00:23 - 12.05.06
Space Race
Happy Birthday Mr Carlin!
I wandered down to my son's room about 3 in the am to check if he was awake. Nope. I don't think he liked the fact that I woke him up to ask him though. The reason I did was that I had heard someone or something moving around in the backyard again. Got up this morning to hear on the news that a rapist had been active in our community again about that time - second time in a couple of weeks. I'd like to think that it was the police pursing him that was the cause of my unrest. When my youngest heard that I think he forgave me, because he commented that maybe I wasn't being paranoid about the other times lately where I've commented that it seems as though someone has tried the front door to see if it was locked. Now it should be noted that we are on the direct route to three schools. Sometimes it could just be students playing "I dare you" with their buddies on the way to classes. I don't like it, but it isn't really abnormal behaviour, just thoughtless. The problem is in the middle of the morning or afternoon it isn't possible to be certain.... I don't intend to spend my life as a prisoner in my own home despite the neighbours or the weirdos that are part of all societies. I just don't want to be an easy target either. I watched another new-to-me episode of Kung Fu this morning where the Shadow Assassin comes to call. How does one deal with phantoms in real life. What is one's own fear being projected onto the outside world and what is really a danger. It isn't always that easy to tell, eh Grasshopper.
Although I hadn't intended to, I spent almost the whole day talking, emailing and faxing back and forth with several landlords, real estate agents and elections staff. The deadline for us to secure an office is tomorrow - exactly two weeks since the assignment was given. Can't push the river, but today at least the tide seemed to turn in my favour. I heard from the local rep as well - wanting to know the status of my search. I sent back a response listing everthing I had done, as well as updating her on the negotiations with the one landlord. English is not her first language, although her spoken version is very good. However, I am beginning to think, based on her response to my report, that she has great difficulty with the written version. On the three key points I made she had not understood any by the comments she offered in her response. That might explain her claim that I didn't communicate well enough last event since I always put everything in writing. That makes it trackable and also provides clarity if there is any question about what was said - like this time. In our past phone conversations her understanding of what I actually said was not reflected back accurately. If I leave it at that point then there is no defense when she puts forward her perception if I don't follow it up in writing. Hmmmmm.
Now I can sympathize with her difficulty, because I know when I tackled that one legal newsletter sent to me en francais I sat with the translation dictionary close to hand. The problem is that certain turns of phrases and many technical terms simply do not translate from one language to the next. Common usage and dictionary definitions are not the same. (See my sidebar tonight) I also receive a weekly newsletter from one of the French news programs that is specifically for the purpose of taking the mystery out of those things on a word by word or phrase basis. Those are saved in a folder so I can use them for future reference. Still would not claim to being anything close to bilingual though - not for work purposes.
However, I don't think I would accuse a co-worker of not communicating with me and even less so someone who was a subordinate when I made errors in understanding if I was trying to work in a job where the primary language of communication was French. To have someone threaten to write your job performance review up in a negative way because of their language problems does not sit well - especially when they also don't have any authority to do so in the first place. Hmmmm. Grumble again. I am hoping to tie up the loose ends of my assignment tomorrow, but that has to be worked out with the one landlord. Everything that I did today felt "right" somehow though so maybe it will work out. And that is what I need to go do right now dear diary - workout, that is. Belly dance. Snake arms and camels. Good night.
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