Of ludothèques and sleigh bells
This afternoon the children were invited to a birthday party taking place in the Canéjan Ludothèque (games library). We've never been to the ludothèque. In fact we've never been to the centre of Canéjan, so I drove down there then zoomed up and down the main road looking for the place.
Canéjan, like most of the small towns in this area, is very attractive. Lots of strangely designed bungalows with a very high-tech town hall and some great public buildings: schools, libraries etc. We stopped and asked a man with a moustache that would instantly mark him out as French or possibly Turkish and he directed us. The ludothèque turned out to be a splendid place and the children had a great time playing board games.
Meanwhile I took advantage of my freedom to go and buy the children a DVD they wanted. Happily there is a computer-monger that sells these DVDs and that also sells laptops - and one of our team is looking for a laptop so I could do a little window shopping to see what's available within their budget. And get some sleigh bells.
Sleigh bells ?
Well yes. The school of music has this orchestra and I now play in the thing. It's great fun. One of the pieces we are doing in the Grand Christmas Concert (thinks - I have not yet ensured that I am free on the night of the concert. If I am not free I will be extremely unpopular ! ) is Leroy Anderson's Sleigh Ride, which has all sorts of amusing and exciting percussion effects.
C'est quoi, 'sleigh bells' ? C'est xxxxxxxxx ?
There's a word in French for little bells you sew onto things. I have come across it before - for example in my interview for DEFLE - and when I hear it I know what it is but I have a real mental block about it and can never remember it. It's a classic passive vocab word.
Anyway I said that yes, it is that.
Et "heeep" ? C'est siffler ?
I was far less confident about this, so I went to look at the percussionist's copy. The word was whip and I explained that it is the noise of a fouet.
Anyway wikipedia furnished me with photos of a percussion whip (two slats of wood joined by a hinge and you snap them together - as used in Ravel's Pictures at an exhibition) and sleigh bells - actually about 30 or so little round bells attached to a handle for shaking.
The music school doesn't have these, or the money to buy them.
Anyway today I saw some babies' teething toys with - little round bells attached. So we now have two orange jingly plastic fish. I am sure the percussionist will turn up her nose at them, but they sound pretty good really. There's six bells in all !
As for the whip I reckon even I could make one of those from two bits of wood and some duct tape.
It was good to get out of the house for a little while, and good to find that Pat was still OK when I got back. The drugs are doing something but she has not yet arisen from her downy couch.
Incidentally I would very much like to try and get someone to believe that the correct pronunciation of Sleigh Ride is sleggerreeder. I don't think I am in with much of a chance, though.
Canéjan, like most of the small towns in this area, is very attractive. Lots of strangely designed bungalows with a very high-tech town hall and some great public buildings: schools, libraries etc. We stopped and asked a man with a moustache that would instantly mark him out as French or possibly Turkish and he directed us. The ludothèque turned out to be a splendid place and the children had a great time playing board games.
Meanwhile I took advantage of my freedom to go and buy the children a DVD they wanted. Happily there is a computer-monger that sells these DVDs and that also sells laptops - and one of our team is looking for a laptop so I could do a little window shopping to see what's available within their budget. And get some sleigh bells.
Sleigh bells ?
Well yes. The school of music has this orchestra and I now play in the thing. It's great fun. One of the pieces we are doing in the Grand Christmas Concert (thinks - I have not yet ensured that I am free on the night of the concert. If I am not free I will be extremely unpopular ! ) is Leroy Anderson's Sleigh Ride, which has all sorts of amusing and exciting percussion effects.
C'est quoi, 'sleigh bells' ? C'est xxxxxxxxx ?
There's a word in French for little bells you sew onto things. I have come across it before - for example in my interview for DEFLE - and when I hear it I know what it is but I have a real mental block about it and can never remember it. It's a classic passive vocab word.
Anyway I said that yes, it is that.
Et "heeep" ? C'est siffler ?
I was far less confident about this, so I went to look at the percussionist's copy. The word was whip and I explained that it is the noise of a fouet.
Anyway wikipedia furnished me with photos of a percussion whip (two slats of wood joined by a hinge and you snap them together - as used in Ravel's Pictures at an exhibition) and sleigh bells - actually about 30 or so little round bells attached to a handle for shaking.
The music school doesn't have these, or the money to buy them.
Anyway today I saw some babies' teething toys with - little round bells attached. So we now have two orange jingly plastic fish. I am sure the percussionist will turn up her nose at them, but they sound pretty good really. There's six bells in all !
As for the whip I reckon even I could make one of those from two bits of wood and some duct tape.
It was good to get out of the house for a little while, and good to find that Pat was still OK when I got back. The drugs are doing something but she has not yet arisen from her downy couch.
Incidentally I would very much like to try and get someone to believe that the correct pronunciation of Sleigh Ride is sleggerreeder. I don't think I am in with much of a chance, though.
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