tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6096844366367766843.post8272472697484245759..comments2024-03-27T09:27:33.931+00:00Comments on Idiotic Hat: White SandsMike C.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11279776665185060446noreply@blogger.comBlogger13125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6096844366367766843.post-29523644904564327732012-12-19T19:30:19.289+00:002012-12-19T19:30:19.289+00:00Mike
No I don't read or speak Gaelic. I did ...Mike<br /><br />No I don't read or speak Gaelic. I did try to teach myself some once but I only remember some vocab - enough to have a rough idea of what some place names on maps or charts mean which can come in handy when walking or navigating round the Western Isles.<br /><br />I once sailed into Portree on Skye and some men were unloading peat from a barge by hand and they were talking in "the Gaelic". It is such a different language to most European languages I felt like I'd arrived in a foreign country.<br /><br />Good Luck tomorrowGavin McLhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14630089445696518084noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6096844366367766843.post-64541209256079504092012-12-19T09:57:50.776+00:002012-12-19T09:57:50.776+00:00Gavin,
Many thanks for this: Sorley MacLean may ...Gavin,<br /><br />Many thanks for this: Sorley MacLean may indeed be the man -- Scottish poet who served in N. Africa and was wounded at El Alamein... I'm not at work today, but tomorrow I'll get my spade out.<br /><br />Do you read Gaelic? It's yet another of those languages I thought I might learn, but then backed away from the sheer complexity.<br /><br />MikeMike C.https://www.blogger.com/profile/11279776665185060446noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6096844366367766843.post-82642715707453964592012-12-18T23:31:33.540+00:002012-12-18T23:31:33.540+00:00This brought to mind a barely remembered poem by...This brought to mind a barely remembered poem by Sorley Maclean which is set on Ruweisat Ridge - Death Valley. Ruweisat Ridge is near Mersa Matrouh but Maclean talks only of "dun sand dirty yellow"<br />I did a bit of searching and did find this academic note on Gaelic poetry which mentions a couple of poems by an Alexander MacKinnon who fought in the Napoleonic wars with the Gordon Highlanders. One describes a battle in Holland by the sea and another about their landing in Egypt <br />http://www.gla.ac.uk/media/media_164190_en.pdf<br />Unfortunately I couldn't find the poems themselves on-line.<br />Maybe -<br />Good Luck in your huntGavin McLhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14630089445696518084noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6096844366367766843.post-15606253007153687792012-12-18T20:18:25.693+00:002012-12-18T20:18:25.693+00:00Zouk,
No, no: "Ha!" is my full-on laugh...Zouk,<br /><br />No, no: "Ha!" is my full-on laugh... "Ha ha ha ha!" looks too much like mockery.<br /><br />A scholar? Me? I'll have none of that language round here.<br /><br />Yes, MM is one of those names you know you recognise, but can't remember why. Battles do tend to take place in the middle of nowhere, I suppose, especially when tanks are involved. I imagine El Alamein is about as dramatic as Cromer.<br /><br />MikeMike C.https://www.blogger.com/profile/11279776665185060446noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6096844366367766843.post-5237111242482835162012-12-18T20:05:32.765+00:002012-12-18T20:05:32.765+00:00Oh well, as long as it raised half a laugh from a ...Oh well, as long as it raised half a laugh from a scholar...<br /><br />Actually, this blogpost has possibly provided the key to a personal mystery. I once travelled by car from Alex to Mersa Matrouh. It took a long time, and the only thing I remember about it was that there didn't seem to be much there to justify the journey. I did take a photo however, and every time I see it I wonder why I took it, because it doesn't really appear to have a subject; it's just a rather blurred, slightly overexposed shot looking down at where the Med meets the shore twenty or thirty feet away. Now, I've often had cause to regret not making a note on the back of prints (especially that one of old whassername) and I now realize this one should have been endorsed at the time, "The famous white sands of Mersa Matrouh".<br /><br />PS Perhaps it continued:<br />From heavy metal bands bands<br />Though not from any gun gun<br /><br />Or perhaps not.Zouk Delorshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07983226210415857258noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6096844366367766843.post-10073551985219388042012-12-18T20:02:28.962+00:002012-12-18T20:02:28.962+00:00Huw,
Well, first I had my assistants chase all th...Huw,<br /><br />Well, first I had my assistants chase all the skaters away then set up my lighting trucks just so... I also had to hire the police to set up barriers to stop anyone coming back on the set until I was finished. It took two days. Gregory Crewdson couldn't have done it better!<br /><br />MikeMike C.https://www.blogger.com/profile/11279776665185060446noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6096844366367766843.post-5721428299389325812012-12-18T19:29:47.957+00:002012-12-18T19:29:47.957+00:00Mike,
Photos can represent places in unfamiliar l...Mike,<br /><br />Photos can represent places in unfamiliar light, and here, underneath the South Bank, I expect gloom, noise and self-concious teenage skaters. Not these luminous pictures - I've noticed the same change as Mauro.<br /><br />HuwHuwhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06346671593949866026noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6096844366367766843.post-54786570708987143532012-12-18T16:40:01.344+00:002012-12-18T16:40:01.344+00:00Of course there was no battle but there was a comp...Of course there was no battle but there was a compatibility with the local characters for sure ... :-DMauro Thon Giudicihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17596131985430080494noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6096844366367766843.post-69623303877060234102012-12-18T13:36:21.375+00:002012-12-18T13:36:21.375+00:00Having said that, I believe Lord Lovat (commando l...Having said that, I believe Lord Lovat (commando leader and genuine Scottish aristocrat warrior-lunatic) had his personal piper lead his troops into action, so who knows?<br /><br />Mike<br /><br />Mike C.https://www.blogger.com/profile/11279776665185060446noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6096844366367766843.post-72838441585652414282012-12-18T13:29:16.414+00:002012-12-18T13:29:16.414+00:00Thanks, Mauro -- I must be happier this year!
Int...Thanks, Mauro -- I must be happier this year!<br /><br />Interesting about Corsica, but somehow I doubt they'd have taken bagpipers along on a clandestine mission. Although nothing about military planning would surprise me.<br /><br />MikeMike C.https://www.blogger.com/profile/11279776665185060446noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6096844366367766843.post-69740991291431904082012-12-18T13:23:10.195+00:002012-12-18T13:23:10.195+00:00Oh Mike an year out of the internet seems so much ...Oh Mike an year out of the internet seems so much time ... your pictures have taken a brighter look that I really like (did not change the monitor by the way). The ones in the previous post are really gorgeous too. As for the white sands: I'm not sure of the exact provenance of the troops but there have been for sure a landing in northern Corsica near Saint-Florent where there is one of the beautiest white sand coasts of the Mediterranean Sea. It was a secretly managed landing aimed at organizing the local partisans against the German base at the south end of the island. Since that, among our enemies :-), it was English that did those kind of jobs I suppose that there may had been Scottish troops among them but I did not have a deeper look at it.<br /><br />Mauro<br /><br />ps: I've lost your e-mail address could you please send it again ?Mauro Thon Giudicihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17596131985430080494noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6096844366367766843.post-29839141846709445592012-12-18T08:55:00.570+00:002012-12-18T08:55:00.570+00:00Zouk,
Ha! Now that is what you call a British jo...Zouk,<br /><br />Ha! Now that is what you call a British joke...<br /><br />I'm not even sure there is a gents in the Bodleian, but if there is, this is what ought to be written in it.<br /><br />MikeMike C.https://www.blogger.com/profile/11279776665185060446noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6096844366367766843.post-64433831329516096062012-12-18T00:02:30.296+00:002012-12-18T00:02:30.296+00:00Perhaps you can confirm that a certain wall of the...Perhaps you can confirm that a certain wall of the Bodleian's Gentlemen's Room once exhibited the manuscript legend:<br /><br />Who is Armitage?<br />And what is shanking?<br /><br />[Those (foreigners?) who are as baffled as the alleged grafittista purports to be, may obtain relief by going to, e.g., <br /><br /> http://www.supaprice.co.uk/p/result.jsp?ga=uk14&q=armitage+shanks+urinals<br /><br />(Other purveyors of porcelain are available).]Zouk Delorshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07983226210415857258noreply@blogger.com