This morning I was pleased to note that out of eight books on the Greenaway shortlist, two or three were selected by me when purchasing books for the library [one I can't remember whether my colleague chose it or I did; another is my current favourite book EVER]; one was shortlisted by our children's team panel for our picture book competition, and ( Read more... )

On the train, I was writing down the questions I need to be asking myself in order to get to know my (currently rather dull) main character better, and it got me thinking about the ways in which people define themselves. For example, I wouldn't define myself by taste in music or political beliefs, but I would define myself by the fact that I love ( Read more... )

I seem to have been particularly inefficient with invoices recently and my inefficiency achieved its peak recently when I noticed that my last invoice, with a simple error of one space bar keystroke, had attached my house number to the end of my IBAN (international bank account number). This would obviously explain why no money has arrived in my ( Read more... )

hm. chances of the heavens opening if I leave for the beerfest now? about 100% i reckon. may wait a bit and see if it clears up.

By the way, who's going to be at the beerfest tonight? I'm not absolutely sure I can make it out, because I seem to be out most nights this week, but I've been in for three days working my way steadily through a list of Useful Things, and it's getting to me. I need to go out and be useless.

Does rap music really make teenagers violent, or could they maybe, just maybe, have bigger and more important reasons for their feelings of anger and disenfranchisement? Let's leave that debate aside for a moment, and instead let us marvel at the sheer lack of logic in this response:

Teenagers were understandably tempted by "the delights of the ( Read more... )

How To Talk So Kids Will Listen And Listen So Kids Will Talk - Adele Faber & Elaine Mazlish
A Darkling Plain - Philip Reeve
My Lives - Edmund White [who is my new love]
We are at war: the remarkable diaries of five ordinary people in extraordinary times - ed. Simon Garfield
I, Coriander - Sally Gardner
Cowboy Bebop 3 - Yutaka Nanten [this was the ( Read more... )

I don't know whether anyone on my friends list will have any ideas about this, but it's always worth a try. I am just in the course of applying for professional indemnity insurance through the ITI [institute of translators and interpreters]. There are various limits of indemnity, with corresponding premiums, and I have really no idea which I ( Read more... )

This is splendid - although I do find it slightly sad for a piano to be abandoned on top of a mountain.

Oof. I've been achieving all sorts of things. I have translated a graphic novel, which was actually one of the least pleasant bits of work I've ever done, although that was probably because it was from Italian, which is not my first or even my second foreign language, and hence involved lots of hard graft and stressing. Anyway, actually having ( Read more... )