Category: Fourre-tout

If my memory serves me well (it is not always the case), the game of pétanque was born in the South of France, where the temperature is usually mild, and where people play in light, comfortable garments.

But yesterday, in Marin County this is not what happened. It was cold and windy for most of the day, and despite my five layers of clothing I still felt ill at ease. This @#^$** weather didn’t prevent players from all over the Bay Area to attend, but for me personally, it was definitely not my cup of tea.

Still, 16 teams (48 players) showed up, eager to compete and pocket vast amounts of cash. I was supposed to team up with my friends Francois and Serge, but at the very last minute, due to acute shoulder pain, Serge (Tamalou) Hanne had to opt out of the game. Bleys Rose gracefully accepted to take his place and we were grateful for this, but being somewhat superstitious, I have always been averse to last-minute changes.

Despite this contretemps, we did fairly well and won 2 out of 3 games in the morning. But in the afternoon (having been selected to play in the Concours) we were quickly booted out of the tournament.

Even though nobody likes to lose, I was not greatly affected by this development. To me, pétanque and photography always go hand in hand. With the help of Sneaky Pete II, I devoted the rest of the afternoon to trying to capture interesting pictures. Pay close attention by the way to the electric pole and the woodpecker…

As usual, in this sort of tournament, you have a blend of heavyweight and light players, and soon or later, skills and experience will prevail. Yesterday, it became obvious very early that one team did not come all the way from Fresno to return empty-handed.

In the Concours Finals, By Vang, Kham Chounlamany, and Janice Bissonnette faced Tom Lee, Brendan Cohen and Tim Wetzel. The Fresno team showed great cohesion and skills, and very soon it was all over. The game ended fairly early by a score of 13/5 in favor of the Fresnans. Congratulations lady and gentlemen!

Concours:

1^st place: By Vang, K. Chounlamany, J. Bissonnette ($171 to team)
2^nd place: Tom Lee, Brendan Cohen, Tim Wetzel ($144 to team)
3^rd place: Ed Porto, Louis Toulon, Wolfie Kurz ($114 to team)

Consolante:

1^st place: P. Moua, Krystal Pulsipher, Tim Peppel ($84 to team)
2^nd place: N. Marcovecchio, N. Semenenko, T. Efron ($57 to team)

Alain

PS: watch the pictures “Full Screen”

« Les loups ont envahi Paris
Soit par Issy, soit par Ivry
Les loups ont envahi Paris
Cessez de rire, charmante Elvire
Les loups ont envahi Paris.
Attirés par l’odeur du sang
Il en vint des mille et des cents
Faire carouss’, liesse et bombance
Dans ce foutu pays de France
Jusqu’à c’que les hommes aient retrouvé
L’amour et la fraternité… et alors »

I am sure that you have heard… Wolves have invaded Paris… Thousands of them, as young as 13, are setting Paris (and the rest of the countryside) on fire and chaos.

An obscure incident started this bloody rampage. An underaged teenager of North African descent was stopped by the police for “breaking traffic rules.”

According to the Independent, a British online newspaper, this is the gist of what happened:

“The 17-year-old, identified as Nahel M, was driving a car on Tuesday morning when he was pulled over for breaking traffic rules, prosecutors said. The teenager was too young to hold a full driving license in France.”

Police twice attempted to indicate to the car to pull over and park, but the driver continued driving and the two police pursued the vehicle.

The Mercedes had to stop at a traffic light, at which point the police asked the driver to turn off the engine and exit the vehicle.”

 Instead of complying with police directives, the teenager tried to drive away and was killed by a single shot fired by one of the two officers.

I don’t condone any killing, but such a tragedy could have been avoided. As a general rule, when stopped by the police, don’t argue or fight back. Don’t give them any excuse to use their firearms.

But many offenders attempt to flee, often with tragic consequences. Any killing gives looters and “casseurs” a good excuse to rampage and ransack. Peaceful demonstrations protesting wrongdoing can be understood, but what is the justification for destroying or stealing property? Don’t look too far or too deep… For many rioters, it is a good occasion to stock up on cheap Christmas gifts.

This new wolfpack mentality is setting a very dangerous precedent, abroad as well as in America. Many irate victims of such thievery will forcefully demand the restoration of law and order… and some power-hungry politicos will only be too happy to oblige.

How do you think that Hitler seized power in Germany? With a promise to restore law and order and Make Germany Great Again. Many German citizens were afraid and furious about the “Bolsheviks” and were only too happy to see the Nazis crush them.

Nobody wants to see this kind of tragedy ever again. Don’t break the law and don’t give any extremist any excuse for starting a brutal dictatorship!

Alain

 

I started my long-awaited vacation on Monday, June 19. That evening I met my friend Nina at the SF airport where we enjoyed a light dinner. We then departed San Francisco and flew for about 5 hours to the city of Anchorage.

On our first day, we drove for about 4 hours to visit the Portage Glacier.  We stopped intermittently to walk. Everything was so beautiful that we couldn’t stop taking pictures

On the second day, we visited a sleddog kennel. We met Martin Buser, a three-time winner of the “Iditarod“. This famous race takes place every year on the first weekend of March and attracts participants from all over the world.

In the afternoon we drove to some very high peaks and saw the historical Independence Mine which stopped working in 1951. Unfortunately, I was not able to walk to the little museum to see the history of this mine because there was a lot of snow and ice, and I was a little bit scared to walk.
We then drove to the Matanuska Glacier, and everyone was very excited to walk and touch the ice.

In the evening we stopped in the city of Glenallen, seemingly located at the end of the world. Our hotel was surprisingly nice and comfy.

The next day (after a miserable breakfast) left very early and drove to the port of Valdez. It took us about two hours and a half of a very difficult drive through the mountains to reach that city where a cruise ship was waiting for us.

We took a 6-hour Columbia Glacier Cruise to Wrangell-St Elias National Park and saw one of the largest tidal glaciers in the world. It rained all the time, and it was extremely cold.

After the boat trip, we went to a fish restaurant, which was not very good and very expensive. We were back at the hotel late and very tired.

After a long  3 hours drive, we reached the city of North Pole. We stopped at a very cute shopping mall to buy some souvenirs and visit the Santa Claus House, and then we drove to Fairbanks.

Surprisingly, it happened to be a very nice city with shops, restaurants, and a  nice University campus. We then went to a Moldavian restaurant where we had a very good meal. Great blinchiki and tea.

Our next stop was the wonderful city of Seward. In the morning we took a 6.5-hour cruise along the Alyaskin Bay in 9 Kenai Fjords National Park and had a very good lunch on Fox Island.

It is a very beautiful town with a harbor of the Kenai Fjords, a lot of shops, restaurants, a museum, a library, and some cultural buildings.

The water scenery was spectacular. In the evening we walked around the city, and we were surprised to discover how nice it was.  We also had an excellent fish dinner.

On our last day of the trip, we went to visit the high-elevation Exit Glacier. The weather wasn’t nice, it was drizzling and cold but we still enjoyed walking around the city. We also visited the Sea World Center.

On the way back, we stopped at the Conservation Center to watch the fauna of Alaska. We then drove to the Alyeska ski resort, where we rode the gondola to the top of the ski station. Brrrrr, scary…

I also want to acknowledge our tour guide.  He was extremely knowledgeable and sincerely cared for every person in our group.  I also want to mention that we had the same experienced bus driver for our entire trip.

Altogether, it was a wonderful adventure and a pleasure to explore Alaska, one of the most beautiful states in America.

Tamara

PS: be sure to watch pictures of our trip