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| Remember when those tomato plants were still tiny? Ah, they all grow up so fast. In other unrelated news from the front - it's raining! Yesterday it was "cold" (and by that I mean temperatures never exceeded 26C, if that) and it's supposed to remain relatively fresh until the end of the weekend. Lovely change, if you ask me. In other other unrelated news not from the front - the Frenchies made it to the quarter finals of the ice hockey world championships for the first time since they started participating in 95, iirc. They playing against Russia in the quarter finals and this time around they have to play against Malking, Ovie, and all of those... their chances of winning? Probably 0.01% but not impossible (in our dreams).   |
December 19 (2)
Dec. 24th, 2013 09:00 am| So hey, a miracle did not happen a second time and France lost against Russia (not even Russia's A team...) and the worst part is that at no point did they even look like they could challenge the Russian for the win. They lacked speed, their passes just wouldn't connect, and actually, overall, only about four or five of them remembered how to play. I guess we can blame it on the fact that Roussel wasn't there, that Meunier was also absent, as was the younger Treille... oh, and well, Bachet is still retired. The worst bit was how the public acted at the end when both a Frenchie and a Russian got a roughing penalty - they threw trash at the penalty box and on the ice! First time in my life I have seen that. A pure disgrace! I don't care if it's a local tradition at football matches, you don't disrespect people and the game, ever. But I guess all that doesn't take away the fact that the tickets to the event sold out before the 19th and that there was a record breaking attendance at the rink. So I guess there is still hope for Marseille and ice hockey! (That said, Marseille's local Division 3 team that kept on winning with hilariously great scores ended up losing the game they played on the 20th... did this friendly game bring in some bad luck to the ice hall?)   ( +3 - more Frenchies ) |
December 19 (1)
Dec. 23rd, 2013 02:44 pmThe apocalypse came last Thursday. And by that I mean that it was raining cats and dogs. But hey, that gave me an excuse to wear my rainboots to a hockey game!   |
May 5th adventures! Part X
Aug. 20th, 2013 01:33 pm This is what it looks like when one misses a shoot out shot. I won't include my photos of Duchene's face when he missed shot after shot… one could only wonder why they kept sending him out when he couldn't find an opening in Gerber's goal. Oh, and I also won't include the pathetic attempt (and consequent fall) that Giroux made. And that's the end of that game. |
May 5th adventures! Part IX
Aug. 20th, 2013 08:00 am| So… let's finish with this Switzerland - Canada game! If you watched the game on the telly, you might have seen me a few times because the camera guy was right in front of us and I was with two other Canadian supporters, right next to a large group of Swiss supporters. And he seemed amused by our "omfg this is not happening why did they have to go and forget how to play hockey right when I'm here watching them" faces. Oh, and at the Globe ice hall, when you buy tickets in the front row, you're not actually by the ice as in most places… nope, there is a good metre or metre and a half of empty space and a large barrier right at eye level if you're sitting, terrible conditions to watch by the ice, if you ask me, so might as well get tickets in the middle rows.  ( +4 - the game itself ) |
May 5th adventures! Part VIII
Aug. 11th, 2013 02:44 pmBack to May 5th! Two or three more posts and that will be it! Courage! That sets the stage - Switzerland vs Canada. I was pretty amazed by the Swiss supporters, there were in town in huge numbers. I asked the Swiss lady who was seated nearby just why there were so many and she said that hockey is one of the very few sports that were quite popular these days in Switzerland, definitely quite a change from the ten French (or so) supporters who flew in to Helsinki! Special kuddos to the dude who wore that Lemieux jersey! Definitely no one else was going to have the same. ( +3 - some more Swiss, some Canadian stuff ) |
May 9th again.
Jun. 29th, 2013 02:44 pmI'm sorry everyone but I'm just getting back to the photos from that part of May that was full of hockey. A few more shots from Russia - France… and for those who might be interested, Intérieur Sport did a 20-minute show about the French NT in Helsinki. I have to say that I agree with what Roussel says towards the end about how, all things considered, one victory against the defending world champions meant nothing because they, the Frenchies not the Russians, were not able to qualify for the quarterfinals. ( +4 - one more warm-ups, two mid-game and one post-game ) |
Back to May 9th!
Jun. 29th, 2013 09:00 am| When I wrote my original entry about France's victory over Russia at the World Championships, it was a few hours after witnessing it and I think a lot of people were full of hope that maybe France would qualify for the quarterfinals afterwards… we all know that they didn't and they played some spectacularly terrible hockey in a few games, but for me being to say that I actually was there when that victory happened, it's still something. Heck, it's like that time I actually was at the Tour de France stage where Voeckler took over for the first time in his career the yellow jersey (it was in Chartres in 2004 and I took the train there from Paris where my sister was taking her post-prépa exams, Stuey had won the stage). Maybe at the time I didn't really give a care about it, I was just happy I had seen Stuey win and I had spotted Matt Wilson and Brad McGee… but now I consider the fact that I had been there at that stage as one of the more awesome things I've had the chance to live through. Enough blabbing though, while going through the photos again I saw that I actually had taken photos of the jumbotron at what I had considered as awesome moments at the time: - "Man, we've managed to hold off Russia for almost the whole first period! That's amazing!"  ( +2 - the rest of the story ) |
Alas another loss.
Jun. 19th, 2013 09:00 amGoing back to May 11 and USA - France! Woohoo! ( +5 - even though goalies are awesome there are some other playes too ) |
May 12 - USA - Germany
Jun. 18th, 2013 02:44 pmHave I already bragged here about my ability to pick out the 4th line, especially when it came to the German team? Because that's pretty much all I had to do during their warm-ups. That and deciding that Ankert's flow is pretty awesome. ( +7 - there is some Team USA in there too and obvs Ankert's flow ) |
Latvia game, cont.
Jun. 16th, 2013 02:44 pmIf you were wondering if the Latvia-France game was popular with the spectators - the answer is "no".  … and, to be honest, throughout the whole game we were also wondering why the French players even bothered to come because it seemed they had completely forgotten how to play.  |
Latvia game.
Jun. 16th, 2013 09:00 am| You know what's dedication? Flying all over the world to watch the national team play… when you're French and we're talking about the ice hockey team. All I had to do was shell out a bit of money and walk to Hartwall Areena, these guys had to fly in from all over France! Granted, they got to visit Finland a bit. They were all very nice people and it was quite funny to see that they kept some of their club rivalries even when watching the NT play. I don't know much about professional hockey in France (besides the fact that the Brûleurs de Loups have the coolest team name ever and that Marseille got a new team in 2010 and they're still in D3 and there are beer leagues out there who probably play better) but there were a few comments along the lines of, "I usually want you to play like shit but now it's time to step up your game" towards some players.  |
The final game.
Jun. 15th, 2013 02:44 pm| We've reached May 14th and that means time to hit all the IIHF WC 2013 photos I have yet to post! And backwards at that! Fun fact: up until about 2 hours before the start of the game it was still mathematically possible for both France and Germany to qualify for the quarter finals. Then after Slovakia's win over the US (iirc), only Germany had a mathematical chance of qualifying but they would need a regulation win with a 6 or 7 (or maybe 8, I forget) goal difference. Fun fact 2: France lost in OT. That's not really a fun fact though… it's just a fact.  ( +5 - more warm ups and then all the sad faces ) |
| I'll try to go through the WC games in the order I went to see them (except that's already messed up a bit because I went to see Switzerland-Canada before Russia-France) but I had to share this thing that's actually probably only exciting for me because I love books and I love when real life things connect to books. A while ago I made an entry (that's no longer FO) about reading a book about NHLers who came over to the NHL from behind the Iron Curtain back when the Iron Curtain existed. One of the first chapters, if not the first, was about Peter Stastny and his brothers and how they were basically the first players to defect from Czechoslovakia to play in North America. I got to see his son, Paul, play twice. The first time when the US played France I didn't connect the name to the book, it sounded familiar and I just figured I must have heard/seen it while following some random NHL game because I figured he wouldn't have been named team captain if he wasn't good… I mean I know about as much about the Avalanche team as the next person who doesn't really follow their division (i.e. "what do you mean Long story short, during the second USA game I went to see (USA-Germany, tbh I only went to see that because it was one of the three cheap games they had in Helsinki and who says no to that level of hockey for cheap on a Sunday afternoon?) I didn't really care who won but during the whole time I kept on thinking that there was this connection between this dude on the ice in front of me and this book I read and my mind was totally overwhelmed. I almost want to say that it was more impressive and overwhelming than seeing Eric and Jordan Staal play (and Skinner and Eberle and Hall and Duchene and Ladd and the rest of team Canada, which is the one team on which I knew most of the players and have more or less followed their results on their respective teams for a decent amount of time). I bet if I ever got to meet Paul Stastny on the street my first reaction would be "I read about your dad in a book, how cool is that?" and that would be embarrassing. I still cannot understand why I formed this deep emotional bond of sorts with the people in that Breakaway book. The book itself wasn't even all that great, it was rather superficial and left me wanting to know more about the people mentioned… and yet… and yet… Anywho. Have yourself some Paul Stastny before a face-off.  |
WHAT IS AIR???
May. 9th, 2013 10:08 pm| At one point I may have doubted if it would ever be worth it paying so much for tickets to the Russia - France game… but it turns out that the ticket was worth every penny I paid for it. It's not every day one gets to gets to see France beat Russia in a ice hockey game at the World Championships!   (grumpy Russian dude who won Russian MVP is grumpy, Florian Hardy who won French MVP was much happier for some reason, the 1-2 on the board might be part of it)  I think it's safe to say that all the Frenchies in Hartwall were going slightly mad in that third period. The Russian dudes next to me were giving really amused looks in the last three minutes… but the relief at the end!  |
that part II is right here.
May. 9th, 2013 12:43 pm| Now on to the game itself. ( +4 - a few shots from here and there during the game )  ( +5 - and hey they managed to score a couple of goals ) Right. And yes, there will be a few more posts related to these Worlds. |
Last Friday - part I - warm ups
May. 9th, 2013 12:35 pm| So that France - Slovakia game from last Friday… no surprises in terms of who won but I have to admit that the French team has a certain quality to its game and it's different from what I'm used to because it's a lot more aerial than NHL-style games. Long story short, I was actually on the Slovakia side during the warm-ups so I have a lot of good shots of those players and not so many of the Frenchies. And hey! I can now name quite a few Frenchies.  ( +6 - just the warms up for now ) |
For what it's worth.
May. 3rd, 2013 08:16 am| In the hockey world it's the playoffs in another part of the world but around here it's the world championships. Again. Except that this time around it's Stockholm who has Canada (and therefore most of the hockey players I do know who are not in the playoffs and who are coming to the worlds)… but France is playing here and this year again they had a few games that came with cheap tickets. Apparently very few people want to go see France play because I got two of their games at 12.5e each… but countries like Russia and Finland (and USA to some extent) have ticket prices in the 60-120e range. |
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But hey, there is an NHLer on the French team and a guy who plays for the Habs affiliate in the minors… so you know. Them against last year's silver medalists? Why not! So yeah, I did kind of twitter stalk most of the French team that has come here but my knowledge of the Slovaks is very limited. I mean I know that Hossa and Chara are from there but they're still in the playoffs. Don't even get me started on the German players… because I also have tickets to France-Germany. I'll be there like "who are you people?" while looking at them… but as long as they play good hockey! |
#tuesdaysarehard
May. 22nd, 2012 08:05 am| I am forever an optimist and this morning I figured that since it was above 10C I could cycle to work in short sleeves. Guess who got rained on? Murphy's Law and all that stuff. I mean, it was either get on with the cycling or go back upstairs to get my rain jacket... after I had already spent ten good minutes trying to get my back tyre to a correct pressure, those twenty minutes to work didn't seem like they would break me. Oh look, it's Tuesday and yet I am complaining like a beast. It's usually reserved for Mondays and Thursdays (and sometimes Fridays). #itstherain #notatwitteraddictatall And for the shits and giggles...  There was no miracle and Geno-land deserved that title. But really, not even a medal or anything... pffff... #whydoicare |
