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 →
Favourite thing
Today's Daily Prompt invites bloggers to toot their own horn. We have been invited to write about our favourite thing about ourselves, given our normal excellence at self-deprecation. Oooh! Online group therapy! Forget it! I much prefer being self-deprecating, as much as it annoys one of my favourite cousins. It is a reflex action ingrained... Continue Reading →
Every language pair
Given the recent punishing work schedule I imposed on myself, I may be forgiven for thinking that I was hallucinating, but this e-mail actually did arrive in my spam folder. I appreciate that it is very difficult to achieve perfection of expression in one's own language, let alone a second one. I am not knocking... Continue Reading →
Bloody, bold, and resolute
No, no, no. I am not falling for this Writing Challenge: New Year's Resolutions (Doomapocalypse Redux). There will be no bucket list for 2013 here, although obviously I have got goals not achieved carried forward from 2012, and some entirely new ones I have recently thought up. I do not care about the apocalypse, whether it... Continue Reading →
Paperless office
I now regret just a little the conversation held with the women at our local garage on the morning of the 24th. It was fun, actually. The convenience store where you pay for fuel has what all good Portuguese establishments have: a coffee machine. I paid for €15 petrol, bought cigarettes, and one or two... Continue Reading →
Rude comments collection
The most delightful public scultpure I have encountered is on a roundabout as one approaches Faro airport. It consists of an assemblage of slightly larger than life figures in various postures all looking up towards the sky. Made of limestone, on top of which much of the Algarve stands, they have the feel of being... Continue Reading →
That elusive pair of jeans 