Weird? Pretty much.

[Dina]

I like that you like to watch bats and I am sad my dear Chiroptera (she is a forumite) is not visiting often anymore. You two would have get along so well.

I read quite slowly in English but I am a more or less fast reader in Spanish. I used to be very fast but now that I don't see so well it takes me more time (yes, I wear glasses. Even so)

What is an air bath?

[Regenbogen]

Open air bath. I don't know if it is the right words. It is an artificially created area with big swimming pools and so on, which is outside, only open during the summer months. Nothing fancy but you can swim or have safe fun in the water with the kids. There are lifeguards watching the whole area.
Today and yesterday I continued teaching my little one to swim. I do that mostly in their swimming pool because she can see the ground and there is the edge to hold on to, if she needs a break.



Today the bats were mostly near the ground where we couldn:'t see them so well with the dark trees in the background. But one came very close. My 6 year old watched them with me. Now it is too dark to see. Maybe tomorrow evening.

I've become quite fast in reading English, almost as fast as in German, but sometimes I pause to look something up. If I don't know a word, or if I thought I knew the word, but in the context it wouldn't make sense.

[Dina]

So charming, watching the bats with your child 

I am not so fast, mainly because of the "informal" expressions, because many of them are unknown to me.

Oh, I understand air bath now, lots of summer fun!

[Regenbogen]

While reading I sometimes have difficulties with the background stories. For example in Small Favor. The Three Billy Goats Gruff.
At first: wtf is a gruff?   
And I don't know the story. I looked it up.
But I was interested in the translation, so I asked my friend what it says at that point. And in fact, the 3 Billy Goats Gruff was replaced by a story which is widely known in Germany: the fairytale by Brothers Grimm " Der Wolf und die sieben Geißlein" The Wolf and the Seven goats
There are no bigger brothers and no trolls. There is the wolf who tries to trick mother goat's kids into letting him in while she is gone.
It really doesn't make sense to replace the story, just so that the readers have a tale they know.

And she sent me an excerpt out of Changes, which made her laugh. The part where Harry visits Monoc headquarters. When he sees the finger nails of the receptionists. He decides not to say anything, but his mouth did without the rest of him agreeing. LOL
So I sent her the English part with the comment yes, it is funny, but this will make you laugh even more.
They completely left out the "go go gadget wisdom". But why? We know the series. It was on TV here, when we were children.
But at least the translation isn't wrong, like I read in the Farseer series by Robin Hobb. There is a page where he says that a boy has his father's eyes. In the translation he says the boy has my father's eyes. And this is not the only error. 

But sometimes translation errors are funny. Like when I was reading Dead Beat: the title of the book with poems about the Erlking. Only 4 words and 3 of them wrong. LOL. I thought, omg did no one tell Jim before the book was published? But ok, it isn't that important. Then in Turn Coat it was Peabody's fault and Harry made fun of him.  Made me laugh.

And Dina: I'm watching bees, too. I like them. I always plant lots of flowers and keep the lawn " messy" so that they have enough pollen to collect. Also there a several people in my village who are bee keepers. So if I buy local honey, maybe my garden contributed to it.

[Dina]

I had the same "wtf is a gruff" moment, but I goggled it. Of course, that took me longer like just keep reading. I should try to find what the Spanish version says but I normally don't like the translations, even when they are correct. For instance, for Harry Potter Dead Eaters is "mortífago". which is more or less fun but awful 

That said, I agree about Go go Gadget. We would understand that too.
Also yes, translations are funny. The D&D player's handbook (AD&D technically) in Spanish was a classic example that made hubby, friends and I laugh a lot. For instance, the X bow (crossbow) was translated to Arco X. (a literal bow with an X). And druids cannot became undead! while it means they can´t do the the spell "turn undead".
But since many years ago I try to read English speaking books in English. I used to do the same with French but I spent a lot of time without doing it and apparently forgot everything. I tried to read a French book last year and couldn't, I was too slow and it got boring.

Bees are great! So clever insects, amazing actually. Thanks for the flowers and for helping the bees. I've heard than in Europe there was a movement to keep the gardens more or less wild because wild flowers are many times important for bees. I am very interested in anything keeping bees around. Also butterflies.

Funny enough, I am not that fond of honey. I mean, I don't hate it, but if I can not eat it, I don't.

[Doroga's Cousin]

I honestly had the opposite reaction when I read the gruff story. I was like, okay, Jim made something up. Then uh...I got to the part where Harry looks it up. Was pretty funny when I realized what he was talking about. The weirder thing for me is how my readings of the books have changed. I was 14 when Changes came out. I don't have kids, but I have a few more years under my belt and a serious relationship down the drain and everything that happens leading up to the ending of that book is just different now.

[Dina]

((((((DC)))))))
Of course, even for me (an adult the first time I've read the books) things are different when I reread them.

Also, I've heard you have some good news?

[Doroga's Cousin]

Do I have some good news? The only real good news I have is that I haven't managed to catch covid-19 yet despite working a job where it's statistically more likely.

[Dina]

Ah, all right then. Sorry about my mistake but ey! No covid is always good! I am so far good but I am indoors pretty much all the time. Hubby and I are hermits together now 

[Regenbogen]

Hello, weird!
I agree. No covid is always the preferable option. It would be nice, if I've had it without symptoms. I've had contact to positive tested people. But I rather think I just didn't catch it.

Tomorrow the weather will cool down a bit, and after that there will be two days of heavy rain. I'm glad about it. The grass is brown already. So tomorrow before the rain I will start plum harvest. I won't manage everything, because I will have to do it alone, so I hope the plums will still be good Saturday evening. Maybe I can get the kids to help, but they tend to panic, when the wasps fly in their faces. OK, I have difficulty to stay calm myself, but it is not healthy to flail your arms when you are on a ladder in a tree, lol. So I pretend to be cool.

[Dina]

LOL! It is part of the sacrifice of being a parent.

When I was a teen. we had one (only one) plum tree, a short one. It was so great when it became covered in flowers! Then it had nice red plums. Sadly, the tree was old and died sometime when I was already an adult. i still miss it but I think if somehow there is a soul for the trees, that one is happy somewhere, because he gave a lot of joy and had a long and prosper life 

[Regenbogen]

When I was a kid, my parents had several Apple trees, one cherry and one plum tree. The plum tree I didn't like so much, because there were masses of wasps. I got stung a lot. Once between my toes. That hurt. But I always liked the plums.
On the apples there are wasps, too, but with the plums I think they exaggerate.

There was one apple tree I liked the most. It had very low thick branches, so several children could climb on it without much effort at the same time. And you could put a hammock between the trees.

At first my parents wanted to build a garage for the car and our tools. The lowest branch was in the way. So our beloved tree lost an arm. A few years later it became sick and we had to remove it completely.

Another apple tree was already hollow inside, when we moved there, but it had the best apples and there were birds breeding inside every year. There were two holes in the trunk, the little birds were safe from cats in there. And you could see their mouths open when you looked inside.
This tree almost killed my mother when it fell down suddenly.

Now they have only one apple tree left.

And yes, I can pretend not to be afraid sometimes. If you don't look at me for too long. I only scream when spiders surprise me. As a kid I learnt not to show any fear as the only girl among boys, lol. I didn't want them to put spiders into my bed or in my schoolbag or something. So I pretended to be cool.

[Dina]

I am terrified of spiders, so you are my heroine. But I understand the rest, you are amazing 
I grew up in an apartment, where I still live, but I spent all my teen and my first adult years in the house I mentioned. It only has a small garden, but it has two vines, a plum tree and a lemon tree. Also some shrubs and flowers. Not much, but for me it was heaven.

[Doroga's Cousin]

Ah, all right then. Sorry about my mistake but ey! No covid is always good! I am so far good but I am indoors pretty much all the time. Hubby and I are hermits together now 

I just realized that what they were probably referring to is that I paid off my student loans as of Friday.

[Dina]

That was it, but I thought you wouldn't want to talk about that here. I've read it in your FB 
CONGRATULATIONS!!!
((((((((((((((DC))))))))))))))))))