For the last three years, my translation office in the apartment I rent has been a room which has no windows. This is not the room of my choice. Relatively new immigrants cannot afford to be too picky. One day, I will have a decent office again. I can glimpse a little of the outside world... Continue Reading →
It was the marshmallows wot did it
My earliest memory of surreptitiously satisfying my sweet tooth relates to my six-year-old self climbing onto the kitchen counter to gain access to a big round biscuit tin about four inches deep placed on top of the fridge by my mother. That in itself was supposed to be a secret place but, as you know,... Continue Reading →
Pre-conference pondering
ProZ has held an annual international conference for translators since 2001. I have wanted to attend one of these events since 2001. This is the first time it has been a reasonable proposition. For a start, I live in the country in which the conference is taking place. By some incredibly fortuitous set of circumstances, I... Continue Reading →
Sanity in the balance
I thought it was time for some passive appreciation, so headed off to see what the lovely Savage Chickens had been up to. It is precisely because it is such defining moment in Macbeth, where Shakespeare so deftly portrays someone slipping over the edge into the realms of insanity - and consciously so - that... Continue Reading →
Time might as well take a cigarette
I am going to grease up an old four-inch pole, lay it horizontally on two posts about three feet above a body of psychedelic water and put it in an art gallery and call it "Time". Or, you can. Whoever gets to do it first, wins. That is one rule of time, by the way.
Proliferation
How I feel when I put stuff on the Internet - 20px - Twenty Pixels. I used to have a small walled garden leading off a wide thatched verandah which my partner christened the "inner sanctum", and the name stuck. Each gardening decision was taken meditatively. This is not to say that it did not... Continue Reading →
Creativity | artdoodles
Creativity | artdoodles. My sister, the art teacher, is blogging now. She is doing an online course called, "Blogging for Art Educators" and says it is great meeting a whole lot of other teachers trying their hand at the same thing. She made me laugh: She wanted blogging advice from me. Allison
Beethoven’s Fifth
I have been most remiss in sharing my monthly indulgence in Doug Savage's delightful Savage Chickens. You may contend that there is more to life than chickens, savage or otherwise. And you would be quite right. With all the recent furore over horses galloping into ready-made lasagna, I thought it best to keep my head... Continue Reading →
Pathways
The first time I saw dynamic graphic representations of neural pathways in our brains on a television documentary, I understood immediately why physical pathways - and where they might lead - fascinate. This afternoon while a friend was waiting to see the doctor in Loulé, I went in search of a shop with the intention... Continue Reading →
Pencil in hand
There is something quintessentially civilised about sitting in a café. I love saying that because I love sitting in a café, and I love drinking coffee.I also love saying that, because anyone who might be tempted to think of something else quintessentially civilised is in danger of being thought uncivilised for doing so. Perhaps it was... Continue Reading →
That elusive pair of jeans 