Elizabeth Heighway

Yay! (Maybe after I've had a little rest though?)

The author I'm translating now is the real-life inspiration for my master's thesis, entitled 'Christ on a bike, Georgian!: prenominal participle phrase-stacking and its effect on translator well-being'.

Woken at 4 by a sudden terrifying flashback to being about 8 and begging my mother to source me a little sailor's outfit so I could pretend I was in the Vienna Boys' Choir.

What's most annoying about translation #893 is that sometimes your translation is, like, FINE but if people also understood the original they'd be like 'HOLY HAMSTERS this woman's a word-wrangling GENIUS & I see now that even this slightly unremarkable phrasing is the result of superhuman endeavour'

Did people really memorize phone numbers before cell phones, or is that just a movie thing? 2? Questions I was watching some old shows from the 90s and noticed people would just dial numbers from memory - like they'd call their friends or family without looking anything up. Made me wonder if that was actually normal back then? Did people genuinely have all their important numbers memorized, or did most folks keep a little address book or written list nearby?

If anyone needs me I will be in the museum, lying down next to the bog bodies.

In other news, god help me, I have finally finished that sample 😵‍💫

Seriously considering publishing an anthology of my translator search terms. It'll sell millions, especially chapter 3 (bullocks) and that bit at the end where I go crazy with the Ottomans.

If anyone would like to hazard a guess as to why I thought this character in the book I'm translating was a dog, I'm all ears.

Whaddya mean, 'Google maps can't find Circassia'?
#wrongapp #oops

At the 'party-size bag of Lidl own-brand Frazzles in one sitting' stage of this project, thanks for asking.

Pre-clink clink?

What would probably help is for me to give myself a stern talking-to and crank up the laptop. GW was good though ☺️

Maybe watching Gardeners World will help.

*For the love of god* will somebody please return my motivation in time for me to meet this incredibly pressing deadline 😰

“Britain is a nation of neighbours, not strangers — and it’s time we built a politics of hope that reflects that.”

Zack Polanski with a message of unity and hope having been out door knocking Handsworth today.

8 seconds into today's plant identification test I realised that recognising the photo of the plant that you used for your flashcard is *not* the same as recognising the actual plant.
#identicaltwigs

A flyer displaying ten author's photos alongside three quarters perimeter. In the center left, in black, title of the event: OWNING FEAR, REACHING FOR FREEDOM: POST-SOVIET WRITERS AND TRANSLATORS SPEAK OUT on the right, in red: LIT CRAWL SAN FRANCISCO Below, in Blue: Sat OCTOBER 25TH 5-6 PM AT RUTH'S TABLE 2160 21st Street Sponsored by California Humanities and Ruth's Table

San Francisco Bay Area: We’re a group of immigrant writers and translators born in the former USSR, here to push back against the growing threat to freedom of expression. Come to our Lit Crawl event at Ruth’s Table (3160 21st Street) on October 25, 2025, 5 pm.
@litquake.org #BayArea

Veggie saus-ish.

Exhausting day peering at hedges outside Leeds Student Union (RHS course revision), drinking coffee x3 with youngest (invested, caffeine-focussed parenting), photographing ornate air bricks (free fun) and contemplating lamb börek. The best of days.

Surely any lack (?) of white people in Handsworth would be because of the white people who moved away?

The River of People - Drawing The Times War in Abkhazia, Georgia (1992-1993), Russian-Georgian War (2008): Military supported by Russia Resulted in occupation of up to 20% of Georgian territories, displacement of hundreds of people, deaths ...

I translated my first graphic short story earlier this year. A couple of clunky typesetting strangenesses and some post-me changes notwithstanding, I'm pretty pleased.
drawingthetimes.com/story/the-ri...

Booooooo! 👎😔
I feared as much. Ledger sounds so nice in my sentence though. Pffff.

🙄😀

All I wanna do all day is seedlings and prose. And maybe karate, but its probably too late for that.

If you hear "ledger", do you only think finance/accounts, or might you think more broadly of some kind of record?

Every time I look up from my page you've got a new one. Keeping my eyes firmly down now for the sake of the nation.

A misspelled *Latin* lizard, i should say. But still.

Just found a misspelled lizard in my source text. What a start to the week.

Nervously watching the protests in Georgia and fervently hoping for the change the country deserves. So much upheaval since I started learning. So much upheaval. ❤️🇬🇪

Oh that is a NICE garden