The Wayfaring Wordhack

After ten finals where they just weren't able to come out ahead, this time, in their 11th championship match--the fourth in a row--ASM Clermont Auvergne beat Perpignan to take home the Bouclier de Brennus (Brennus Shield).

Yay, Clermont! No one handed you this victory; you earned it!

 I'm watching my last rugby match in Mayotte today. Tomorrow, we have to take the satellite decoder back and cancel our subscription. The lady who bought the television is picking it up tomorrow, too. Not a big deal. Without satellite, there is nothing to watch here. Only one channel and we don't have a satellite to receive it.

This morning, Julien packed all the odds and ends that remain and took them to the Place du Congres, where there is a group "yard sale."

Isn't he a swell guy? He went to put up with that hassle while I stay home and watch rugby! :P

France won the match with the Pacific Islanders this afternoon, but the victory was bittersweet because Nalaga, one of our opponent's best players, was expelled only twenty minutes into the game, forcing the Islander to play 14 against 15 for the remaining hour.

We beat Argentina last week, and that too was a victory that everyone agreed was not belle, even if it was earned.

Next week it's Australia we have to face, and of the three matches in this "Autumn Tournament," that's the team that will force us to prove our worth. Allez les Bleus!

The French rugby championship came to an end tonight with the finale between Toulouse and Clermont. Although Toulouse is my favorite team, I was sad to see Clermont lose. They are frequently in the finals but have never won. Still, it's been a while since Toulouse took home the trophy (2001 was their last victory), so I'm happy for them.

With the national rugby games at an end and my dance classes offcially over for the year, it looks like things are going to be quiet in the Faure household. Just as well since we need to pack and move, and I need to get back to writing.

I know I've been rather quiet except for the Wednesday glimpses of Mayotte, but I'm still here.

I'm participating in the OWW synopsis focus group (sorry, too lazy to do links) and am learning a lot. I'm sure I'm going to come away with a usable synopsis for The Traveler's Daughter, and I hope I help others achieve the same. I'm holding off on advancing with Witherwilds until I have the time to work out a synopsis for it. I want all the motivations, arcs, and plot clear and laid out up front before I drown in so much detail I don't know which way is up.

I'm still writing on To Be Undone; I've got 50K + under my belt. Today, I realized that I'm at a point where I can summarize a fair bit and move on to another tack. For this draft, I'm probably very close to the 2/3 mark.

I've also been watching a lot of rugby. Yes, I know, the majority of you couldn't give a flying flip for my favorite sport, but there you have it. One more weekend and the 6 Nations tourny will be over. That went by too quickly!

I've been working on my Spanish, going to dance class, going walking with N, reading...keeping busy, in other words.

Last night, I went to bed for a reason that will be revealed shortly. I was tired but couldn't fall asleep because I'd missed my window. Around 1:30, I was drifting off when mana_triniwoke me up by tugging on the sheet I'd been using as an extra pillow.  Naturally, I lay there another 30 minutes before falling asleep. Then, J's alarm went off at 4am. I let him get his stuff together and lazed in bed until I could hear he was ready to go. Go where, you ask?  To the Banc de Geyser, a reef five hours by boat off the Mayotte coast, about halfway to Madagascar, in fact. To do what, you ask? Do you really need to ask?  To spearfish, of course.

Because of the high theft risk, we aren't comfy leaving our car at the port overnight, so I had to drive him and bring the car back home. I also had to stay to pick up a surprise for a friend and couldn't leave until it arrived. I stood outside the car, yawning my head off and watching the eastern sky go from black to deep purple bordered by blue-green. The scene would have been lovely and peaceful if not for the drunken idiots who had just come out of a nearby nightclub. One girl kept asking a young man, "Tu es beau? Tu es riche?" Um, hon, I think if you are so far gone you need to ask the guy in question if he is handsome, you need to just drop it. When she wasn't inquiring after his looks and wealth or his nationality, she kept shouting at him to (and I'll put it nicely) sodomize his grandmother, sodomize his littler brother, his big brother, his mother, his sister, his grandfather. I think the only one she left out of her incestous insults was the guy's father. Finally, he and his friend left, telling me in passing that the girls were "completely out of their minds." Yeah, I realized that after 30 seconds. Why'd you hang around chatting them up for an additional five minutes?

I was back in bed around 5am, but what with all the roosters crowing and dogs barking, I didn't fall asleep until after 6. It's too hot to sleep much past 9, so I got up only to have my nap at 4 countered by the thunderous pounding of rain on the terrace roof. I couldn't try to nap later than 4:30 because of the first of the day's rugby matches. See, I knew if I mentioned rugby at the first of this entry, I would have already lost you. :P

 "Day 4" of the H Cup (and the European Challenge Cup), started last night at 9 in France, but that's 11pm here in Mayotte. With halftime and additional minutes, a game lasts between one and a half/two hours.

Friday Night 
Biarritz vs Glasgow : 21 to 14 for Biarritz. 

They seriously deserved to win that game. I don't think I had ever seen such a match where the dominating team was losing, but that's how much of the game went. They finally got it together at the end and stopped handing silly penalty points to Glasgow, so way to go Pays Basque. (By the way, keep the new uniforms. Melikey mucho.)

Saturday:
Cardiff vs Stade Francais : Don't even ask.

SF, shame on you. That was one ugly match. Messy, messy, messy.

Perpignan vs London Irish: WOOT, les catalans!

In a word: Beautiful. Yes, there were lots of things they could have done better, but after the way SF played, the match looked like magic to me.

Clermont Ferrand vs London Wasps: 25 to 24 for the Wasps

Another good game, but not without its messiness, too. Good thing CF beat the Wasps last week. The two CF tries where they players devoured the pitch were things of beauty.

Up next: Dax vs Castres, two French teams. J comes from a village just 15 km from Castres, so I guess I'll root for them. They seem to be having a tough time of it this season. There's a stupid football (soccer) game running late, so they are biting into the rugby match. Talk about idiotic planning. (ETA:  Castres won; 16-15)

Tomorrow: Toulouse vs Leicester.  I'm looking forward to this one. Last week, Leicester beat Toulouse 14 - 9. Toulouse is probably my favorite French team...

As you can see, an alternative title for this entry could have been: My Weekends Belong to Rugby.

And that, rabiagale, is why I'm not around in the evenings.
 

Can those on my friends list who do yoga give me a run down of what dvds, books, etc. you use for your workouts?

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Does anyone know how to format a letter or journal entry in a manuscript? I read in a source that I'm not really sure about that I should double indent on the left AND right sides. That seems a bit excessive. Any ideas? Italics or no? 

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Why is the whole of the Top 14 not shown on the regular cable sports channels? And why is Rugby+ not offered on Canal Satellite Réunion? Even if I wanted to pay €4 a month for the channel, they won't let me. *sigh*

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Would any of my friends who have that Query Voodoo (or just a masochistic bent) be interested in shredding commenting on my query, which will--I vow it on the stack of dirty supper dishes--be completed by week's end? I'll set up a filter and stick your name on it if you say yea.