Things You learn In The Middle of The Night
I woke early, so got up and made a cup of tea and did a bit of writing, whilst listening to the excellent Doton Adebayo on Radio 5.
At one point he was talking to a Canadian journalist, who said that due to cutbacks, the Commonwealth Games are not being shown on Canadian television. All they are getting is the odd highlights.
Canada Bans Marmite
I have some sympathy for the Canadians about this story on the BBC, as I can’t stand the stuff. C, on the other hand, was an addict, and I miss taking her, her morning cup of hot Marmite every day.
Is this discrimination against the British, as there is nothing in the article about banning the similar product from Australia; Vegemite? But according to Wikipedia, Vegemite is also banned.
Kings Cross Square Welcomed In Vancouver
This report about the opening of Kings Cross Square appeared in The Province.
But then George Vancouver would these days take a train from Kings Cross to get to his birthplace at Kings Lynn.
An Acadian Hero
Lyse Doucet is one of my favourite broadcasters and in some ways a bit of a hero, as she seems so unfazed of all the horrors she has faced, just being the total professional.
Like many I suppose, I’d always assumed she was from Quebec, due to her French name and her accent. But she is actually an Acadian, a group, who I knew little of until I looked Lyse up last night. Wikipedia says this.
Although today most of the Acadians and Québécois are French speaking (francophone) Canadians, Acadia was a distinct colony of New France, and was geographically and administratively separate from the French colony of Canada (modern day Quebec), which led to Acadians and Québécois developing two rather distinct histories and cultures.
I first became aware of Lyse, when she was reporting from Iran. In one report for From Our Own Correspondent, she described how the Russian Ambassador at a news conference, had started chatting her up, and was totally surprised, when he found the lady in the burkha was Canadian.
I do find it strange that two of my heroes are called Lyse or Lise. The other is of course Lise Meitner.
Holy Crap
This product got a plug on Have I Got News For You, tonight.
I thought it was a spoof, but if it is, the web site is a masterpiece of misleading information.
It is actually a gluten-free breakfast cereal. The product page is here and I only have one problem with it and that is that it contains cranberries, which are a no-no if you are on Warfarin.
My other problem might be putting on a lumberjack shirt and high heels to eat it.
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.
What Food Lover Would Smuggle American Cheese?
I like cheese and especially a nice good blue one, but why anybody would want to smuggle American cheese, I really don’t know? I suppose it could be a taste crime, like the sort of clothes beloved of golfers.
One question the article provokes in my mind, is does North America have designer cheese-makers? After all why not, as we had none thirty years ago and now they are everywhere.
An Equestrian Double
I took these pictures yesterday outside St. George’s Hall in Liverpool.
The view of the hall would be better, if they didn’t use it as a car park!
I wonder if there is another pair of equestrian statues in the world of a royal husband and wife, where each is treated equally. I don’t think there’s another statue of a lady in such a prominent place, where the lady is riding side-saddle. Certainly, there isn’t in the UK. But there is one of Queen Elizabeth on Burmese in Regina, Saskatchewan. But then Burmese was born in that Canadian province.
I also went over St. George’s Hall for the first time. It is rather a creepy and forbidding place in the cells under the courts, which are no longer used, but the whole is a marvel of Victorian architecture. As it is right in front of the station, it is an ideal place to spend an hour or so before cstching a train. Especially, as it is a free attraction.
A Night At The Athletics
I went to see the athletics at the Olympic Park last night.
It was a gold-less night, but at least others have repaired some of damage Gordon Brown did by selling off our gold reserves too cheaply.
The Park and stadium are magnificent and hopefully will remain so, unlike Athens, Montreal and Moscow, which are the only Olympic stadia, that I’ve visited. One of the lasting memories in my mind, will be the glorious flowers. In Athens, all that’s left is weeds.
In fact this post could be titled something like Trees, Flowers, Water and Steel with a Few Sporting Events Thrown In. Only the British and perhaps the Irish, Dutch, New Zealanders and a few others would say that the legacy for the Games needs to be another park. Especially in a city like London, which is already endowed with many large and magnificent parks.
On the other and there is nothing worse in life, than tending a garden. But that doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy them!
Painted Nails
Many of the female athletes and even the Canadian men, are getting flags painted on their nails.
I hope the British get their Union Flags put on the right way up!
As to the Canadian men, perhaps Monty Python was right!
The Anonymous Widower 