30 November 2006
Too much to do and too little time to do it in. Spent yesterday surrounded by dust and drilling noises and glue fumes as the office refurb gets underway. Also surrounded by lots of miscellaneous bits of furniture, 200 Christmas gifts to wrap and send out, about a billion Christmas cards and other such paraphenalia. I'm surprised anyone can find me in my office, so swamped am I by stuff.
The carpetters (for that is what all the fuss and bother is about) have fulfilled the age old contractor's remit of saying they'll do something in a certain period of time, but in reality only completing in three times the amount of time. They are the people for whom the Rush Job Calendar was written.
I'm off to Bristol today to film for holocausts but am perspiring at the thought of how much work there will be for me to do when I get back into the office on Friday.
With luck, by then, the fire service will have closed us down by then as they weren't happy with the state of affairs in our building after they did a cursory fire risk assessment on Tuesday. My question is why doesn't this company have an Office Manager or anyone who knows anything about Health and Safety issues and how have they managed to carry on thus far without one? And why am I being lumbered with said issues?
Needless to say, Mandarin lesson was dire yesterday as
a) I was late,
b) my mobile phone mysteriously erased my teacher's phone number so I couldn't tell her I was going to be late (or ideally cancel the lesson), and
c) I have done no homework whatsoever.
Sigh.
The carpetters (for that is what all the fuss and bother is about) have fulfilled the age old contractor's remit of saying they'll do something in a certain period of time, but in reality only completing in three times the amount of time. They are the people for whom the Rush Job Calendar was written.
I'm off to Bristol today to film for holocausts but am perspiring at the thought of how much work there will be for me to do when I get back into the office on Friday.
With luck, by then, the fire service will have closed us down by then as they weren't happy with the state of affairs in our building after they did a cursory fire risk assessment on Tuesday. My question is why doesn't this company have an Office Manager or anyone who knows anything about Health and Safety issues and how have they managed to carry on thus far without one? And why am I being lumbered with said issues?
Needless to say, Mandarin lesson was dire yesterday as
a) I was late,
b) my mobile phone mysteriously erased my teacher's phone number so I couldn't tell her I was going to be late (or ideally cancel the lesson), and
c) I have done no homework whatsoever.
Sigh.
8 November 2006
Holiday!!! Off to Porto for 4 whole days, leaving the incomprehensible fear behind that people seem to have when they leave work for a couple of days because they think everything is going to fall apart in their absence. Whoopee!
I can't wait...
Lots of lovely fresh seafood, peri peri chicken and hanging out with my friend, J. Hurray!
Mandarin lesson was a bit rubbish yesterday. Was far too busy at work, consequently forcing me to be incredibly rushed getting to the class and being in a bit of a bother. All my newly learned Mandarin escaped me to be replaced by quite a lot of ingrained Cantonese. Sigh. Two steps forward, one step back...
I can't wait...
Lots of lovely fresh seafood, peri peri chicken and hanging out with my friend, J. Hurray!
Mandarin lesson was a bit rubbish yesterday. Was far too busy at work, consequently forcing me to be incredibly rushed getting to the class and being in a bit of a bother. All my newly learned Mandarin escaped me to be replaced by quite a lot of ingrained Cantonese. Sigh. Two steps forward, one step back...
3 November 2006
What's happened to Chinesepod.....? They've been offline all night and I haven't been able to download my daily lesson. Waaaaaahhhhhhh!!!!!
Labels: language
2 November 2006
I'm quite proud of myself. I had a conversation almost entirely in Mandarin with the attendant at the gym today. She's from Tientsin and engaged me in complicated talk about where I'm from, how long have I been here, how long I've been learning Chinese, who else is from Malaysia/Singapore at the gym.. blah, blah, blah. And I did alright. Well, she seemed to understand me and said 'Fei chang hao' a lot.
My Chinese teacher seems to like me. She invited me to go swimming sometime, even though I constructed a sentence using the word 'never' which was, "I never go swimming in winter".
I've found a great website called Think Geek. I think I'll buy the T-shirt that says, "No, I won't fix your computer." and wear it prominently in front of all the people who regularly ask me to sort out their PCs. I kinda like the one with the molecule for chillies on it too. I'm proud to be a geek...
My Chinese teacher seems to like me. She invited me to go swimming sometime, even though I constructed a sentence using the word 'never' which was, "I never go swimming in winter".
I've found a great website called Think Geek. I think I'll buy the T-shirt that says, "No, I won't fix your computer." and wear it prominently in front of all the people who regularly ask me to sort out their PCs. I kinda like the one with the molecule for chillies on it too. I'm proud to be a geek...
18 October 2006
I just had my first even Mandarin lesson. Wah! Talk about total immersion. It turns out that my teacher speaks very little English - so it's Mandarin or broke. Fortunately, my Mandarin is not so lacking as I thought. It's amazing what you can dredge up when you have to. She also speaks some German, so it may turn out to be trilingual lessons from now on. Still, for £15 an hour for a one-to-one lesson I cannot complain.
Dan shi, xian zhai wo de nao zi huai le...
Dan shi, xian zhai wo de nao zi huai le...
Labels: language
11 October 2006
This post from Eating Asia is the kind of press Muslims should be getting. These are the sort of people who just get on with their lives just like everyone else. I really can't stand the stupid Western press that just makes things worse by sensationalising negative Muslim stories. For instance, the Evening Standard recently had a headline - Muslim Taxi Driver Bans Guide Dog. Well, frankly, I've been banned from taxis because the taxi driver just couldn't be bothered, which is a worse reason if you ask me.
Quiet day at the office. Have started planning Christmas dos and sorting out Christmas cards for the office. How depressing.
I just learnt that a secretary in Mandarin is a 'mi shu' or 'secret book'. That's quite nice, I think.
Quiet day at the office. Have started planning Christmas dos and sorting out Christmas cards for the office. How depressing.
I just learnt that a secretary in Mandarin is a 'mi shu' or 'secret book'. That's quite nice, I think.
Labels: language, politics, work
10 October 2006
I've found the best podcast website for learning conversational Mandarin. It's called Chinesepod and breaks down all the idioms and things that are so hard to figure out and they chat about cultural stuff. The podcasts are free, but you can also pay to have lesson plans and back-up exercises, grammar and more vocab. It's REALLY good.
Labels: language
10 May 2006
Back from Helsinki. And what a whirlwind 4 days it was. We worked till 20:30 the first night, which was the early night, after getting off the plane (we left at 07:30 in the morning). Then the next two days we finished at 22:00 and 23:45. The structure and stories we were telling changed every two minutes and even between the two performances yesterday (which were 15 minutes apart) we were making additions and alterations. Certainly keeps you on our toes. But it all went well and all the bigwigs were happy apparently.
Security was very tight and we weren't even allowed to use wireless mikes in case someone on a ship in the harbour picked up the content of the presentations/show.
Helsinki was interesting - it has a very Eastern European feel about it. It certainly didn't seem to be a late night party city. We went in search of food on Monday night at 02:30 and could only find a McDonalds open. They wouldn't sell us chicken nuggets as it was past 23:00, so we had burgers and chips. Very strange.
Meals consisted mainly of open sandwiches, although on the first night we had a proper dinner in which I had boletus, reindeer, lambchops and sea buckthorn and birch wrack pie (dessert). There was also lots of snatched takeaway food. Surprisingly, the Chinese and Thai food was pretty good.
Alcohol was hideously expensive - upward of 7 Euros for a pint.
All in all it was a very interesting experience and a shame we didn't see much more of Helsinki than quick 10 minutes rides in the taxi back and forth from rehearsals. Maybe there'll be a next time.
Learnt eight words of Suomi, but can't spell them - so excuse the spelling. Hei for Hello, ei for no, kylla for yes, hyva for good, kitos for thank you, ulos for out/exit and the all important, yhtaus ihmseen for connecting people.
Security was very tight and we weren't even allowed to use wireless mikes in case someone on a ship in the harbour picked up the content of the presentations/show.
Helsinki was interesting - it has a very Eastern European feel about it. It certainly didn't seem to be a late night party city. We went in search of food on Monday night at 02:30 and could only find a McDonalds open. They wouldn't sell us chicken nuggets as it was past 23:00, so we had burgers and chips. Very strange.
Meals consisted mainly of open sandwiches, although on the first night we had a proper dinner in which I had boletus, reindeer, lambchops and sea buckthorn and birch wrack pie (dessert). There was also lots of snatched takeaway food. Surprisingly, the Chinese and Thai food was pretty good.
Alcohol was hideously expensive - upward of 7 Euros for a pint.
All in all it was a very interesting experience and a shame we didn't see much more of Helsinki than quick 10 minutes rides in the taxi back and forth from rehearsals. Maybe there'll be a next time.
Learnt eight words of Suomi, but can't spell them - so excuse the spelling. Hei for Hello, ei for no, kylla for yes, hyva for good, kitos for thank you, ulos for out/exit and the all important, yhtaus ihmseen for connecting people.
Labels: acting, language, travel
12 April 2006
Why can't people spell 'definitely'? What is wrong with them? It's not even pronounced '-ately'. What could be easier? It's a no-brainer.... aargh!
On a nicer note, I had a ham and cheese toastie for breakfast this morning. Mmmmmm! It could have done with a spot of Lea & Perrins or, perhaps, tabasco sauce but, otherwise, was just fine dandy.
Have been watching Firefly on DVD (the series from which the film 'Serenity' sprang forth). I quite like it but am sometimes a bit confused about what's going on. It doesn't help that BB put in Disc 2 by accident and we thought we were at the beginning of the series, when we were actually halfway through.
Tango was super fun on Monday and numbers have multiplied greatly. The chap at the bar wouldn't serve food upstairs though and I wasn't prepared to trog downstairs to get my fix of lightly battered whitebait. So I glared at him periodically throughout the class. I hate it when people just make up stuff, when they don't know the answer and can't be bothered to find out. I guess I was just being too nice by asking if I could order food upstairs, when I knew full well that they did. My bad. I should just be imperious and offhand. Plenty of other people seem to be.
On a nicer note, I had a ham and cheese toastie for breakfast this morning. Mmmmmm! It could have done with a spot of Lea & Perrins or, perhaps, tabasco sauce but, otherwise, was just fine dandy.
Have been watching Firefly on DVD (the series from which the film 'Serenity' sprang forth). I quite like it but am sometimes a bit confused about what's going on. It doesn't help that BB put in Disc 2 by accident and we thought we were at the beginning of the series, when we were actually halfway through.
Tango was super fun on Monday and numbers have multiplied greatly. The chap at the bar wouldn't serve food upstairs though and I wasn't prepared to trog downstairs to get my fix of lightly battered whitebait. So I glared at him periodically throughout the class. I hate it when people just make up stuff, when they don't know the answer and can't be bothered to find out. I guess I was just being too nice by asking if I could order food upstairs, when I knew full well that they did. My bad. I should just be imperious and offhand. Plenty of other people seem to be.
Labels: dance, food, language, television
23 February 2006
East Dulwich is to have a Caffe Nero. The invasion of the chain coffee shops has begun. I'm surprised the small business loving, sandal and hemp wearing, organic food snuffling burghers of East Dulwich aren't up in arms picketing the property. I guess the "no chain stores" covenant of 1850-whatever-it-is has run out. See here for a petition against chain stores in Dulwich.
I learnt a new German word - herumschnuffeln. It means to nose around and is a most excellent word in my opinion.
Just went for lunch on expenses (hurrah) at a new restaurant in the Sainsbury Wing of the National Gallery called the National Dining Rooms or some such moniker. The food was tasty but the service all over the shop. To be fair they had only been open two days but amongst the errors noted were:
- they brought us 12 oysters, instead of 6 (fine - as they only charged us for 6 in the end)
- they brought two roast porks instead of 1 roast pork and 1 duck (not so good as we didn't have time to hang around for them to change the order - but they did give E a free glass of wine)
- they didn't bring 1 side order of mash and buttered cabbage that we ordered
- they kept trying to give other people our drinks, or give us drinks we didn't order
- the waiter dropped our bread on the table from a great height and then picked it up and plonked it back on the plate in a not terribly subtle manner
But they were friendly and the food was good but slow.
Perhaps, we should leave it a bit before going back. However, they do have an onsite bakery and the bread and cakes looked super tasty. Next time, if we have more time we might have puds.
E is back from San Diego and brought me Mint Oreos. Yum!
I learnt a new German word - herumschnuffeln. It means to nose around and is a most excellent word in my opinion.
Just went for lunch on expenses (hurrah) at a new restaurant in the Sainsbury Wing of the National Gallery called the National Dining Rooms or some such moniker. The food was tasty but the service all over the shop. To be fair they had only been open two days but amongst the errors noted were:
- they brought us 12 oysters, instead of 6 (fine - as they only charged us for 6 in the end)
- they brought two roast porks instead of 1 roast pork and 1 duck (not so good as we didn't have time to hang around for them to change the order - but they did give E a free glass of wine)
- they didn't bring 1 side order of mash and buttered cabbage that we ordered
- they kept trying to give other people our drinks, or give us drinks we didn't order
- the waiter dropped our bread on the table from a great height and then picked it up and plonked it back on the plate in a not terribly subtle manner
But they were friendly and the food was good but slow.
Perhaps, we should leave it a bit before going back. However, they do have an onsite bakery and the bread and cakes looked super tasty. Next time, if we have more time we might have puds.
E is back from San Diego and brought me Mint Oreos. Yum!
Labels: east dulwich, food, language, restaurants
