008 | 6 Comments »
Gentle readers, I am pleased to announce that I have just finished page 88 of 88. Phew! I just have to go through a few odds and ends tomorrow and then I can deliver the whole jolly thing to the client. (There is a little niggle at the back of my mind, but I shall [...]
Filed under: Mrs Tiggywinkle, Translation, Triumphs on May 29th, 2008 | 2 Comments »
One of the dilemmas of taking on as large an assignment as the current one (sorry, did I not mention I am doing a very long assignment on education? How remiss of me) is that one has to consider the needs of one’s Stammkunden. The few regular customers I have rely on me (I [...]
Filed under: Mrs Tiggywinkle, Translation, Triumphs on May 27th, 2008 | Comments Off