Feeling Blue

The job-hunt continues.
The other day I had to do a trial translation for one of the companies that I applied to. To say it was horrific would be an understatement. I think I was very naive.
I thought companies would have me take a crack at something simple like a promotional brochure. No. This was a policy document about amortizing discrepancies arising from the application of the actuarial method to their fixed contributory pensions. Hello! I've only a vague idea what that means in English. Oh I'm getting the cold sweats just remembering the horror of it. And it took me so long. And it was so difficult to decide how to translate the figures in the document: in Japanese sometimes a comma means a decimal point and sometimes it just means a comma. In other words I wasn't sure whether I should translate the discrepancy as 27 million yen or 27 BILLION yen!!! That's quite an important issue, don't you think?
I really don't think I'll be hearing from this particular management consultancy again. 'I' wouldn't hire me.
Let's try to be positive - maybe it was one of those trials where they give you the abolsute worst, worst case just to see how you handle it. Anyway, going back to uni seems more and more attractive by the second.
In other depressing news, I think I have got rheumatism in my right hand. For the last couple of days I've had a dull ache around the knuckles between my index and middle fingers. Either that or my hand is in shock at using a pen again!
It gave my friends a good laugh when I told them of my suspicions. Here in Japan, because of the climate, such complaints are rare. But we Irish seem genetically predisposed to arthritis, rheumatism, and other aches and pains. By next week I'll be forced to type this blog with my elbows.
I do of course have good things to tell you about: my friend's wonderful photography exhibition, the Japanese buffet I enjoyed on Sunday, the karaoke parlour where I'm convinced we would have died in a fire if I hadn't rushed us out well ahead of closing time.
But I'm in a mood and feel like wallowing in my sorry-for-myselfness for a while.
Boo to job-hunting, I say!