I didn’t do much yesterday since I was in work mode, including having a long client meeting via Skype at 3:30.
At about 5:00, I went out to my neighbourhood’s “downtown” to see what was open around that time — very little! I did see that our central market is under construction/renovation so it should be a much more pleasant place to shop than the one in Centro. It looks quite large too.
I popped into the Super Aki to see if anything would look good for dinner. I picked up a couple of potatoes, onions, and carrots, then went to the meat counter. The butcher was putting out pork “milanesa” (very thin filets very popular in Yucatecan cuisine) that looked very fresh so I asked for two, which came to 17 pesos. Add in my veggies and dinner and lunch for today cost me about 2CAD total! I forgot how much cheaper it can be to shop at the little neighbourhood stores!
I came in, made dinner, scrubbed the kitchen down (something that needs to be done at least once daily due to bugs and mould from the humid climate — living here is making me a much better housekeeper!), and then crashed hard. I actually hadn’t sleep too badly the night before, definitely my best night since I got here, but the lack of sleep has been catching up with me!
Today is more of the same since I have a really big project due in the morning. Early afternoon, a lady came by to pick up those curtains I wasn’t able to return. I only lost 60 pesos, or 4CAD. I can live with that!
I then did some chores to help digest my lunch, including washing some washcloths and unmentionables. My laundry room is amazing… Sure, it’s not pretty, but…
…I have a built-in scrub board!
I don’t know how I lived all those years of washing laundry by hand without having such a thing!
I washed the clothes in my big blue plastic tub, scrubbed on the board, rinsed under the tap, wrung out, and then placed on my clothes drying rack outside.
Before I bring in a washing machine, I want to do a big scrub of that room as it’s only been surface cleaned and then it will be a room I will be happy to spend time in. It’s incredible how few houses I’ve been in in the last few years have space to really work on your laundry, especially scrub out stains. I can’t wait to get myself a few bars of Zote soap (a great stain remover) and to finally be able again to do laundry properly!
Before I got back to work, I had my first tea break since I moved in! Use the good stuff daily, okay? Don’t let it just gather dust waiting for “some day.”
By 6:00, I knew I was in over my head with my current hearing transcription and it was going to be a LATE night. I took a deep breath and called the nearby taco joint to order for delivery an “order” of al pastor meat, which they claimed is enough for about five tacos. I had no trouble placing the order (I’m starting to sense a theme — will the wonder that I’m comfortable using the phone now ever wear off?!) and hung up feeling hopeful that the taco faery would find me.
Thirty minutes later she (actually he…) did! I had to laugh at the squinty look the delivery guy gave me when he handed me $20 of the $30 owed for change from my $100 note. I had fully intended to give him $10 and was glad for the confirmation that that was a fair tip. My total with tip and delivery (actually not sure if there’s a surcharge for that) was $80, which is just over 5CAD!
They had heeded my request for all the toppings, even including fresh pineapple, but there were none of the salsas and limes I’d asked for. I was bummed for a second before remembering that I have tons of limes and my two favourite salsas (green and avocado) on hand at all times! I am having such a hard time adapting to the local culture… 😀
I had this left over after I’d eaten four tacos (six tortillas between them)!
That will be an amazing breakfast and possibly lunch tomorrow. 🙂
Now, back to that hearing. Why, why, why do these folks not think to rustle their paper away from the microphone?!
When I was recording textbooks for the blind I had one day when I was very nervous. The next time I was in they reminded me to keep my hands away from the microphone. You don’t always realize what you are doing when you are nervous. I was sorry I caused a problem for that student and your recorder would be sorry, too, if he/she realized what a challenge it made things for you. Is this something you can remind your client can be a problem?
This is not the case here. These are inconsiderate lawyers who can’t be arsed to learn proper microphone technique.
For the few clients I deal with directly, I am not shy about “training” them and then penalising them if they keep making the same mistakes over and over again. But this client, who subcontracts out the work for the lawyers, is one of those guys who doesn’t get that he needs to train his clients and also stop punishing his transcriptionists for refusing to give the clients that training — I get docked for [inaudibles] and dead air. *shaking my head* But he pays well enough that he’s worth putting up for. It’s just frustrating to have been bleating about this for almost seven years now.
It is not exaggeration to say that about 98% of clients I have come across in the nearly seven years I’ve been doing this have zero respect for the transcriptionist.
These comments take me back to when I was a new attorney. My mother, an experienced legal administrator, gave me a cheat sheet on how to dictate prepared by the Beverly Hills Bar Assn. It’s one of those incredibly useful skills not taught in law school! A couple years later, I had a long commute by train and thought I’d try using the time dictating some short items. I asked our word processor if the whistles and other noises were too difficult to deal with. She complimented me on my dictation “style” and my obsession with keeping the microphone directly in front of my mouth. Sorry no one’s trained your clients!
The idea of there being “white noise” on audio never occurred to me. I find it very disturbing on live recordings of classical music, people coughing in the audience. One of your profession’s challenges… Dinner, and breakfast, looks awesome.