The Language Rules In Quebec
There is a big row going on in Quebec about the use of the proper language in an Italian restaurant. It’s here in the Guardian. This paragraph shows the pedantic nature of the language police.
After a five-month investigation into an anonymous complaint, Massimo Lecas received a letter from the board telling him that his establishment, Buonanotte, had broken the law by including the words “pasta” on the menu and “bottiglia”, the Italian word for bottle, instead of the French word bouteille.
It sounds like several Italian restaurants, I have been to in the UK, the Netherlands or France.
I have only been to Quebec once and wouldn’t go again.
I don’t speak French well, but I can read it pretty well, as I’ve spent a couple of summers in the South of France and have also read some of the James Bond books in French.
But I found the French in Montreal very difficult and I never worked out how to use the public transport, as there is no English translation. It was almost like going to Wales and finding everything in Welsh. Even Paris, which last time I looked at the map was in France, is a city, where instructions for public transport are in multiple languages and in that respect it is much better than London.
But the main reason, I won’t go, is that I found on that trip it was difficult to stay gluten-free. In fact, I got glutened for the only time in recent years. It was mainly because the good restaurant I ate in, had probably used oven-chips, which are coated in wheat to make them crisp.
Some years ago, I used to own a hand tool company. We sold in numerous countries including the United States and France, and then had an enquiry from a distributor in Canada. They would take the product, but the product leaflet would have to be in perfect Canadian French. French just wouldn’t do! So at some expense we got a French Canadian translation and the product was duly launched in Canada.
Some time later, we had an urgent order from France and sadly we were out of French leaflets, so we told them, we did have the French Canadian version in stock. So we faxed one to France and the French said that the leaflet was rather quaint and a good laugh, but that it would do to fulfil the urgent order.
There’s no doubt that French Canadians are much more bothered about their language than the French.
Perhaps though some Canadians are also a bit touchy about English spelling. I once flew to the States sitting next to a secretary at the New Zealand High Commission in Toronto. She had to be very careful she didn’t use American spelling, when writing to some English-speaking Canadians, as otherwise they’d return it with corrections.
The British Win The Bathroom Race
According to The times this morning, the British are fasted in the bathroom in the morning.
The figures quoted are.
Britain – 19 min. 42 sec.
France – 27 min. 11 sec.
Italians – 27 min. 33 sec.
Germans – 27 min 35 sec.
Obviously women were slower than men.
My Times Wasn’t Folded Properly Today
As my father was a printer and bookbinder, I don’t like poor quality printing, even in a newspaper.
My Times Wasn’t Folded Properly Today
I did try looking for a good one, but all the copies I could see were similar.
The First Lesbian Kiss on British Television
Type the title of this post into Google and you get linked to an episode on Brookside.
But this is wrong!
Last night, David Rose in his presentation showed a clip from the play he produced some years earlier called Girl.
This play doesn’t appear to be mentioned on either Wikipedia or the Internet Movie Database.
So the Internet isn’t always right!
A Presentation By David Rose At The Duke Of Wellington
David Rose is one of the most important people in the history of British television and film drama.
Tonight he gave a fascinating and insightful presentation of his work at the Duke of Wellington in the Balls Pond Road.
I remember him in some ways for the work he did in the 1960s with Z-Cars and Softly-Softly. Did Z-Cars and the music scene in Liverpool in some way influence me to go to University in that city? If it did, David is worth a big thank-you, as I’ve often said that Liverpool made me. I did of course meet C there, although she was fairly local to me in North London.
His later work for the BBC in the 1970s, was not something I remember very much, as it was the time, when we were bringing up the kids and working hard, so we didn’t watch television very much.
If David’s presentation turns up at a venue near you, it is very much worthwhile seeing.
I just wish, I’d seen more of the plays and films he has produced. Sadly, it would appear that copies don’t exist of all of them, due to the BBC’s policy of reusing videotapes.
Politicians Who Dye Their Hair
I can never understand, why people dye their hair!
I have a grey beard, but since going gluten-free, that seems as far as it got.
My late wife never dyed her hair and she was a natural dark blonde, with odd hairs of other colours, including grey and brown. Her hairdresser, who also cut mine at the time told me a funny story about her. He had just cut C’s hair and was preparing a very smart lady, who wanted her hair dyed a different colour. He asked her what colour she wanted and she said how about that, pointing to C. He had difficulty keeping a straight face as he told the lady it was totally natural.
My reason for this post is because I’ve just read this article about Chinese politicians dying their hair on the BBC’s web site. It shows how vain some of our leaders can get, especially as the previous Chinese leader had grey hair, as do many Chinese of my age you see in the UK.
I also remember seeing a speech by John Major, where he said he’d been accused of dying his hair, which of course he didn’t. I wrote about it here.
But we may accuse John Major of ,many things, but vanity is not one of them!
A History Of Syria With Dan Snow
I am watching this program on BBC2 as I write this and I’ve never seen a program that explains the tortuous history of the troubled country of Syria so well.
The program is being repeated tomorrow at 23:20 according to this page and is an absolute must see!
If you don’t see the program, your ideas about and solutions for Syria won’t be correct. Unless of course, you are someone who has studied the country and its history and problems for years.
It has been some time, since I’ve seen such an informative and well-made documentary on such a terrifying subject, that might boil over on all of us!
And to think that one of the causes of the current round of troubles in Syria, is the bad doctor, Bashar-al-Assad!
One phrase from Dan Snow summed up the mess.
The threads running through this conflict, mean there is no simple solution.
As he finishes the program, he does at least feel that there is some hope, because of the resilience and experience of the Syrian people.
I hope he’s right!
Checking Foreign Aid
There has been a lot of discussion in the last day or so about foreign aid and whether it is worth it.
A few years ago, I went to a presentation by a senior manager in Unicef.
They said, one of the biggest problem, was checking that aid was spent correctly. Ask the government if the £2million had been spent on say measles immunisation and you would get the answer the government wanted you to hear.
So Unicef always asked an independent organisation, such as a University to check. Even in some of the poorest and less academic countries, academic standards usually ensured that Unicef got an honest answer, they could trust.
The British government should use similar methods to check all aid is correctly spent on what it was intended.
Paying It All Back
Liverpool University has been good to me in many ways, so it is only right, when they ask me if I would mind being interviewed as part of their research into widowhood, I don’t say no.
Last week, I was interviewed by a student and as ever I found it rather a pleasant experience, which is probably better than paying for therapy.
I very much believe that we should all use our experience to help others and what better place to start than your old school or university. I can’t go back to my old school, as it no longer exists, so Liverpool University will have to put up with me.
In an ideal world, there would be a central database of research projects, that needed guinea pigs or experienced professionals to help fulfil the research.
A Useless Shopping Trip
This afternoon, I decided to go shopping to get some clothes from my holiday next week. I took the Overground to Stratford and walked into Eastfield.
It was not the most fulfilling of trips.
For a start, when I walked in, I thought I might like a tea or a cappuccino. Before the Olympics, I used to get this in the Starbucks by the station entrance, but since the Games, I’ve avoided it, as it only sells drinks in cardboard cups. These are for takeaways, not sitting in.
I then walked through to John Lewis and thought I’d see if there was a suitable coat. I need one with a large internal pocket on my left breast, that is big enough for my newspaper or my small Samsung Tab 2. Despite the attention of a very personable and professional sales assistant in an hijab, they couldn’t find anything, which fitted my requirements.
So it was on to Marks and Spencer, where I tried to get a second pair of cord trousers like those I was wearing. Despite having bought them only last week, I was again unlucky, as that style wasn’t stocked at Eastfield.
So I then retreated back to the Overground and came home.
That was a very unproductive shopping trip. I’ll try again in Oxford Street tomorrow. I should find the trousers, as they had quite a few pairs last week, there are a couple of Carluccio’s for some tea or coffee, but I doubt I’ll find the coat, as big pockets are so two years ago.
The Anonymous Widower 