YES!!! The "I'm so happy" thread. 2009

[David Shaw]

Did I just hear 'luck o' the Irish'? Good match, Micheal and a deserved win.

[Maggi Young]

Maggi, I won't mention the Rugby, ok 

Very thoughtful of you, Michael    Even worse than getting beaten, the television was
playing silly beggars and when I went at half time to check, the bloomin' machine wasn't recording it!   And what was the last thing the Bulb Despot said before he left for America? " Don't forget to record the Rugby."

I don't know what is wrong with the TV, it was telling me the channel was unavailable, did the same the other night when I was tryingto watch/record Gardeners' World.  This is not making me happy.... but  cannot grudge the Irish team and fans  their moments of glory!  
Ian's elder sister and her husband is in Edinburgh with a bunch of chums from Aberdeen and their gang of pals from Ireland,  all enjoying their weekend... th'ey'll have a great party tonight!  

[Anthony Darby]

That's the amazing thing about rugby. No matter the result, fans on both sides can enjoy pre-match, intra-match and post-match camaraderie. None of this 'hate the opposition' nonsense. Yesterday I was listening to Radio 5 Live and they were discussing Jesse Owens and his attempts at winning the 'broad jump' in the 1936 Olympic games in Munich. His first two jumps were fouls. A German competitor came up to him and said to Jesse that he was clearly a good jumper, but he was hitting the line. He offered advice, which resulted in his first gold medal. The German competitor came up to him and put his arm round his shoulder to congratulate him. That is sportsmanship. Another anecdote was about Joe Louis and Max Schmelling, but you can Google that for yourselves.

[Michael J Campbell]

Anthony,we have the same here with Gaelic football and hurling matches,80,000 people in Croak Park and all the supports mixed, no problems, and they all go and celebrate together after the match. While a soccer match with five thousand supporters requires the same amount of cops to police as the 80,000,and sometimes leads to running battles on the streets with the cops trying to keep them apart.

It always amazes me as to why some people cannot enjoy their sport, but want to turn it into some kind of war.   

[Lesley Cox]

One thing I appreciated last night when NZ played India in a one day game in Auckland (talking cricket here) the Indian crowd of whom there were thousands, were equally generous with their applause of good strokes from the kiwis as they had been from their own team. For the record, India had already won the series 3-0 in matches that were all affected by rain, a 4th washed out altogether. NZ managed this last one, quite well in fact.

[Lesley Cox]

Oh Lesley, you forgot the Australians who prefer wine.

My sister ( in Oz) sent me this link today, it will help people learn to speak with a New Zillund accent 

http://docs.google.com/gview?a=v&attid=0.1&thid=11ffffc2b1763428&mt=application%2Fpdf

I don't have any special love for the NZ accent but the one in this link was entirely - and agressively - ...American!

[Carol Shaw]

One of the things keeping David happy these days
http://www.growsonyou.com/bulbaholic/profile

[maggiepie]

Lesley, I am sorry if I have offended you, it wasn't my intent.
I find a lot of Australian accents awful, yet most people I meet here in Canada think my accent is fantastic, I reply, what accent!!
I spent 8 months in the North of England in 1980 and didn't hear an Oz accent during that time, when we got to Heathrow there were a bunch of Aussies coming home from the Olympics and I couldn't believe my ears when I heard them talking.
During that 8 months I spent in England, I couldn't believe that people in the next village had a totally different accent to the people in our village.

[Anthony Darby]

During that 8 months I spent in England, I couldn't believe that people in the next village had a totally different accent to the people in our village.

I find it funny when people talk about 'the Scottish accent'. Just like in England, and elsewhere, there are hundreds of different 'accents' in Scotland.

[Carol Shaw]

During that 8 months I spent in England, I couldn't believe that people in the next village had a totally different accent to the people in our village.

When our son first went to school (skweel) in rural Aberdeenshire the children were taught for at least the first year in the Doric [a local dialect] because the children of the agricultural workers [ferm toon] only spoke in the Doric. Adrian had no problem in speaking in both languages and does so to this day
The Doric is a recognised language, then there are the local dialects... most folk can't understand Ronnie Loveland - even those who live in Inverness!

There is currently an on-going discussion on the Highland Council's decision to make all road signs throughout the region bi-lingual (Gaelic/English and YES Gaelic first!) now given that somewhere like Nairn or Grantown-on-Spey has no history of speaking the gaelic this is seriously odd! Seems it is also causing road accidents as, tourists in particular, stop to try and read what the road sign is actually saying 

[Anthony Darby]

A bit like the bilingual road signs (English and French) in Canada. Only Quebeck is French. Tail wagging the dog methinks? Correct me if I'm wrong.

[maggiepie]

A bit like the bilingual road signs (English and French) in Canada

Anthony, New  Brunswick is the only 'official'  bilingual province in Canada.
Officially bilingual just means duplication in both languages, you would think ( at least I did) it would mean that kids starting school would learn both languages.
Not so, they just have french schools and english schools and immersion classes later on for those who want them.

[Lesley Cox]

Helen you didn't offend me, far from it. I'm just having my usual little dig at those - from every country - who mangle the language. Believe me, if any Australian thinks the kiwi accent is 'orrible, I totally agree. Years ago when I went to England, the English accused me of being Australian. Then when I went to Australia I was accused of being English. In both cases it really was an accusation. We (all) down under, sound dreadful to those from the more cultured north.

[Anthony Darby]

This brings to mind the classic episode of 'Only Fools and Horses', when they went to Florida. The locals thought Del and Rodney were Australians.

[Roma]

Phew!!  Caught up at last.  Two days without internet and all those new postings to read!  Our neighbours across the road had a noise on their phone line.  One BT engineer worked at the junction box (it's only a few inches below ground in the grass verge at the roadside) most of Friday afternoon and even after dark.  Another was there on Saturday afternoon.  I had made a phonecall about midday on Saturday and the phone was OK.  We were out on Saturday night and came home late but I had to have my forum fix before going to bed.  Very frustrating to find no internet connection and a dead phoneline. A phonecall to BT on Sunday could not promise help before Tuesday but an engineer arived this afternoon and fixed the problem so I am very happy to be back on line tonight and catching up with the forum.