June 8, 2014

So, how was it yesterday?
I will sum it up in one word: HOT!
It was f*****g hot! Hacía mucho calor my friends!

The mercury rose to 90 degrees and if it would not have been for our trees, only mad dogs, Englishmen and Sonomans would have ventured on the field.
IMG_4258In Marin, we entertain a love/hate relationship with our trees, something a little similar to the love story I once had with a cat.
Antoine was a splendid feline that I loved dearly, but unfortunately he shed faster than a Vegas stripper. I constantly had to clean after him.

Same thing with our trees. They also shed a lot and we continuously have to sweep under them. But we love them, especially when it gets unbearably hot.

The weather bureau had predicted this turn of events and I tried to prepare for it. Instead of donning my habitual long pants (and to the surprise of many) I exceptionally wore shorts and laid my legs bare.
I think that I heard a few gasps in the crowd but I ignored them.

I also elected not to play in the tournament. Everybody knows how good I am and I had nothing to prove. So I devoted myself exclusively to taking pictures of our jocks in action.

But back to the main event.
The following hearty souls signed up to play in the tournament:

  1. Steve Jones/Christine Jones/Jean-Claude Mallan
  2. Blaise West/Sabine Mattei/Monique Mallan
  3. Henry Wessel/Liliane Sebban/Colette Van Der Meulen
  4. Charlie Davantes/Tamara Efron/Minette Etallaz
  5. Louis Toulon/Francois Moser/Eva Lofaro
  6. Jean-Claude Etallaz/Claudie Chourre/Calvert Barron
  7. Ken Lee/Jean-Claude Bunand/Susan Hobbart
  8. Wright Kunkle/Jean-Michel Poulnot/Heidi Rytter
  9. Frosty Sabo/Mireille Di Maio/Sally Kunkle
  10. Bernard Passmar/Verena Rytter/John Morrisson
  11. Steve Van Vieck/David Stallwood/Alex Craft

Before playing though, everybody partook in a picnic prepared by the following people:

In the brass section, Alain Marchand, Antoine Lofaro and Jean-Claude Etallaz shopped for the food and prepared the steaks and the beans.
In the string section, Claudie Chourré, Genevieve Etallaz and Mireille Di Maio assembled and handed out the salad, cheese and bread.

I don’t want to forget mentioning the people who also cleaned the field, mainly Mireille and Charlie Davantes who did a tremendous job a few days before the tournament.

The tournament (3 games, mêlée format) started after lunch and ended around 5:00 p.m. By then, I was too pooped to pop and headed home before the finals results were published.

If Verena is kind enough to send me those, I will add them to this report. In the meantime, look at and enjoy the pictures that I took under very difficult conditions.

Ta ta for now!

Alain (la Foudre)

To look at photos of this event and listen to accompanying background music, turn the sound on, and click on the link “My Photos” located on the right side of this page.

http://youtu.be/q1wPhjbqbWs

Good manners

“Civility costs nothing and buys everything.”
Mary Wortley Montague

Pétanque is a pastime, an activity that someone does regularly for enjoyment.
One enjoys a game when taking pleasure in it. But sometimes, due to a bothersome player, one participates in a game without enjoying it.

soupTherefore, like the Soup Nazi of Seinfeld’s fame, I reserve the right to refuse serving soup, or playing pétanque with anyone.

Being a club member doesn’t give anybody any special privilege. It just gives you the opportunity to interact with other club members.

It is an individual’s attitude, on and off the field, that will dictate if this person will be readily invited to join a casual game or not.
Arguing and contesting every point makes an individual particularly undesirable.
When disagreeing, there are civilized ways to settle an argument, and being belligerent is not one of them.

Winning a game can also turn into a pyrrhic victory. A victory won at too great a cost to be worthwhile.
You might win a game, but permanently alienate the other players.

In life (or in pétanque) one needs to be generous, magnanimous.
If you win gracefully, people will admire you. If you win unpleasantly people will resent you.

“Good manners: the noise you don’t make when eating soup”.
Bennett Cerf

Equally good manners:
The noise you don’t make when playing pétanque.

Moral of the story:
If you want to be accepted, be mellow.
Before, during and after.

That’s the way I see it.

Alain

Double fault

July 1971There was a time when tennis was for me an all-encompassing passion.
I would eat, breathe and play tennis almost every evening on the foggy Marina Tennis courts in San Francisco.
I would also naturally compete on weekends.

I don’t play the game anymore, but tennis remains one of the few sports that I can bear to view on TV.

A few days ago I watched Maria Sharapova play against a young Spanish woman named Garbine Muguruza in the quarterfinals of the French Open.

By the way, I love those four syllables names. They roll off the tongue in a delicious sounding manner and I find them much classier than those poor two or three syllables patronyms.
Let’s be frank, Sha-ra-po-va sounds much better than Du-pont.

The French TV commentator also loved that name and must have pronounced it at least a hundred times during the match. He only referred to Muguruza as the “Young Spaniard”.

Sharapova lost the first set 1-6 but armed  with a steely determination she rallied and finally defeated the young Spaniard 7-5, 6-1.

Being a keen observer of human nature, I took a few notes and here is what I noticed:

– Screaming while hitting the ball greatly helps your shots.
– Wearing a visor style cap (or a bandana) instead of a regular cap is the way to go. Carrying tennis balls in knickers is very practical.
-Bouncing the ball at least six times before serving helps to concentrate.
-Munching on a piece of banana between sets looks like the thing to do.

I always try to apply everything I learn to the game of pétanque.
After all, both sports are very similar. They both use balls that are roughly of the same size and they both require the same athletic ability.

So in the next pétanque tournament, I will slightly modify my look and approach to the game.

First of all, to aerate my skull, instead of my beloved “casquette” I will wear a visor style cap. It might not help my game, but it will definitely cool the top of my head.
I will carry my spare “boules” in my knickers.
Regrettably I won’t be able to bounce my balls before shooting but I know that this would have helped.
When shooting, I will scream like a banshee.
And finally, between games, instead of an enchilada, I will chew on a piece of banana .

My philosophy has always been “don’t be afraid to innovate”.
If the above-mentioned moves work for the champs, I don’t see any reason why it would not work for me.

Alain

PS: To see a picture full size, click on it.