Paint! (Or at least "Primer!")

[galadhir]

Woohoo! After over a week of sanding it down to bare metal using angle-grinders, and then rust-proofing, we put the first coat of paint on the roof this morning. This is actually primer, and it needs another layer of primer, three layers of undercoat and then three layers of what we hope is going to be a lighter, more silvery grey top coat. (Each layer takes 12 hours to dry.)

But we've started, which is something we'd begun to feel we would never be able to do. And it is already so much better than the pocked and blistered, faded rusty red paint that we took off.

Whoever had had it before Son had obviously just painted an extra layer on top of whatever paint had already been there until the paint layer was over half a centimeter thick - the worst roof paint job I've seen in almost a year on the canals. So this is already a thing of joy and my fingers are crossed that in 1+3+3 days it'll be better still.

We now have to get on with taking the paint off the sides and then priming them, one by one. And then taking the paint off the decks and gunwales and priming them. Definitely starting to think that this is more of a four or even six week job than the two weeks we had thought we would need.

Comments

[galadhir]

I wish I could read the book in Chinese (but the problem with that is I don't speak Chinese) because I have the feeling that it's full of nuances and references that the translation just doesn't do justice too, and I find the style of the translation very offputting. (Again, I can't complain because it's my fault for not reading Chinese, but there is is :) ) I must try the manhua version, which I guess might be more accessible for me (and also I'd like to see what my boy Jin Guangyao looks like in it.) I hadn't even thought of looking for it on Amazon, but that's a great idea :)

[soggymulder]

omg yes...i always think the same thing when i'm reading translations... some of the indie translations i read have these massive endnotes where they explain the origins of particular phrasing (casual chinese slang, historical happenings, or re. ancient poetry etc.) and UGH I LOVE THEM FOR IT. 🙏🏻 i think about it sometimes when writing in english too, especially when i'm working and have to be really specific when advising on the use of particular words due to the connotations they hold.... i guess that's the beauty and the tragedy of languages!!!

reading indie translations is uhhhhh sometimes a challenge in re-constructing tone lol...i think i know what you mean.

good luck with whichever you pick up!

[galadhir]

I haven't found any fan translations, sadly, other than one on a website which went down before I got through the first two chapters. I bought the first three official books from Amazon, but I wish that they had had notes like the cliff notes you get with Shakespeare. I'm following some knowledgeable people on Tumblr who make some great meta posts about things from the importance of filial piety to the meaning of JGY's hat, but I'd still love to know more.

Thank you!