Roofus (a very cute and sweet 4 year old) and I (a very cute and sweet 22 year old) went and did a horse show today*. His first show ever and my first show in Ireland. We did the first two jumping classes, 60 and 70 centimeters, and had 3 clear rounds! They let you do your round twice so we got to trot the first time and then canter. Roofus won a red rosette in the first class and I think probably something in the second class as well but we left mid-class. Roofus was incredibly grown up and brave the whole time, and his canter is so uphill and balanced I felt like I was on an old pro sailing around the course. The ring next door was doing the pony starter class at the same time and I got to see some especially cute ponies and children with moms/dads/ instructors running alongside them as they jumped a whole course of fences.
Off to another event with the other horses tomorrow.
*I know, Roofus should try and be more modest, but he's only 4 and doesn't know any better.
Saturday, 21 August 2010
Friday, 20 August 2010
Words and Things
I went to an event last weekend and my wireless died before I could write about it here. So I have some more gems from the announcer... (I think the same as from the first event):
"I'm sorry about mispronuncing all these names, guess I shouldn't have had that third pint of guiness last night" (He was especially terrible at names)
"I'll try and put on my french teeth to say this name" (he then said the name in an attempt at a french accent)
"The aptly named Anxious Moments going quite quickly to fence 7" (my favorite)
The announcer also commented on the unusual facial hair of some of the men. Interestingly, nearly all of the younger male riders at the event have had long beards. I found out that this is not a new fad that has only struck irish eventers, but because they are extras in a movie, historically based in some sort of past time period, which requires beards. (I'm being purposefully vague because of the top secret confidential nature of the movie and not because my mind may have accidentally drifted slightly as someone explained the movie to me)
"John O'Brien's (not his real name, but I'm sure there was an o'brien at the event so... maybe his real name)over the first two beard intact...and he's not stopping for a shave at the water jump"
My other main source of entertainment is Britain's Best Dish, a cooking show with 3 delightful /brilliant /lovely judges, who are trying to pick britain's best dish for this year. There are starters, main courses, and puddings /desserts / the best part of the show.
I've noticed that every so often amongst the wonderful British accents* there comes a word that is pronounced totally differently.
Margarine turns into marje- er- een as if it were an exotic lady instead of a butter substitute.
And pasta is pronounced more like passta as in pass me the Parmesan, instead of pawsta (Side note, the word Pasta in fact originated in Italy which is nearby to France where basset hounds were invented. Basset Hounds have strikingly large paws. Hence Pawsta)
Oregeno and basil are said differently but just a pinch (sorry couldn't help it. There's only the one though because puns can be dreadfully annoying). the slightly different ring didn't do anything to aid or abate my appetite for the oregeno-full dish, but the pronunciation differences have provided a nice forum for me to use the words aid and abate.
There are lots of other cooking words with altered emphasis, dropped or added endings (fillet for instance is simply fill-it with t intact)etc. I think if I'm ever accused of saying a word incorrectly** I will tell the person it's simply the British translation.
*Except weirdly one girl from Chicago with no delightful accent at all. Weird.
**For instance, did anyone else think "chaos" was pronounced chaw -whoose, like the inverse of achoo (as in the sneeze noise)?
*** Couldn't "Words and Things" be the title of any post? What a useful and versatile discovery.
"I'm sorry about mispronuncing all these names, guess I shouldn't have had that third pint of guiness last night" (He was especially terrible at names)
"I'll try and put on my french teeth to say this name" (he then said the name in an attempt at a french accent)
"The aptly named Anxious Moments going quite quickly to fence 7" (my favorite)
The announcer also commented on the unusual facial hair of some of the men. Interestingly, nearly all of the younger male riders at the event have had long beards. I found out that this is not a new fad that has only struck irish eventers, but because they are extras in a movie, historically based in some sort of past time period, which requires beards. (I'm being purposefully vague because of the top secret confidential nature of the movie and not because my mind may have accidentally drifted slightly as someone explained the movie to me)
"John O'Brien's (not his real name, but I'm sure there was an o'brien at the event so... maybe his real name)over the first two beard intact...and he's not stopping for a shave at the water jump"
My other main source of entertainment is Britain's Best Dish, a cooking show with 3 delightful /brilliant /lovely judges, who are trying to pick britain's best dish for this year. There are starters, main courses, and puddings /desserts / the best part of the show.
I've noticed that every so often amongst the wonderful British accents* there comes a word that is pronounced totally differently.
Margarine turns into marje- er- een as if it were an exotic lady instead of a butter substitute.
And pasta is pronounced more like passta as in pass me the Parmesan, instead of pawsta (Side note, the word Pasta in fact originated in Italy which is nearby to France where basset hounds were invented. Basset Hounds have strikingly large paws. Hence Pawsta)
Oregeno and basil are said differently but just a pinch (sorry couldn't help it. There's only the one though because puns can be dreadfully annoying). the slightly different ring didn't do anything to aid or abate my appetite for the oregeno-full dish, but the pronunciation differences have provided a nice forum for me to use the words aid and abate.
There are lots of other cooking words with altered emphasis, dropped or added endings (fillet for instance is simply fill-it with t intact)etc. I think if I'm ever accused of saying a word incorrectly** I will tell the person it's simply the British translation.
*Except weirdly one girl from Chicago with no delightful accent at all. Weird.
**For instance, did anyone else think "chaos" was pronounced chaw -whoose, like the inverse of achoo (as in the sneeze noise)?
*** Couldn't "Words and Things" be the title of any post? What a useful and versatile discovery.
Sunday, 8 August 2010
Newcastle
Today I took the bus* into Newcastle, a seaside town with a beautiful hotel and lots of cafes and shops. They had a parade today; I'm not sure why but it definitely related to flying. I bought 3 little face masks, mainly because of their individual wrapping and colorful packaging, hopefully they will contribute to a glowing complexion as promised. They have stores like our dollar stores called "Around a Pound" I bought some chocolate biscuits and tanning lotion. Tanning lotion on sale for only 1 Pound may not be a good idea, but I'm going to try it anyway, and if my legs start to look like orangey abstract art at least its too cold to wear shorts.
I'm starting to understand cows in a deeper way I think. In particular, some are sort of cute, especially the tan ones and a few of the black and whites. I'm not really interested in the black ones, but I do like black sheep. I watched a pair of committed but not very talented sheep trying to escape their field by scaling the hedge and wanted to take a picture so I could title it "Hedge Hunters" Unfortunately, I missed the shot but I'm pretty sure I have a picture (of a hedge of course) I can call "hedging your bets." (Comments or attempts to stop my overuse of puns will be grudgingly accepted but probably not effective)
Saw lots of dogs in Newcastle but still no basset hounds :/
* The bus and I are still not entirely on friendly terms, but I'm not ready to talk about it.
I'm starting to understand cows in a deeper way I think. In particular, some are sort of cute, especially the tan ones and a few of the black and whites. I'm not really interested in the black ones, but I do like black sheep. I watched a pair of committed but not very talented sheep trying to escape their field by scaling the hedge and wanted to take a picture so I could title it "Hedge Hunters" Unfortunately, I missed the shot but I'm pretty sure I have a picture (of a hedge of course) I can call "hedging your bets." (Comments or attempts to stop my overuse of puns will be grudgingly accepted but probably not effective)
Saw lots of dogs in Newcastle but still no basset hounds :/
* The bus and I are still not entirely on friendly terms, but I'm not ready to talk about it.
Thursday, 5 August 2010
Drawing Maps and Jumping Foxy
All week Sue and I have been hacking the horses down the roads and I've been trying to learn the different routes. I'm very bad at this, so I've been drawing little maps and looking things up on Google map. This helps but not very much for the private ways we go down... but I think I'm starting to get the hang of it.
Today Eric came back from teaching a clinic in Denmark and I got to jump Foxy in the afternoon. Foxy was very fun to jump and patient while I tried to keep my elbows in and my back not hollow and sometimes do both of those at once. I'm now in my little flat deciding between sponge cake and cookies for pre-dinner while I decide what to make for actual dinner.
Today Eric came back from teaching a clinic in Denmark and I got to jump Foxy in the afternoon. Foxy was very fun to jump and patient while I tried to keep my elbows in and my back not hollow and sometimes do both of those at once. I'm now in my little flat deciding between sponge cake and cookies for pre-dinner while I decide what to make for actual dinner.
Sunday, 1 August 2010
Eventing in Ireland
Today I went to watch my first event. A Sampling of fence names from the xc course map:
The Coffin -normal name, but to really remind you, the ditch actually had a skeleton in it.
Big Flipping Gate
By Golly Thats a Big Jump
The Mad Cow -complete with a large plastic cow under the log
The Hope Jump. Hope you made it this far -I think this was the second to last jump
The announcer was rather colorful as well…
“Dog loose near fence 23. If someone’s missing a jack russel, well that’s barely a dog at all, please fetch it”
“Giving that one a lot of encouragement over fence 7, but it seems to be working so far”
“Mrs…. is off to fence 1, hope she does better than Mr…. Woops I’ve been told I shouldn’t have said that”
“If anyone could lend a hand, perhaps two, and legs and whatever other parts of your anatomy you’d be inclined to offer in the show jumping it would be greatly appreciated”
-Off to Belfast today...hoping bus riding will be better than bike riding
The Coffin -normal name, but to really remind you, the ditch actually had a skeleton in it.
Big Flipping Gate
By Golly Thats a Big Jump
The Mad Cow -complete with a large plastic cow under the log
The Hope Jump. Hope you made it this far -I think this was the second to last jump
The announcer was rather colorful as well…
“Dog loose near fence 23. If someone’s missing a jack russel, well that’s barely a dog at all, please fetch it”
“Giving that one a lot of encouragement over fence 7, but it seems to be working so far”
“Mrs…. is off to fence 1, hope she does better than Mr…. Woops I’ve been told I shouldn’t have said that”
“If anyone could lend a hand, perhaps two, and legs and whatever other parts of your anatomy you’d be inclined to offer in the show jumping it would be greatly appreciated”
-Off to Belfast today...hoping bus riding will be better than bike riding
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