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And suffering looms on the horizon...
Feb. 10th, 2002 10:40 pmMy first outing on the Canal this year, and at least an hour and a half of the three hours were spent actually skating, as opposed to standing around eating beavertails, waiting for certain people to catch up, picking up fallen comrades, etc. I know I'm going to feel the pain tomorrow, though. But it will be the good kind of physical pain, when you can sit back and think that you earned it through great effort. Because it proves that you did something, even if it was just further churning of the Rideau Canal ice already in bad shape from hundreds of other pairs of skates and the lousy weather. Rain in February? In Ottawa? What's wrong with this picture?!
Strangely enough, it is my ribs that pain me at the moment. Interesting.
For those of you who post silly questions about my name in this domain, or the books I refer to, what do you think the internet is for, hm? Looking it up would be much quicker than waiting for an answer from me, don't you think? But in the interest of public education, I'll explain about the name.
Blodeuedd (Bloh-DEE-weth, hard "th") is a character in the Mabinogion (a collection of mediaeval Welsh manuscripts) created from flowers (Blodeu means flowers) to be the wife of Lleu, who had been cursed by Aranrhod that he should have no human wife. They were duly married and lived in seeming happiness until Blodeuedd fell in love with Goronwy. Together with him, Blodeuedd plotted how to get rid of Lleu, and the only way turned out to involve a bath, a goat and a spear made of metal that has been worked on for a year. Celtic myths sometimes veer into the realm of the very bizarre. The assassination attempt failed, however, and to exact revenge upon his traitorous wife, Lleu cursed her to never show her face in the light of day, to fear all other birds who in turn would be hostile toward her, but that she should keep her name. Thus she was transformed into an owl, Blodeuwedd. The footnotes explain that Blodeuwedd means "flower face".
A woman, then, who rebelled against the role she had been (literally) created for and was punished for it. In classical mythology, however, the owl is held to be sacred to Athena and a symbol of wisdom. I don't know about any special attributes of owls in Welsh mythology, though I don't think they were ever mentioned as being among the sacred birds of Branwen (I think it was her!), but I think my personal multicultural explanation is interesting. Mythological cross-pollination, if you will.
Speaking of multiculturalism, the Chinese New Year celebration yesterday was much more inclusive than I ever thought it would be. Most of the booths and stalls were run by Chinese people, or at least were related to Chinese culture, but the stage show was something else. There was traditional Chinese song & dance and a fashion show of period costumes (beautiful-looking costumes, but the trigger-happy fog machine technician could have let up a bit, it kind of defeated the purpose of the fashion show!), but there was also belly dancing, Filipino folk dancing, African drumming, ballroom dancing, Russian folk dancing, a Charleston number (ah, sexy flappers...) and even the North Western RCMP Dixieland Jazz Band. Quite the show. I even got lucky money!
It's Sunday evening, and I'm feeling rather ridiculous for thinking that I can finally rest now that the weekend is over. Though it's true, because I have to cram most social activities into two days, and I don't have to do anything much for the rest of the week. Chu le qu zhongwen ke. Wo yinggai download zhongwen text support, xie zhongwen. Ruguo wo zuo zhe shi, wo de pengyou dou bu dong wo! Keshi xianzai, wo xiang pengyou dou bu dong wo. ^_^;
Pour ceux que ça pourrait intéresser, je prépare mentalement un petit texte sur l'expérience qu'a été de lire "Mémoires d'une jeune fille rangée", parce qu'un tel livre ne m'est certainement pas passé dans les mains sans laisser sa trace. Du même coup, un petit essai sur les questions de langue, peut-être... si je me sens ambitieuse; c'est un sujet assez corsé, mais j'ai l'impression que je me dois d'y penser et de découvrir comment l'exprimer de façon compréhensive et claire.
Strangely enough, it is my ribs that pain me at the moment. Interesting.
For those of you who post silly questions about my name in this domain, or the books I refer to, what do you think the internet is for, hm? Looking it up would be much quicker than waiting for an answer from me, don't you think? But in the interest of public education, I'll explain about the name.
Blodeuedd (Bloh-DEE-weth, hard "th") is a character in the Mabinogion (a collection of mediaeval Welsh manuscripts) created from flowers (Blodeu means flowers) to be the wife of Lleu, who had been cursed by Aranrhod that he should have no human wife. They were duly married and lived in seeming happiness until Blodeuedd fell in love with Goronwy. Together with him, Blodeuedd plotted how to get rid of Lleu, and the only way turned out to involve a bath, a goat and a spear made of metal that has been worked on for a year. Celtic myths sometimes veer into the realm of the very bizarre. The assassination attempt failed, however, and to exact revenge upon his traitorous wife, Lleu cursed her to never show her face in the light of day, to fear all other birds who in turn would be hostile toward her, but that she should keep her name. Thus she was transformed into an owl, Blodeuwedd. The footnotes explain that Blodeuwedd means "flower face".
A woman, then, who rebelled against the role she had been (literally) created for and was punished for it. In classical mythology, however, the owl is held to be sacred to Athena and a symbol of wisdom. I don't know about any special attributes of owls in Welsh mythology, though I don't think they were ever mentioned as being among the sacred birds of Branwen (I think it was her!), but I think my personal multicultural explanation is interesting. Mythological cross-pollination, if you will.
Speaking of multiculturalism, the Chinese New Year celebration yesterday was much more inclusive than I ever thought it would be. Most of the booths and stalls were run by Chinese people, or at least were related to Chinese culture, but the stage show was something else. There was traditional Chinese song & dance and a fashion show of period costumes (beautiful-looking costumes, but the trigger-happy fog machine technician could have let up a bit, it kind of defeated the purpose of the fashion show!), but there was also belly dancing, Filipino folk dancing, African drumming, ballroom dancing, Russian folk dancing, a Charleston number (ah, sexy flappers...) and even the North Western RCMP Dixieland Jazz Band. Quite the show. I even got lucky money!
It's Sunday evening, and I'm feeling rather ridiculous for thinking that I can finally rest now that the weekend is over. Though it's true, because I have to cram most social activities into two days, and I don't have to do anything much for the rest of the week. Chu le qu zhongwen ke. Wo yinggai download zhongwen text support, xie zhongwen. Ruguo wo zuo zhe shi, wo de pengyou dou bu dong wo! Keshi xianzai, wo xiang pengyou dou bu dong wo. ^_^;
Pour ceux que ça pourrait intéresser, je prépare mentalement un petit texte sur l'expérience qu'a été de lire "Mémoires d'une jeune fille rangée", parce qu'un tel livre ne m'est certainement pas passé dans les mains sans laisser sa trace. Du même coup, un petit essai sur les questions de langue, peut-être... si je me sens ambitieuse; c'est un sujet assez corsé, mais j'ai l'impression que je me dois d'y penser et de découvrir comment l'exprimer de façon compréhensive et claire.
