Lots to report on!

After 3 days exhibiting and doing my presentation - the only woman on a panel of 8 men - the conference has now finished. We packed up our booth at lunch time and dropped it back off at the hotel. I feel that it wasn't as busy as when I went to Phoenix a few years ago, but I've done some networking and might be in for a job as project manager for a translation company here in San Fran if I can get my visa sorted! I've told Stu to enquire with his company about a country transfer. I was strolling to the exhibition this morning and decided I could quite happily live here for a year or so. It's weird how this city feels like a big village. Although this is America and everything is twice as big as in Europe, this city gives me a very cosy and homey feeling.

I'm still amazed by the mix of architecture in this city. There's skyscrapers next to brick buildings, old next to new, modern style next to typical San Francisco style. I'm sure J.K. Rowling got some inspiration in this city as banks here look a lot like Gringotts Wizarding Bank, I'm half expecting Goblins to walk out any minute.

Olga decided to have a nap when we got back to the hotel, so I headed out on my own this afternoon, which was brilliant. I like being on my own when discovering a new city and as they say, the best way to do this is to get lots; if it weren't for my amazing (amazing?!) navigation and orientating skills. Basically, I have huge issues getting lost. I decided to get lunch at Taco Bell - oh well - and to sit myself down near the waterfront overlooking the bay.

I studied my Lonely Planet guide and decided to start hiking - which is to be taken quite literally in this city. I followed some off the beaten track routes and ended up in some very cool neighbourhoods. One of the nice things was seeing the publisher's house and bookstore (Jeez - did I just use the word store?) which originally published some of the Beat Generation's work, including Howl. Went in the bookSHOP's poetry corner where lots of pictures of Kerouac and Ginsberg were hanging on the wall. Never knew Albers' lectures would get me this excited. At some point during the walk, the guide said, now look to your right. I'll tell you... the picture isn't half as good as what I saw for real. This city is simply breathtaking.

The next walk took me through Chinatown and this is probably my favourite part of the afternoon! As soon as you enter the Chinese gates, the sweet and sour chicken flied lice smell hits you around the ears. If I wouldn't have known better, I could have been in Beijing. Not one tourist in sight. At this point, I was getting quite thirsty and thought I'd go for a cup of tea somewhere. I walked into a shop with lots and lots and LOTS of pots filled with tea leaves and asked for a cup of tea. I was told 'we don't do tea' - erh... - 'we do tea tasting'. Even better! (Tessa, you were in my mind the entire time I was here!!) If you ever get to SF, this is the place to be for the ultimate tea tasting experience!!! I met an American couple who sat next to me and we enjoyed the hour of tea tasting together. We got to try about 15 different teas and were given a 5 minute explanation about the tea and what effect it has on your insides. Loved every minute of it! I bought some tea leaves - and yes, Tessa, start saving up for a bulk buy by the time you get here, they have over 150 different teas specially imported from China, some even 25 years old. It was about 7pm by the time I left the tea shop. Had some more strolling through town, spent an hour in Borders, as you do, and headed back to the hotel where I'm sitting now. Tonight is my last night in the hotel and I'm moving to a Youth Hostel for the next 2 nights before I take the train to Chicago. I'm not sure if I will have internet at the YH, so in case I don't, I'll update you when I'm at Rose's.

As the last picture of this post, I thought I'd share my utter amazement when I saw this in Bloomingdale's shopping centre yesterday. When the Americans do something right, they do it brilliantly! A bending escalator... how's that for geniousness?!

Day II – San Francisco

I’m still totally mesmerised by this city. (Noticed the totally?!) Two days and that’s what America does to me! Walking down the big shopping street this morning to the exhibition I bumped into so many newspaper boxes and people. You just have to look up and admire the architecture. Beautiful.

Things I forget about America:

• Taco Bell – Hurrah for Mexican junk food. Had to email Carrie this morning to ask what I usually eat there so I could go and get some at lunch time. There’s one just across from the exhibition – it must be faith!
• Toilets – Ever sat on an American toilet? It’s an experience. I always forget how you hardly have any privacy in a cubicle as the doors only start at 2 feet height and there’s always a gap between the door and the cubicle, large enough for somebody to look through. And then of course, there’s enough water in the toilet bowl to have an afternoon swim.
• How when you ask for water (think British), they look at you as if you come from another planet
• Starbucks on literally every corner
• You have a great day!

Had our first day at the exhibition and I'm exhausted. I'm glad I made the executive decision to wear my comfortable (read Nike) shoes, cuz even with those on, my feet are killing me. I talked non-stop today and my tongue is feeling slightly numb. What I hate most is people who come up to you and ask you 1000 things and you just know it won't lead to anything. Stop wasting my freaking time! Back at the hotel now and I'm too tired to do anything, I think the jet lag might be playing catch-up with me after all. Going to watch some tv, read a bit in my book (started reading Ewan McGregor's Long way round as part of my travel adventure) and fall asleep like a baby. Need to give a presentation in front of 500 people tomorrow so am feeling slightly nervous. Just picture them naked.

Day I - San Francisco

I'm loving it!! Straight into my top 3 of best cities in the world!
After a 16 hour journey, we finally got here safely. Mind you, we were 20 minutes late landing as the plane had to circle above San Francisco due to an earthquake that had just hit the city. It was 5.6 on the Richter scale (max. is 9) and was apparently the biggest to hit SF since 1989. Haven't felt any aftershocks but I'm keeping the space under the table available just in case!

I think I've sorted out the jetlag pretty well by trying to stay awake for as long as I could last night and forcing myself to sleep until 2pm UK time. It's now 10.30pm here (5.50am UK) and I'm slightly starting to feel tired, so not bad I say.

Olga and I don't really need to work until tomorrow so we decided to get our walking boots on and go. We started off by taking the famous cable cars to Fisherman's Wharf. The cable cars are so much fun! They are incredibly noisy, flipping dangerous if you ask me, but oh so charming. I read in my Lonely Planet guide they have to change the cables every 75 days because that's how quickly they wear... We walked around the Wharf which is full of sea food, sea lions and, what should be, lovely views, if it weren't for all the fog that was hanging over the bay. We could hardly see the Golden Gate Bridge but had a fantastic misty view over Alcatraz. We then took the ferry to the famous 'Rock' and visited the prison. Got an audio guide told by previous inmates and joined a guided tour. Good stuff and excellent views over San Francisco.

Public transport is great and I feel I'm stuck in a time warp. Not only do the cable cars take you back in time, there's also something called a Rhetoric Street Car. These are the original 'trams' from the '40 and oh my god are they cool?!? You nearly feel you should get your hair done accordingly just to fit in.

We went to the exhibition around 6pm to set up our stand and met one of the translators we work with at Wordtrans. Tomorrow the conference starts, which is when our sales talk starts as well...

After we went to the initial opening gathering (with free food) we went on another cable car ride to see SF by night and to find a bar to celebrate Halloween. We found a pretty cute bar and had a drink there midst carved pumpkins and spider webs. It's funny how every other adult on the street is dressed up here; from a Blues Brother and bumble bee to an Alcatraz escapee and chainsaw-stuck-in-his-head guy. Also saw a little boy dressed as Nemo which was my absolute favourite of the night.

Tired now. Will try to update you with (less) adventurous activities tomorrow.

Scary wake-up call

When Stu's alarm went off this morning, at 6.30am to be precise, I dragged myself out of bed as I desperately needed a wee. On my way to the toilet I was woofed by a distinct gas smell. A little alarm in my head went off but was suppressed by the urge to wee, quite badly. Whilst I was being freed from the bladder pressure, Stu came out of the bedroom, smelled the gas and ran to the kitchen. My brain was active enough at this point to realise he was checking the cooker. If he'd only given me 5 more seconds, I would have come up with that idea as well.

The cooker was off, the boiler/heating was off but we could still smell gas. At this point, I had successfully emptied myself of bodily fluids and alarm bells had started ringing in my head too. We immediately opened all the windows (it's freezing in the morning now!), called British Gas and closed off the mains at the front of the house. Stu then abandoned me as he had to dash off to work, leaving me on my own to wait for the gas man who, I was told, would be with me in under an hour.

45 minutes later, the man arrived. He checked for any drops in the pressure of the system but he couldn't find anything. At this point I was freezing my t*ts off and must have looked like a human penguin with PJ on. The gas man then decided to wake up the lady under us, as gas rises. (I vaguely remember a physics class explaining this, but did I pay attention?!) After a while, he came back up and it turns out the people from the garden flat (new neighbours; Mexican; not German) had left one of the hobs of their cooker on all night!!!! Flipping ek. I'm surprised they didn't gas themselves down there...

America, here I come

Everything is booked! I haven't been so excited since, well, since Spooks started yesterday. (Yeah, naked bum in the first 20 seconds!) I'm extremely excited about the train journey as I've booked a Roomette for the first part of the journey. Check it out! On top of 2 beds, a sink and a toilet in my cabin, all meals are included and I receive a newspaper each day! I'll be leaving San Francisco on the 6th of November after having spent a week there. The train will take me through mountains, passed lakes and amazing views until I arrive in Chicago on the 8th. I'll be staying with Rose in Madison and will visit Chicago together with her. On the 12th, I'll be leaving for Washington D.C. where I'll be staying with Darcy and her family. Tea at the White House? On the 15th I'm heading for Orlando where Andrew and Carrie will meet me. We might stay with Luerne for the weekend and even squeeze in a Day of Disney fun!! My last week, I'll be spending at A&C's house, next to/in their pool, under a palm tree. Life can be hard.

As I have the feeling I haven't stopped working yet since my exams, I'm going to have some me&myself-time. Obviously I would have liked to spend this experience with Stu (who's too busy working) but I'm already making plans, including Stu, for February.

Had a day at home today, being a housewifee. I cleaned, did the laundry, dishes, hoovered, did groceries, bedding and cooking. Christ. Being a housewife is more tiring than working.

R E S P E C T.

I haven't seen Stu properly for over a week now. His big project in Brighton has started which means I only see him in bed. He leaves at 7am (I think) and is hardly ever back before 11pm, including weekends. I'm feeling a little lonely at the moment...

Anna has been sent home after 24h in hospital with contractions because as sudden as they came, they also disappeared again. She currently doing a lot of hopping on her yoga ball.

Spooky MI5

We had our last girly evening on Thursday as from next week, on Tuesday's to be more precise, the 6th season of Spooks will start. Oh thou god of sexiness, blessed with gorgeous spikeful hair and looking extremely handsome in thou jeans and polo neck. Humhmenna humhmenna. Also from Tuesday, us girls have decided to allow the boys to join us; only they don't seem to realise this is a huge gesture.

Went biking today but only did 9 kilometres, which I thought was a little disappointing since our 36K the other weekend. But the weather was gorgeous for mid October and I thorougly enjoyed being outdoors. Melinda and I are now bike twinsisters as she bought the identical one to mine. And whilst we were biking, we saw a little girl who had the baby version of ours!

My tickets to the States are booked!! I'm currently organising my train trip and figuring out where I'm staying along the way. I'm getting v.v.v. excited now! Stu however is getting v.v.v. excited about buying a new car. We've set terms and conditions but I'm sure he'll pull the same trick as he did when I was in Russia... He's allowed to buy his Beemer (within the set budget!) once he's sold the Vectra and Dino, but what's the chance? Perhaps I should set some terms and conditions in case he doesn't stick to the rules.

Mum and dad are coming over next weekend together with dad's cousin and his wife. The four of them would like to be taken to London, so I'll have to get my tourist guide umbrella out!

And oh yes, Anna is currently in labour in hospital!!

Bookworm

First of all, there are more Go Ape pictures from Dan this time. (I find wearing one of those harnesses quite sexy for some reason?!)

Went into work this morning as the Boss Man had organised a meeting to resolve the issues we're having in the office. Since our team has been joined by a new member of staff, the general atmosphere hasn't been great. We were all affected by moodiness, grumpiness and miserableness - as if regular PMT isn't bad enough! I won't go into details but it basically meant that I wasn't looking forward going into work anymore... We had an 1 1/2 hour meeting which was productive but still left me feeling not 100% happy, which is something I need to sort out myself now. And really believe things will change.

Going to Mary's book club tonight. She's organising a 'book swap' club where you each take 3 books you don't want anymore and you swap them for 3 new ones which other people bring along. That way, you recycle your old books and end up with 3 new and free books. I like it. I'm currently staring at my library wall, having debates with myself which books I want to get rid of. On top of my list is probably my Russian>Dutch dictionary (but I doubt anyone would be interested), also having trouble deciding on Donna Tart's Little Friend - I still haven't finished it and not sure if I ever will... (it's weird how I LOVED her Secret History but hated this one!)

Top 5 of unfinished books:

• Perfume (Patrick Suskind) - details annoyed me beyond belief
• Brick Lane (Monica Ali) - far too slow
• Sophie's world (Jostein Gaarder) - philosophy at an early age is never good
• The constant gardener (John le Carre) - talking about descriptive text
• How to be good (Nick Hornby) - sad, depressing, downright bipolar

Go Ape pictures!

Chrispie has put his on Facebook. Dan and Jamie took some as well so I'll keep you posted when they appear online! (I thought it was a bit risky taking my camera, dangling 20 metres above the ground...)

Accountant to be

I promised myself never to translate anything too financially complicated again after my disaster two weeks ago. I was asked to translate an Annual Account - how hard could that be? With the European Terminology Database helping me out, and Wikipedia trying to explain some (most) of the content, I started off in good spirit. Two days later, I was having tantrums and fits. Luckily Lin, who came 4th in the World (!!) on the international accountancy exam, was there to help. I felt a lot more relieved delivering, what turned out to be, a good translation...

What did I do on Friday? I accepted another disaster!! (I was tricked into it!) This time I'm translating a Statutory Report (what? Precisely.) After sitting behind my pc for 4 hours this morning, I had the most genius idea that surely somebody must have translated this type of form (30 pages!) before. And yahaaa, I not only found 1 but 2 translations of the identical document. Translating has become a lot easier all of a sudden...

Haike is coming around tonight for her weekly Dutch lesson. I'm so proud of her, cuz with quite bad dyslexia, it isn't straight forward learning another language... Stu sticks his head through the door from time to time with comments like 'that's not the way you pronounce that' or 'don't you know the word for that?' - big mouth. It does amaze me how much he knows though.

I'm back!

I haven't been on here for such a long time, I've nearly forgotten how to do this... My apologies to all of you for not updating you on a regular basis after having pushed you guys into starting a blog - I'm well aware of the fact I've been slacking! As some might know, I've had a summer of working my arse off, both in the office (as PM) and at home after work (as freelance translator). There were many evenings when my laptop felt more like a boyfriend to me than Stu did, but I've decided that's got to stop. I've just finished my first week of part time in the office, part time working from home - and it suits me quite nicely.

I'll be trying to keep a regular blog from now on (I know you've heard this before!) and I've also noticed there's a feature now for adding videos - perhaps that might be an easier option!?

Quick update and some pictures:

• Been to Poland and the Czech Republic for a week - which I'm sure most of you will know by now. (see pictures below)
• Been to Scotland last Tuesday on a consultancy trip for work, which nearly killed me getting up at 4AM to catch my flight. I managed however to sell 30 licenses - yeah commission!!
• Leaving in 3 weeks on my American adventure - but more details about that soon once I've booked my flight!
• I love being self-employed - waking up at 8.30, walking into your office (opposite the bedroom) and being your own boss is brilliant!!
• Went on a special birthday gathering yesterday for Jamie. All 14 of us decided to Go Ape. It's one of those places where you climb in trees and do crazy things 20 metres in the air, obviously wearing harnesses. Absolutely brilliant. (BTW Bram & Danny - I was thinking you might like this as a birthday present?!) No doubt there will be pictures circulating soon from everyone who took some - I'll post the link.
• I've become Queen of Match Making!
• An in-depth personal profile (done by the company I went to see in Scotland - that' s their business) shows I'm the 'Motivating Inspirer'. It's a 15 page document about my personality and how I interact with people - which made me laugh out loud on the plane back as it was bang on!
• My vegetables are growing really well!! I now have 2 (perhaps 3, although I'm not sure if one isn't weed) cabbages growing, lots of turnips and 3 rows of carrots. I'm sure they'll be full grown by Christmas so I can make a lovely soup out of them!
• Babies: Katrien had a girl (Kaat) 4 weeks ago, Anna is due next week, Did in 5 weeks, Lin is having a boy (February), Boss David is become a granddad for the first time and Carrie is having a little sprout as well!!!!