Monthly Archives: September 2007

’tis done

02 Sunday Sep 2007

Posted by in holidays, home

≈ 5 Comments

painting.jpg

Just finished painting! Yay!

Really wasn’t sure if we’d get round to painting the hallway before our holidays were over, but finally got it done with about ten hours to spare. And I even managed not to fall off the top of the rickety ladder (no small feat with these dizzy spells I’ve been getting).

Used to be I quite enjoyed painting but I seem to have lost my enthusiasm for it over the years. Now I just have to decide whether I’m going to clean the roller, brush and tray or just toss them like I usually do. Yeah I know it’s a waste but throwing them out now will at least save the in-between stage of having them soaking in the bidet for a week.

Gosh, what an interesting post. Must be Sunday. . .

stéphane grappelli

01 Saturday Sep 2007

Posted by in life stuff, music

≈ 10 Comments

stephane-grappelli.jpg

Yes, Former Frontier Editor, I did meet him once – very briefly.

Back around 1980 at the Winnipeg Folk Festival, which is held at Birds Hill Park (about 25 kms north of Winnipeg). I was working as a volunteer, which meant I had to do three shifts (one each day) and in return I not only got free admission but also a backstage pass. My job was in Hospitality, so I had to greet the performers when they arrived and help them get settled in, show them where to store their things, where the food tent was, etc. It was the best volunteer gig at the festival, as you can imagine.

Anyhow, I was so thrilled that Stéphane Grappelli was scheduled to play and that I wouldn’t be working during his performance. But this meant that I was working when he arrived on the site. And even before he arrived the rumours started coming in that he was less than pleased about having to travel to the site on the performers’ bus and not in a limo. So by the time he arrived and I went to greet him he was clearly in a very foul mood and all I got in response was an icy cold stare before one of the festival organisers took over and led him away. And that was that.

I wonder if he remembered that moment for the rest of his life too . . . 😉

And yes, the concert was brilliant and I got to sit right up front at side stage. f_wow.gif

what? no virgin chicken?

01 Saturday Sep 2007

Posted by in culture, food & drink, humour, language, politics

≈ 6 Comments

chinese-menu.jpg

Whadda bunch of spoil sports!

I can’t tell you how many times a perfectly normal evening out for a couple of tapas has turned into a total knee-slapping giggle fest when some well-meaning waiter provides us with a menu in English. I half suspect they do these wonky translations on purpose, but it’s great fun and always adds to our enjoyment. But apparently the Chinese think differently …

China dishes up menu translations

China is taking action on the English translations of its restaurant menus in its campaign to brush up the country’s image for next year’s Olympics.

The Beijing Tourism Bureau has released a list of 2,753 dishes and drinks it thinks could do with a wording rethink.

Translations such as “virgin chicken” for a young chicken dish and “burnt lion’s head” for pork meatballs are confusing for foreigners, it says.

This is so totally wrong!!! In fact, people would end up ordering all those weirdly named things just so they could tell people ‘back home’ that they’d tried them. And anyhow, there is something rather charming about not being overly slick and being seen as having taken a stab at writing an English menu but not giving it too much importance. Because the important thing should be the food and the ‘ambientation’ (one of my favourite Spanglish words, found on a humourously mistranslated sign).

I feel quite sorry for all those visitors who are going to miss out on this simple pleasure by receiving only government approved menus.

You can click on the Belching f_dragon.gif menu to get a better look at it.