Archive for March, 2008

How to write a memorable job application

Published on 18 March 2008 in grump. 2 Comments

Memorable Good

1. Hooray for brief, let-me-get-straight-to-the-point applications! (If you write a three-page cover letter, I’m not going to be able to enjoy reading it, regardless of how well you write. Not when there are 63 other applications to get through. Sorry.)

Memorable Bad

1. PLEASE consider using a different email address when you’re applying for a job. Does an email address like slacker1986@yahoo.com really project the sort of image you would like a potential employer to have of you? (There were worse more amusing ones in this batch; email addresses have been changed to protect the clueless)

Dictionary. Kamus. Cidian. Woordenboek. Wörterbuch.

Published on 17 March 2008 in books. 7 Comments

I love dictionaries. Have I mentioned this before?

Been thinking about dictionaries ever since I read Ampersand Duck’s post on dictionaries. I realise that I have a preference for print dictionaries. I don’t find the supposed convenience of online dictionaries that much of a plus, mainly because the print dictionary is not dependent on electricity for it to be useable. And one can’t flick through an online dictionary…

According to LibraryThing, I have NINETY-NINE dictionaries. I think this counts as a collection.

Dictionaries by language:
Chinese 58
Malay 10
Indonesian 7
German 6
Dutch 3
English 3 (Australian Little Oxford, Shorter Oxford, Roget’s Thesaurus)
Japanese 1
Spanish 1
Hebrew 1
Plus one dictionary of 26 languages (English, French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Romanian, German, Dutch, Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Polish, Czech, Serbo-Croatian, Hungarian, Finnish, Turkish, Indonesian, Swahili, Esperanto, Russian, Greek, Arabic, Hebrew, Yiddish, Japanese)

I also have a dream dictionary, and one on biology, cultural theory, slang, loan words in English, letter writing (in Chinese) and Buddhism (in Indonesian).

The oldest dictionary in my collection is Van Goor’s klein duits woordenboek - Duits-Nederlands en Nederlands-Duits, a German-Dutch dictionary published in 1942.

The newest dictionary in my collection is a pocket Xinhua Zidian (2004), bought in Melbourne recently. As a Chinese language learner I realised my Chinese language skills were beyond basic when I found myself able to use Chinese-Chinese dictionaries (it was quite a thrill, actually!). I still use Chinese-English dictionaries, of course, when I really need to understand the finer nuances of a word’s meaning.

I don’t actually use my English dictionaries much to check spelling (I don’t use spell check much either - for some reason spelling has never been a problem for me), but I do consult them to look for synonyms and to make sure I’ve got the meaning right before I use a word. At work, if I am stuck on the spelling of a word I usually just google it. At home I always prefer to consult my dictionary - usually my battered Australian Little Oxford (1987).

I have no idea why I need fifty eight Chinese dictionaries. Many are chengyu dictionaries.

Favourite dictionary: no idea.

Most used dictionary at the moment: The New Routledge Dutch Dictionary.

Trivia: I can’t type the word dicitionary.

Mixed review

Published on 11 March 2008 in anniversary, restaurant, review and food. 1 Comment

Amusé?

We had a good night, but with a few reservations.

Firstly, the restaurant was way too dark. Q: How do you know a restaurant is too dark? A: When the waiter has to hand you a penlight so you can read your menu!

Secondly, the food. It seems almost churlish to say anything negative about the food, which was very good. The problem? The flavours were really really strong. This was especially so for our main course, which was a vegetable tagine complete with artichokes, figs, baby carrots and a few other things I could not identify. Strong flavours are not normally something I’d criticise, but in this case they were so strong the flavour of the vegetables was overwhelmed. And, because it was so dark, I couldn’t see what I was eating!

Thirdly, the waiters. Oh, they were attentive and unobtrusive, but if I may make one suggestion, it’s that as a waiter one should enunciate clearly and take one’s time when serving, and not rush one’s description of the dishes. Especially when it comes to dishes that are not listed on the menu - I can’t quite tell you what I had for our amuse bouche - I think it was a grapefruity gin and tonic inspired cold soup (the chef is probably cringing at my poor palate and poor description). I could have called them back and asked them to repeat their descriptions, but they always moved away so efficiently I would have had to raise my voice or gesture to call them back (and they were always standing at the opposite side of the room!).

However, I thought the quality of the food was excellent. The butter was beautiful. I always enjoy it when we eat out and there’s real butter. Because I seldom eat it I have no guilt about slathering it over my bread when I do have it. My entree, a mushroom risotto, was very good (where can you buy porcini mushrooms in Perth?). In fact, I might have enjoyed the risotto better as my main course, the flavours of the tagine were so strong I couldn’t actually finish it. The deserts were good - the pre-desert, a coffee mousse, was very light and very good, and we had a very lovely blood plum frangipane tart with peach ice cream.

And I think it’s great that they cater for vegetarians.