First november
In europe the first november is the all saints day : Toussaint in french.
We use to commemorate our deads, and visit the tomb of our family.
I live far away of my family, so I did nothing special this day excepting being with my little family.
I have some thoughts for the people I loved and that are not belonging to our world anymore, it's the least I could do for them : make them survive the very tiny fraction of time of my souvenir.
In an other way the Haloween day is now a great success in France. My wife who has declared last year that we will never do any special deco in our house has changed her mind : we have sculpted our first pumpkin and the result with the candles inside is not bad.
Funny to celebrate something I never new while I was a kid. My kids are happy to celebrate thought, and this is the most important thing.
We use to commemorate our deads, and visit the tomb of our family.
I live far away of my family, so I did nothing special this day excepting being with my little family.
I have some thoughts for the people I loved and that are not belonging to our world anymore, it's the least I could do for them : make them survive the very tiny fraction of time of my souvenir.
In an other way the Haloween day is now a great success in France. My wife who has declared last year that we will never do any special deco in our house has changed her mind : we have sculpted our first pumpkin and the result with the candles inside is not bad.
Funny to celebrate something I never new while I was a kid. My kids are happy to celebrate thought, and this is the most important thing.
Comments
Yet, the last few years Halloween has been forced down our throats in a disgustingly comercial way...
Fellowship
Besides, we're too busy getting ready for today! Which is
Melbourne Cup Day!!!!!
First Tuesday in November. The horse race that stops a nation.
Then we all get pissed.
Melbourne Cup
Originally posted by Powerdoc
Thanks for your input. It seems that this tradition is not a worlwide one
Ha! You're loss Frenchman. Anyway, who said they had to be world wide?
So....
Makybe Diva_has made history, winning_her second consecutive Melbourne Cup.
See against all odds. Two Cups in a row is a rare feat. Plus first mare to win in consecutive years.
The mare ridden again _by_Glen Boss and trained by Lee Freedman, stormed home on the inside in the final straight to snatch the race from Vinnie Roe.
In wet, squally conditions,_the two giants of the race battled it out to the end, with Zazzman coming in third in the $4.5 million race.
Speaking after the race, Boss said he wasn't a legend - the legend was Makybe Diva.
See, see! Legend.
"I'm just the lucky bastard who's sitting on her back."
Clearly emotional, the star jockey is normally one to joke and shrug off the pressure but he said he was feeling it this time.
"That was just amazing. I've never felt anything like that before.
"...When I got within 600m she just moved inside them and I was in a little world of my own; it was a walk in the park."
Is it just me or do all his sentences sound like he's about to say something erotic but never quite gets there?
The mare gets her name_ from _the first two_letters of the_women _who work in the owners' office: Marie, Kylie, Belinda, Diane and Vanessa.
I realize how thrilled you must be to learn this.
Other dual winners of the Cup are:
Archer 1861-1862
Peter Pan 1932-34
Rain Lover 1968-69
Think Big 1974-75
Makybe Diva 2003-2004.
Punters in NSW wagered a record $51.3 million on the race - $4 million more than last year.
It was also the biggest increase in the past seven years, the TAB said.
The TAB said transactions peaked at 42,200 per minute on the Cup, a six per cent increase on last year with Trifecta and First 4 the most popular form of bet.
Yep that's right, in a country of just under 20 million people, in NSW alone (pop.? probably about 4 - 5 mill) we managed to slap down a cool $50 mill or so. I did not bet. This was a good thing because I probably would have put it on Media Puzzle. It ran 12th.
But look! The jockey speaks French:
"It's over the top. I could retire today and I'd be happy for the rest of my life. It was a feeling of deja vu when they all went early. I just bided my time because I know how good she is when I let her go."
You've stuffed up my plan for a Fifth November thread. I can't do a Fifth November thread now you've done a First November thread. It would be beneath me. Keep your pattes de Francais off my thread ideas next time or I'll bore you to death with stories of Australian sporting rituals until you beg for mercy.
I am happy that you enjoy horse race so much. I am sorry to admit that I am not a big fan, and that I did not even watch the Famous Arc de Triomphe race each years (a worlwide event that is). And by worlwide in my previous post I did not refered to the Melbourne cup ( I am more interested in The Melbourne's open), but to the Toussaint day.
I tried to ride once in 2003 : damn this horse do not wanted to obey ! and my back was hurted (nothing sexual here, just pain ). I finished in one piece, so it was not a so bad experience.
I have nothing against australian sportive rite, at least when horse races are not involved.
Au fait, what is the 5 november ?
Notice also that I will not bother you with the 19 november day : it's just a bad day for my age.
Yeah, I've only ridden a horse a few times but I've always wished I'd learnt to ride properly. I'm sure it makes it a lot less painful. I have also ridden a camel and a giant tortoise (they move faster than you'd think).
Would you mind giving me the French translation of my new sig when you get a chance Powerdoc? My French isn't up to it. What's the best way to do acutes and graves, using special characters or switching the language to French? And how would I put the English and French versions next to each other rather than one above the other? I hate lengthy sigs.
The fifth of November is Guy Fawkes Day.
Guy Fawkes
Guido (Guy) Fawkes (also spelt contemporaneously Faukes) (April 13, 1570 - January 31, 1606), who also used the pseudonym John Johnson, was a member of a group of Catholic conspirators who endeavoured to blow up the Houses of Parliament in England in 1605.
A terrorist who preceded Robespierre by almost two centuries. But of course, the plot was foiled.
Guy Fawke's Day is one that seems really odd. Let's celebrate one man's aborted attempt to blow up Parliament! Says a lot about what Britons think of their Parliament, I suppose.
Originally posted by crazychester
I'm not a fan either. Actually, I think its borders on cruelty. However, I do sometimes get into it and have a bet but I didn't watch or listen to it this year because I was busy doing other stuff. But don't tell or I'll be charged with treason. I was going to rant about our national obsession with sport when studies show we attend art events in greater numbers. But at the moment I'm thinking it's not such a bad thing that something as dumb as a horse race unites us.
Yeah, I've only ridden a horse a few times but I've always wished I'd learnt to ride properly. I'm sure it makes it a lot less painful. I have also ridden a camel and a giant tortoise (they move faster than you'd think).
Would you mind giving me the French translation of my new sig when you get a chance Powerdoc? My French isn't up to it. What's the best way to do acutes and graves, using special characters or switching the language to French? And how would I put the English and French versions next to each other rather than one above the other? I hate lengthy sigs.
The fifth of November is Guy Fawkes Day.
A terrorist who preceded Robespierre by almost two centuries. But of course, the plot was foiled.
I will try to translate your sig, but It will be better if I was able to find the original quote. Moliere was way better in litterature than me.
An innacurate translation could be
All the ills of mankind,
All the tragic misfortunes that fill the history books,
All the political blunders,
All the failures of the great leaders,
Have arisen merely from a lack of skill at dancing.
Toutes les maladies de l'humanité
Toutes les tragédies qui remplissent les livres d'histoire
Toutes les politiques maladroites
Toutes les errements de nos grands chefs
ont comme source un inaptitude Ã* la dance
Originally posted by BuonRotto
Guy Fawke's Day is one that seems really odd. Let's celebrate one man's aborted attempt to blow up Parliament! Says a lot about what Britons think of their Parliament, I suppose.
Well, Guy Fawkes Day really celebrates the thwarting (rather than aborted attempt) of the Gunpowder Plot, the fifth of November being the date of Fawkes' arrest. But yeah, doing this by letting off fireworks is kind of odd. British eccentricity in action. Mind you, he was hung, drawn and quartered, so they didn't exactly go easy on him.
Anyway, the only reason I know the significance of the date is because of the John and Yoko song "Remember" which concludes with the line:
"Remember, remember the fifth of November" (big explosion)
When I first heard it several decades ago I had no idea what the deal was with the fifth of November so I looked into it. Funny how you learn things sometimes isn't it?
Speaking of which Powerdoc.......
I used that Moliere quote in a performance several years ago but did not know the source. But French is your native tongue and he is one of France's greatest dramatists, can't you track it down? Non?
Well lucky you've got me then!
Tous les malheurs des hommes, tous les revers funestes dont les histoires sont remplies, les bévues des politiques, et les manquements des grands capitaines, tout cela n'est venu que faute de savoir danser
- from Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme: Act I, Scene II
Ta da! Damn I'm good.
Anyway, I appreciate the effort you've gone to but out of respect for Moliere I feel I must use the original. I've decided to alternate between the two versions as the mood takes me as I don't want an overly cluttered sig. When the French version goes up, you can take it I'm in a Continental frame of mind. 8)
Originally posted by crazychester
Speaking of which Powerdoc.......
I used that Moliere quote in a performance several years ago but did not know the source. But French is your native tongue and he is one of France's greatest dramatists, can't you track it down? Non?
Well lucky you've got me then!
Ta da! Damn I'm good.
Anyway, I appreciate the effort you've gone to but out of respect for Moliere I feel I must use the original. I've decided to alternate between the two versions as the mood takes me as I don't want an overly cluttered sig. When the French version goes up, you can take it I'm in a Continental frame of mind. 8)
Wow the double translation is very poor : my version is far away of the original. In fact there was no chance that I finded the original quote in french
Originally written by Moliere
When someone blunders,
we say that he makes a misstep.
Is it then not clear that
All the ills of mankind,
all the tragic misfortunes that fill the history books,
all the political blunders,
all the failures of the great leaders
have arisen merely from a lack of skill at dancing.
Interesting (well, to me) bonus discovery was Moliere's role with the origins of ballet. I'll be damned.
But I actually put it in my sig in the first place because the idea that George could be "fixed" by nothing more than a few dance classes, seemed as good a way as any to respond to the events of the past week.
Of course if that doesn't work there's always the Guy Fawkes approach to fall back on..........
Originally posted by crazychester
Ah but that's not how it reads in the original. I've seen the full English quotation before but as far as my crappy French will allow me to decipher, the bit those first three lines in English relate to occurs a little further on. I guess it's modified to make it work better than a literal translation to English would. Whereas Powerdoc, not being familiar with the original, could only do a literal translation back to French.
Interesting (well, to me) bonus discovery was Moliere's role with the origins of ballet. I'll be damned.
But I actually put it in my sig in the first place because the idea that George could be "fixed" by nothing more than a few dance classes, seemed as good a way as any to respond to the events of the past week.
Of course if that doesn't work there's always the Guy Fawkes approach to fall back on..........
Anyway, I am sure Crazychester that your are aware that the Bourgeois gentilhomme is a comedy. And that what say the dance teacher is supposed to be comic