hannah dee

Number 11 in a series of N…

After walking to Otley the other day, we rediscovered an old friend and found a new one. Yes, someone’s opened a pub called “Old Cock” next to “Brian Pickles Lawn Mowers”.

I’ve not written much on this blog lately, but I have had a few guest posts published - one on womenintechnology.co.uk with advice for people starting a PhD, and several on the VITAE blogs most recently on search engine tools for researchers. I’ll think of something interesting to write here soon, honest.

I’ve just been contacted by someone who runs the blog yourbikeisrad letting me know that my blog contains the only google hit for the “word” yourblogisshit. This is due to a throwaway joke on the “about me” page.

I’d like to take this opportunity to state categorically that myblogisnotshit, and mybikeisnotrad.

I helped Roger with his hive inspections this morning, opening up both hives and checking for progress. This involves looking at each frame and working out whether there are eggs, larvae, nectar, honey and so on.

The comb makes wonderful patterns, and sometimes the bees produce protuberances at the bottom of the frames - they fill any tiny spaces with propolis, but larger spaces get filled with honeycomb and it’s not quite as regular a structure as you expect.

One of the jobs is to find the queen to check she’s still there. You can tell she’s there if there are eggs, of course, but for some reason beekeepers like to look for her too. In one of Roger’s hives, the queen is marked with a blue dot, which makes the task easier. In the other hive the original queen swarmed this spring, so the queen is a new one and hence unmarked. We saw them both (yay!) but I only got a photo of the marked one. She’s on the top left of this frame:

Zooming in she’s fairly obvious!

Once the hive is reconstructed the bees are still a bit angry, buzzing around the entrance. But they’ll be back to normal soon.

Those of you with vegetable patches might be interested in this useful recipe for runner bean soup, which I have just tried and which is a very tasty way to use up all those slightly overgrown stringy green beans that hide behind leaves at the top of the plant.

• Lots of runner beans
• A couple of onions
• Some olive oil
• Some stock
• Fresh mint
• Salt & pepper

Cut the tops and tails off the beans, strip the stringy bits at the sides with a potato peeler, then cut them into little bits. Chop and sauté the onion in the olive oil. Add the beans and stock. Boil till they’re soft. Turn off the heat. Add a handful of mint and salt and pepper to taste. Wazz with a blender. Job done.

If you’ve got a veg garden you’ll know that you’ll end up with tons of something that just has to be eaten, and this recipe is a useful addition to the veg glut armoury. Much more tasty than rhubarb & spinach curry (not a success), but less tasty than mixed berry ice cream.

There are a few things on the to-do list still left over from France - I’ve not got the deposit back from the flat, and I’ve not managed to get a refund on the rental insurance (because I need a document from the landlord that says that the contract has been properly terminated and I think that’ll come when the deposit does). I’ve not yet closed my French bank account, either, for the reasons outlined above.

When I was living in Grenoble I’d send emails in French all the time, but for some reason now I’m back I find it really hard to get motivated to write stuff in French. Actually, I’m finding it hard to get motivated to write stuff in any language (English, c++, matlab…) but that might just be a function of unemployment. Hey ho. Maybe writing a blog post mentioning a lack of motivation will give me the kick up the arse I need. Or maybe I’ll just go to my 12.30 appointment at the job-centre then pop for a pub lunch to recover.

Anyway, here’s a guided tour of the flat that I recorded just before leaving - as you can see, it wasn’t a bad little flat.

Now I’m back in the UK, I thought I’d do a quick write up off things I wish I’d known upon arrival in Grenoble, just in case anyone else finds it useful. So here goes:

• France is rubbish on Sundays. The only places that open properly are bakeries and florists. Supermarkets and shopping centres generally don’t open. But there are a handful of smaller supermarkets which are exceptions to this rule - Simply Market (one on Boulevard Maréchal Foch near where it crosses the train tracks, one on Avenue Jean Perrot up by Malherbe) and Monoprix (in town by Hubert Duberdout tram stop) open in the mornings, with the last shoppers allowed in at about 11.30.
• Get a bike, because Grenoble is great for cycling. But if you’re only going to be there for a year, don’t bother buying one. Instead, rent a bike from Metrovelo who do a 100€/year contract where they repair the bike too. If you’re a student, it’s only 85€. My 2ndhand one cost me 89€ and it was great, but I also had to buy lock, pump, replacement pedals, new saddle, basic tools etc. which took the total cost to well over a hundred.
• Markets are by far the best place to buy veggies. There’s a big one in town under the train tracks pretty much every day (including Sundays).
• For exotic or out of season vegetables, either go to one of the international supermarkets or to Carrefour at Grand’Place. But be warned, Grand’Place is hell on earth on a Saturday.
• If you like fancy beer, go to Les Frères Berthom at 1 Rue St Hughes. If you like pints of Guinness and sport on the telly, go to O’Callaghan’s on the south bank of the Isère. If you like pints of Guinness and good atmosphere, go to The Druids. If you like loud and soulless student bars, go to The London Pub or Couche-Tard.
• There’s a Brocante (flea market/junk sale) on Sunday mornings out by the Porte de France (in the Intermarché carpark by Boulevard de l’Esplanade). And there’s an Ikea out towards Gières. The Brocante really does sell some junk, but I wish I’d found it before I found the Ikea.
• The Bookworm Cafe has english-language 2ndhand books, and also sells tea. I think they might even have free wifi.

Any other suggestions?

My current parallel text is “L’homme à l’enverse“, a Fred Vargas novel translated into english with the title “Seeking whom he may devour“. I guess the title translation should have tipped me off to the fact that this was likely to be a clunky read. There’s one translation detail that’s really beginning to wind me up though, and that’s the name of the dog.

The old shepherd, called “Le Veillard” in the french and “Watchee” in the English, has a faithful sheepdog. This dog, in the french, is called “Interlock“. When asked about the name by the protagonist, Camille, the shepherd explains that this is a weaving term, and that he picked it by chance from the dictionary. For the rest of the book, there is a kind of running joke as Camille has difficulty remembering the name and calls the dog related terms (or “whatsitsname”).

In the English version, the translator has chosen to call the dog “Woof“. This is, indeed, a weaving term. But it’s also the noise that a dog makes. And so the running joke now has the effect of making Camille look utterly stupid every 20 pages or so, when she forgets that the dog is called woof. Way to go, translator.

In an effort to improve my French, I’ve been reading a few of my favourite books in translation alongside the original. It saves me from having to pick up a dictionary every time I come across a word I don’t know, and it also encourages me to try and work out what words mean myself (it’s a bit of a pain stopping and starting and switching between languages, so I try to do a paragraph or a page at a time). I’ve just finished L’appel des morts, by Ian Rankin (also known as “The Naming of the Dead”; one of my favourite Rebus novels). This was a challenge, but fun, and made all the more so by the entertaining footnotes. Yes, Rankin with footnotes. And entertaining, because they’re frequently wrong.

The footnotes are usually explanations of cultural references (this Who song, that Rolling Stones number). However, when the translator isn’t sure what the reference is to, sometimes he just pulls something out of his arse. For example:

• When Rebus passes Big Top, just around the corner from Canning Street, the footnote explains that this is a reference to the film Pee-Wee Herman’s Big Top. I’m not an Edinburgh expert, but… I don’t think Ian Rankin is likely to slot a reference to a US film into a geographical context, and I expect there’s actually a venue called Big Top there.
• Rebus and Siobhan have just arrived at Gleneagles and it’s all rather intense. Rebus says to Siobhan “… we’re not in Kansas any more… “, to which Siobhan replies “Does that make me Toto?”. The footnote explains that Toto is a reference to the 1970s american pop-rock band. Seriously.

I’m slightly surprised that there’s so much variation in translation quality. The Harry Potter books are cleverly done (Oliver Wood becomes Olivier DuBois for example), but the Fred Vargas novel I’m currently reading has been translated from French to English by someone who clearly owns The Bumber Book of British Clichés. It makes me think about all of those other books I’ve read in translation - and to wonder what I’m missing out on by not tackling the original. But let’s be honest, I’m not going to bother to learn Russian.

I’ve been tagged by Marianne-Paris from the excellent Paris-Ankara Express blog, so I now have to do a post called 10 things that make me happy. These aren’t in any order, but they have been fun to think about - it makes a change from fretting about forms and bureaucracy.

1. Rog
2. When I manage to have a conversation in French - particularly when I manage to make a Proper French Person laugh. I’ve been living here nearly 12 months now, and I’ve been working quite hard on learning French, but I still find speaking difficult. When I was doing French courses in the UK I always got top marks in reading, near top in listening and writing, and, like, 55% for the speaking test. I’m just not that good at getting my ideas lined up quickly. But every now and then it comes together.
3. Walking up hills. Well, specifically, walking in hills (and mountains). If I’m 100% honest, the going up bit is not my favourite - but being in the countryside is great. And Grenoble has some amazing mountains.
4. Good books. Particularly detective fiction. Particularly Ian Rankin. But any good book will do - I like literary fiction too, and bit of sci fi (Peter Watts being my current favourite from that genre), and even the occasional piece of chick lit.
5. The Druid’s pub, Grenoble.
6. Arcadia Ale and Wine Bar, Headingley.
7. My nephews.
8. Bike rides in the sunshine.
9. The fact that sometime this year I’m likely to eat cherries, apples, blackcurrants, redcurrants, blackberries, raspberries, loganberries, tayberries, gooseberries, strawberries and ( … drumroll … ) honey all from my own back garden. Maybe we’ll even get a pear or two, but that tree’s a bit young still. I expect the rhubarb is ready already. And there’ll be potatoes, tomatoes, leeks, beetroot, spinach and other healthy stuff, but it’s the soft fruit I love the most. I am seriously looking forward to the honey. Buzz buzz.
10. The fact that I’ll be back in my house in Leeds in under 4 weeks. Taking a post-doc in Grenoble has led to a very interesting year, and it has not been without its good points, but I’m ready to go home now!

I suppose I should tag some other bloggers here as that’s the done thing with these meme things. So I’ll just bounce it back at Paris-Ankara and ask the other two blogging sisters to do it - Sandrine, and mysterious sister #3 who only posts in pictures (tee hee). I’ll also tag Rog, and anyone else who reads this and wants to have a go. What are 10 things that make you happy?