Just typical!

Categories: translation, triumphs

Date: 26 March 2009 21:20:56

Some friends from London arranged to come and stay overnight last night on their way from the Big Smoke to their seaside holiday destination.  I warned them in my hospitable way that they were more than welcome to come but due to the unpredictable nature of my work I couldn't really say in advance that I would be able to spend the afternoon with them.

I had a very light workload and was finished well in advance of their ETA.  I then received a text to say they had been delayed by an hour. That's fine. At 17:59 the phone rang. I thought it would be them saying they were lost. It was a client asking if I could do a rush job. Arghh. Dilemma.  This month work has been very thin on the ground and I didn't feel I could afford the luxury of turning down a) the work, b) a newish client.

At 18:00, there was a knock at the door - the visitors had arrived. I made a quick decision. I instructed the visitors to find the kettle and do the necessary, I ran back to my office, turned on the computer again (waited an age while it decided to boot up...), looked at the document, decided I could do it before 10 am if I worked late.

I spent a pleasant evening in an Indian restaurant with my friends - and I can't tell you what was in the meal but whatever it was fired my brain up!  I started working on the document at 23.30 - and thought I would be finished by about 2:30 am.  At 00:15, the chums came in to say they were making tracks bed-wards...and I was already 65% of the way through! I couldn't believe it... This was about three times my  normal speed....

I finished at about 1 am, hopped into bed, hopped out again early to read it through (the document - not the bed). I was fully expecting to see that I had written utter rubbish. Well, it looked ok to me... I tweaked a few sentences here and there and mailed it off to the client...all before my chums had emerged from their slumbers.

I've spent the day recovering from the shock... and I'd just like to let my clients know not to expect this as a standard level of service...and to let my friends know that I won't treat them quite so shoddily next time - if they risk visiting me again.