Too much of a good thing?

I have to get this off my chest.

I also need to know how other translators behave!

Yes, yes, I know we are all on our best behaviour always. 🙂

I am talking of what you do immediately after hitting the send button on a translation, assuming you have a little breathing space before the next assignment, and have received that all important confirmation of receipt?

Do you rush to read translation forum discussions or check out your favourite translation blog? And then find yourself smiling at the screen, as if you actually know the person whose contribution you are reading? Answer a rash of terminology questions on Proz – or at least read them? Do you have a fresh attack of nerves, and in a frenzy re-read the just-sent translation for the sixth or seventh time?

Do you suddenly realise you have possibly missed out on at least two episodes of Mox’s life? And rectify that situation immediately?

Do you rush as if your life depended on it to write you own blog – having been fired up by all the adrenalin still coursing at speed through your veins?

Ha, this one for the routine junkies: Do you tidy your desk, issue your invoice, update your terminology data base, do your paper filing, and manage your inbox after backing up your hard drive? Every single time?

I work in a windowless dungeon of a space, and am only fed bread and water during work time. Do you open the fridge, only to find that it needs replenishing, but decide that eating cold leftovers from two days ago while standing in front of the open door is a good bet anyway ?

Do you succumb to the needs of your family and pets (not necessarily in that order)?

Or do you simply “drop your pen” and go and look outside at the view? And then give everyone a current weather report, as if this is news to them?

Today, unusually, I am going off to lunch at the beach with a couple of good friends. In the middle of the day. In the middle of the week. For the first time in ages. In the words of a really old song, “Ain’t no stoppin’ us now“.

Look at the sky tonight. You will see a blue moon.

Happy translating, or whatever it is you do with a passion in intermittent bursts of energy or by sheer dint of sustained slog!

Allison