Celebration

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Sporting life – 1

September 12, 2021 in Flotsam and Jetsam | Permalink

The Girl and I watched the other day the extraordinary denouement of the US Open women’s tennis championship from Flushing Meadows, New York.

In the unlikely eventuality that any gentle reader might somehow have remained unaware of the details of this unprecedented match – here they are:

The final was between two teenagers – nineteen year old Canadian Leylah Fernandez and eighteen year old Brit Emma Raducanu.
Neither girl had been seeded and both had had remarkable and unexpected runs to the final.
The winner – Emma Raducanu – is the youngest Briton to win a Grand Slam title.
She is also the first British winner of the women’s US Open since Virginia Wade (who was in the crowd) won at Flushing Meadows back in 1968.
Ms Raducanu is the first woman or man ever to win a Grand Slam title having started as a qualifier.
She is the youngest Slam winner since Maria Sharapova in 2004 and the first woman to win without dropping a set since Serena Williams in 2014.
Both young ladies appeared to be supremely self-assured and nerveless throughout. Oh to be so at any age – let alone when still in one’s teens.

The Girl had, naturally, been rooting for Leylah Fernandez and the knowledge that Emma Raducanu was actually born in Toronto and moved with her parents to the UK when she was two years old didn’t really help much. For both Brits and Canadians, however, the current plethora of sporting talent on show from both nations is extremely pleasing and its like has not been seen since eons passed.

Hearty congratulations to both youngsters – but in particular to Ms Raducanu who, in addition to becoming US Open champion, earned herself two good passes in her A Levels a couple of months back (goodness knows how she found the time!). It think it is fair to say that neither of the girl’s lives will be the same again.

Writing about this event reminds me that I have not posted anything at all to this journal on the subject of sport for some considerable time – the which is all the more peculiar given that there has been a fair bit of it on offer this summer.

I feel that a brief catch-up and explanation is due and promise same for the very next posting (or one shortly thereafter should other ‘stuff’ intervene).

Tags: Britain, Canada, Celebration, Sport

A game of two halves

June 26, 2021 in Flotsam and Jetsam | Permalink

Well, it was originally my intention – just a few days back – that this post would go in one direction – but in the light of subsequent events it has had added to it another, unexpected, twist…

…which, given that even the original subject was going to be somewhat out of character for me, is even more of a surprise.

Let me explain…

It is the time of year that many sporting competitions across different parts of the globe reach their climax. As the intensity and excitement increases, unforeseen and daring deeds are done – giants are slain – and underdogs unexpectedly have their day.

This post was to have been just about the Montreal Canadienes – ‘Les Habs’, who – wonder of wonders – have made it through to the finals of the Stanley Cup. Hoorah!

Canadians – being already very familiar with all of these details – can just skip ahead, but for everyone else… the subject is Hockey (or, as we call it in the UK – ‘Ice Hockey’).

Now – hockey is to Canada what Rugby is to the All Blacks (and what footie is to the English!). Domestic Canadian hockey has a long and tortuous history leading to the eventual hegemony of the National Hockey League (the NHL) which took over the Stanley Cup as the major trophy to be competed for by the winners of the two league conferences – East and West.

The ten sides that made up the league in 1926 were whittled back to six as a result of the Great Depression and the outbreak of World War II and this remained the full complement until 1967, when the NHL entered what is now called the Expansion Era. This extended time of change left the league with its current thirty one sides – far more than Canada can support, with the great majority of the teams being spread across the US.

The problem with this, of course, is that – as in all things – the Americans pumped money into the sport and the centre of gravity shifted south from Canada into the US. As a result Stanley Cup finalists nowadays tend both to hail from the US (though some were originally Canadian sides that moved south). The last time that a Canadian team featured was in 2011 – when the Vancouver Canucks lost to the Boston Bruins – and the last time that the Canadienes made the final was all the way back in 1993.

So – when ‘Les Habs’ won their playoff series against the Las Vegas Knights a few days back there was great celebration throughout the land. The final – over seven matches – starts on Monday!

With my having little (no!) interest in the footie (Euro 2021 continues, I believe) and with Bath failing to feature in the playoffs for the UK Rugby Premiership (by a considerable margin!) the Canadienes suddenly seemed to be the major sporting interest chez nous. Our attention was attracted, however, by the club that finished fourth in the Premiership – Harlequins. Given that the fourth club gets an away playoff fixture to the leaders (the mightily impressive Bristol) it didn’t look a though the Quins had much chance, particularly when they went 28-0 down shortly before half time.

Quins have, however, been making something of a specialty this season of Lazarus like resurrections and they came back in extra time to win 36-43. It was an astonishing game all ways round.

The final was today at Twickenham against Exeter – a side who have featured in the final in each of the last six years – winning on three of those occasions. Surely the Quins could not produce another miracle game.

Well – they did! – coming from 31-26 down with fourteen minutes left to win 38-40. Wow! These guys do not know when they are beaten.

So – long story short – congratulations to the Harlequins – and ‘Go Canadienes!’…

Tags: Celebration, hockey, Rugby, Sport

Product placement

June 24, 2021 in Life as we know it | Permalink

With regard to the recent strand upon these pages concerning my health issues – here and here – I have in the last few days been in receipt of good news. Having once again been relieved of a goodly measure of my precious blood (analysis for the purposes thereof) my nutrition doctor has declared that my liver enzymes are now firing as they should. I don’t suppose enzymes do ‘fire’, of course, but as the writer and proprietor of this online journal I get to play with language (meaning and metaphor) as I please!

This does not mean that the fattiness with which my liver has been flirting is necessarily all gone – as yet. That apparently takes time and would require another ultrasound to determine for sure, but the good doctor is sufficiently content that he has now parked me in ‘maintenance’ mode and doesn’t even want to look further at my blood for the next half year. “Yay!” – say I to that!

Even the nutritionist herself (not the doc – the other one!) announced proudly that I had excellent levels of Vitamin D (not sure what that has to do with anything) and asked if was taking a supplement. The cheek!…

The point is that my shiny new diet has clearly not only dropped me a couple of trouser sizes and taken me back to the weight of a much younger version of myself, but it must also be doing the job of restoring my internals to the shape in which they should be (sort of squidgy, since you ask)…

Now – I am not normally one to endorse products upon these pages but – in the manner of a good award winner (which is what I feel like) – there are just a few ‘people’ that I would like to thank.

I have admitted previously to my habitual taking of a single drink each night to accompany my repast – the which I have done since I left home back in the 70s. This was always something of a indulgence but the point was to give myself a little reward for getting through another (hopefully) fruitful day. To be able to willingly give this up I needed some alternative that actually felt like a treat. Water is all very well but is, in my book, for exercise – and that ain’t a treat!

So – here is my new nightly beverage of choice – the very wonderful range of Zevia Iced Teas. No sugar – zero calorie and (should you so require) caffeine-free to boot.

What is more – they are delicious!

Not cheap…

…but delicious…

At the other end of the meal I still need something sweet. Many such lovely things are now ruled out – but how about a little… chocolate?…

“Surely not” – I hear you cry – but worry not, for this is no ordinary chocolate. This is Lily’s ‘no sugar added’ chocolate – and it is yummy!

It is sweetened with Stevia (of which I am a huge fan) which has apparently no downsides (unlike sweeteners ending in ‘ose‘ and suchlike). Some folk gripe about the aftertaste. All I can say is that Lily’s seem to have cracked the Stevia thing in this case – this one, for example, having only an aftertaste of salted caramel.

Yummy, indeed!

Not cheap…

…but yummy…

Finally – there are snacks. You know – late night munchies! Nothing that a thick slice of toasted sourdough and marmalade wouldn’t fix – or maybe a nice strawberry jam sandwich. Hmmmm!

So for those occasions – there is Fatso!

I have, as it happens, never been a fan of nut butters. They just don’t quite do it for me; something to do with the texture, mayhap.

But Fatso… A range of low-carb, low-sugar nut butters made with plant-based fats… right here in Victoria!… These things are awesome – and quite addictive. A nice big dollop of Crunchy Salted Caramel (or Maple) Peanut (or Almond) butter on top of a couple of Walker’s Oat Cakes (“They’re delicious!”)…

TDF!

Not cheap…

…but TDF!

There now – dieting’s not so bad…

Tags: Celebration, food and drink, Health, Medical

Nostalgia…

March 27, 2021 in Flotsam and Jetsam | Permalink

…as they say… ain’t what it used ter be!

Or… maybe, actually, it is!

Now – my last post offered you more nostalgia to come – and come it will, but events have conspired (as they so often do) to disrupt our good intentions and in this case to cause a slight nostalgia hiatus…

…though – actually – this substitute post also in some ways concerns that very same subject.

”Enough with the cryptic references already!” – I hear you cry.

Fair enough. On with the show…

It seems but a few short weeks back that I was celebrating the fact that the Scots had just defeated the English at Twickenham in the first round of this year’s Six Nations Championship. This was a feat that they had not achieved for some thirty eight years and was thus cause for considerable jubilation.

My next post on the subject of Scottish rugby was a great deal less cheery and documented the sad loss at home by but a single point to Wales – and the further miserable loss, also at home, by a mere three points to the Irish. That post was titled ‘Same Old, Same Old‘ with good reason. In that post I also mentioned the postponed Scotland/France game – as a result of the French frankly playing fast and loose with the COVID lock-down guidelines.

On what should have been the final weekend of the tournament last weekend I could not raise the enthusiasm to discuss the Scots beating the Italians by a handsome margin (because that is what everybody else had done as well) and nor did I refer (drawing, in fact, a discreet veil over the matter) to the English losing to Ireland and thus ending the tournament in fifth place. The Welsh failed to beat the French in Paris and thus did not win a Grand Slam, but the outcome of the chamionship was left hanging: if France could beat the Scots in their rescheduled encounter (which took place today) by a certain amount they and not the Welsh would win the title.

OK – to cut a long story short – not only did the French fail to reach the necessary target but the Scots matched them throughout the game and – courtesy of a little unnecessary French generosity at the end – sneaked the win, 27 – 23. This was the first time that Scotland had beaten France in Paris since they famously did so in 1999 – the last year of the Five Nations before it became six.

Not only does this mean that Wales did eventually take the title (congrats!) but also the Scots have now within the last year broken their hoodoo on winning away games – and have beaten the Welsh (last autumn), the English and the French on their respective home soils.

Now that is cause for celebration (particularly if you are a Scot)!

Slàinte mhat!

Tags: Celebration, Rugby, Scotland, Six Nations

“Feminism isn’t about making women strong. Women are already strong. It’s about changing the way the world perceives that strength.”

G.D. Anderson

March the 8th is International Women’s Day!

The Kickass Canada Girl – though certainly by far the ‘kickass-iest’ that I have met – is certainly not the only lady to whom the epithet might be applied (with appropriate permission of course). As an irreflective member of another gender I would just like to say a heartfelt “Thank you” to The Girl and to all other women who by their indefatigable efforts help to make the world a better place.

I hope that you have a good and productive day.

March 8, 2021 | No comments

Free to air

February 11, 2021 in Life as we know it | Permalink

I promised that I would cover a second sporting matter in addition to the encomium regarding Scotland’s excellent Six Nations achievement of last weekend that featured so prominently in my last post… and as I am (where possible) a man of my word – here it is…

When The Girl and I first became what is charmingly called ‘an item’ some decade and a half ago, one of the many things to which I determined to introduce her – as a means of binding our futures more closely together through mutual understanding and appreciation – was the supreme sport of cricket. Long time readers of these meanderings will be well aware of my enduring love for the game – as well as my complete mediocrity as a practitioner thereof.

I will not impose on the gentle reader at this point either an attempt to explain the game’s mysterious appeal, nor to exhaustive catalog our history with its regard. I will mention – however – the now legendary 2005 Ashes series between England and Australia… that being the year that England finally regained the Ashes after nearly two barren decades of trying. They did so – further – against one of the greatest of all Aussie sides.

Clearly this outstanding achievement – which was played out over five gripping five day test matches – was the perfect opportunity to introduce The Girl to the delights of the game. This was made all the more easy by the fact that – in those days – test cricket in the UK was given routine live coverage – for the whole of every one of those twenty five days – by the BBC. We would arrive home from work, switch on the TV and be immediately gripped by the sheer drama with which those encounters were completed. The Girl – who is a huge sports fan anyway – became a convert.

The timing was fortuitous, for the very next year the England Cricket Board (ECB) – in grevious pursuit of filthy lucre – sold it’s soul to the rebarbative Murdoch and the broadcast rights to Sky TV. Live coverage of international cricket disappeared from television over night for those unwilling to render their shilling to the appalling antipodean.

This state of affairs has remained the case ever since. Shockingly live coverage of the English national game cannot be seen on free-to-air TV by the youngsters who might some day play a part in its future.

Or at least – that was the case until this year. Finally, Sky grew tired of featuring the game and Channel 4 picked up – at the last moment – the broadcasting rights for England’s winter series in India. As things have only been put in place at the very last minute it all looks a little low-tech, but we can once again follow every ball in time-honoured fashion (even here in Canada).

Delightfully, the England team responded brilliantly to this development in the first test (which finished earlier this week) by playing a blinder and beating India in India for the first time in yonks. India are one of the very top sides and at home (this being a country that regards the game almost as a religion) they are virtually unbeatable.

Well done England!

Tags: Celebration, Cricket, England, Sport

Good sports

February 7, 2021 in Life as we know it | Permalink

“The only way to prove that you’re a good sport is to lose”.

Ernie Banks

I changed my mind several times as to the form that this post should take.

The early 1980s are relevant both to the immediate topic and to something else on which I intend shortly to write – the current Channel 4 TV mini-series – “It’s a Sin“. It rapidly became apparent, however, that trying to link these particular two topics together would simply not work – diminishing them both.

Concerned that I have English readers and that I do not wish to offend any of them (unnecessarily!) I could have chosen to tie my main topic in with another related sporting matter – thus giving everyone something to cheer about.

In the end, however, I decided – “What the heck!“. I should leave all other topics for further posts and just go for it! To that end… English readers of a sensitive disposition may wish to look away now:

Yesterday saw the start of the 2021 Rugby Six Nations Championship. The second fixture of the day (once the French had dealt harshly with the ever eager Italians) was the Calcutta Cup fixture between England and Scotland at the home of Rugby – Twickenham.

And here is where the 1980s come into things; the last time that the Scots beat the English at Twickenham was in 1983 (the year that the US invaded Grenada, the year that Thatcher was first re-elected Prime Minister in the UK, the year that BC Place was opened in Vancouver, the year that McDonalds invented the McNugget!) – thirty eight long years ago!

Two years ago they came close in what proved an extraordinary game – the English leading at one point in the first half by 31 – 0 before the Scots scored 38 unanswered points to lead the match with five minutes to go. The English finally woke up and squeezed out a converted try to tie the game.

This time was a much more straightforward affair in some ways, though perhaps no less astonishing in terms of the way the contest played out. The Scots might consider themselves a little unfortunate to have finally broken their hoodoo and won a famous victory by a mere 11 points to 6, particularly given that the game was actually pretty one-sided in almost every respect. Scotland had 65% of the possession, 70% of the territory, made 11 clean breaks to England’s 0 and missed only 11 tackles to England’s 29.

Yes – the Scots probably should have won by a wider margin and indeed they left a number of points out on the field because their goal kicking was below par. This was, nonetheless, a famous and wonderful victory and – given that this year the Scots have three home fixtures still to come – they really ought to be able to do something a little special in the remainder of the tournament.

Well… special in terms of their recent record in any case.

Come on you Scots!

Tags: Celebration, England, Rugby, Scotland, Six Nations

Accentuate the positive

January 24, 2021 in Life in BC | Permalink

You’ve got to accentuate the positive
Eliminate the negative
Latch on to the affirmative
Don’t mess with Mister In-Between

Bing Crosby and the Andrews Sisters
Songwriters: Johnny Mercer / Harold Arlen

The Girl was talking on the phone this morning to a dear friend (the same dear friend who lived with us for a while last year and now resides in Vancouver). As do many such conversations in these days much of the talk concerned the vicissitudes and restrictions of life under lock-down.

This is hardly surprising given the circumstances.

The Girl did – however – perhaps for the first time since this whole thing began (and I am referring here solely to the pandemic) venture the opinion that there was finally some light at the end of the tunnel (and that it was not an approaching… yada, yada, yada… hopefully the gentle reader will already have eagerly consumed this recent post!).

The point is that – to the ‘reasons to be cheerful’ outlined in that post can now be added another and perhaps even more important one – the Government of British Columbia has revealed its COVID-19 Immunization Plan.

Hoorah! Hoorah! and thrice… Hoorah!

If nothing else this finally gives a rough shape to how the pandemic will be rolled back and normal life given a chance to commence its revival. This is the broad sweep of things:

…and this is the phase into which we both fall:

Phase 3

Timeline: April to June 2021

People aged 79 to 60, in five year increments:
- 79 to 75 (D1 April, D2 May)
- 74 to 70 (D1 April/May, D2 May/June)
- 69 to 65 (D1 May/June, D2 June/July)
- 64 to 60 (D1 June, D2 July)

Now – this means that if all goes well we will have been fully immunized by the end of July. Further it perhaps means that by the time the nights start drawing in and it becomes infeasible to socialise in the open air – we might actually be able to do so once again in the old-fashioned way – indoors and round the dining table…

…and that is bloomin’ good news and reason enough to celebrate (safely)!

Tags: Celebration, COVID-19, Health, vaccine

The excellent gift

January 11, 2021 in Flotsam and Jetsam | Permalink

“The excellence of a gift lies in its appropriateness rather than in its value”.

Charles Dudley Warner

Even those gentle readers who have been following these jottings since the get-go would be forgiven for not recalling the various pieces that I posted way back in 2012 concerning my search for – and subsequent purchase of – my first serious(ish) camera – the much appreciated little Fuji x10. This diminutive camera is getting a bit long in the tooth these days and – though I still use it regularly – it has on many occasions been usurped by the sheer convenience of the camera on whatever is my current cell phone. The choice has, of course, been hugely facilitated by the frankly amazing improvements in such phone cameras over the last decade.

I have, however, from time to time mulled over the prospect of upgrading to a better camera – not least on the several occasions during this last year on which The Girl asked me if I had ever contemplated so doing.

“Certainly…” – I reassured her – “but it isn’t something that is on my personal radar at the moment“. Too many other things on which to focus.

The Girl – however – just loves to surprise me, particularly when she can do so to spectacularly dramatic effect. We had mutually agreed this year that our Christmas gift giving to each other would be restrained to the point of being positively abstemious. The impact was all the greater then – when after the expected exchange had been apparently completed – she completely stunned me by presenting me with a beautiful, shiny new camera.

Ladies and gentlemen – the Olympus OM-D E-M5 mk ii – complete with an Olympus 14-150mm telephoto lens!

For those interested in such things the OM-D E-M5 is a Micro Four Thirds compact mirror-less interchangeable lens camera. It has many of the features of a full DSLR but is smaller and lighter and considerably easier to carry when traveling. From my point of view it has the great benefit of having an electronic viewfinder (I wrote in my original postings on the x10 about my preference for the old-fashioned way of framing images).

The excellence of this gift does indeed lie in its appropriateness and The Girl – being who she is (excellent herself!) – does not do things by halves. She had spent a full three days online researching suitable cameras for me before venturing out to consult several of Victoria’s oldest established photographic outlets. Having finally found an ‘expert’ (hooray!) whose opinion she felt she could trust she made her decision – based on the sort of images that she knows I like to take.

Let us look a little more closely at those two images at the top of this post (you may wish to click on them to get the full effect):

These snaps of Mount Baker were taken from the same spot on our deck. The first I posted in the fall of last year. It was taken on full zoom and then cropped out of the resultant image – thus being enlarged further but with concomitant loss of detail. The second is the compete image – taken on the OM-D – at about 90% zoom.

I think that – considering the scale of the land in which we live – the gentle reader will be able easily to discern the benefits of having access to such a splendid device… once I have finished learning how to use it, of course!

Kudos to The Girl for having – as the aphorism goes – “knocked it out of the park!“.

Tags: Camera, Celebration, Christmas, Fuji x10, OM-D e-M5, Photo

It’s Christmas, Jim…

December 25, 2020 in Life as we know it | Permalink

…but not as we know it!

(Parodying a line that was never actually in Star Trek!)

There is no getting away from the fact that this is a Christmas unlike any that we have known. In fact, unless one is old enough to remember the Second World War it is highly unlikely that such a level of disruption to the normal cycle of celebration will have been experienced before. None the less, we will persevere – because that is what we do. And come next year – when much has returned to a state considerably closer to the ‘old normal’ – we may find it difficult to recall just how weird this one was.

In the meantime…

…to friends, acquaintances and gentle readers…

…from the Kickass Canada Girl and the Imperceptible Immigrant…

we wish you a safe and peaceful Christmas and a Happy Hogmany!

Sláinte!

Tags: Celebration, Christmas

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Celebration

Sporting life – 1

A game of two halves

Product placement

Nostalgia…

Free to air

Good sports

Accentuate the positive

Phase 3

The excellent gift

It’s Christmas, Jim…

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