Week 40 - ITF ($15K) - Hammamet, Tunisia Clay

Peter too · Tennis legend

Week 40 - ITF ($15K) - Hammamet, Tunisia Clay

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Ok, little yellow-green plum - now's your moment !

Maybe a lone point is beckoning?????

-- Edited by Coup Droit on Wednesday 4th of October 2017 08:54:36 AM

Strongbow · All-time great

Perhaps it's eau de vie de mirabelle wink

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Ok, little 'mirabelle' anecdote, for those who have nothing better to do for a couple of minutes (it's not a very good anecdote, page back now if you want, but confirms everything you ever thought about the French and their utterly fixed thoughts about food:

Two months ago, I go into the bakery/patisserie (in France) and order my bread. On the other side of the shop is a display cabinet with fruit tarts (and other desert-y things), including some very nice ones with little yellow-green mirabelle plums.
I ask the girl for a fruit tart. Which sort? she asks. Plum, I say. Her: we don't have any plum tarts. Yes, you do - they're over there. No, we don't, shes says, not moving.
After a little pantomime 'yes-you-do-no-we-don't', I drag her over (well almost) and point out the tart.
'Ooohhhh' she says with Gallic disdain, 'that's mirabelle, not plum'
But the mirabelle's a sort of plum, I fight my case.
She looks at me like you'd look at a small child who'd made some understandable, but actually utterly crass, mistake.
'That's - a - mir-a-belle' she says, very slowly. End of.

Michael D · All-time great

Coup Droit wrote:
Ok, little 'mirabelle' anecdote, for those who have nothing better to do for a couple of minutes (it's not a very good anecdote, page back now if you want, but confirms everything you ever thought about the French and their utterly fixed thoughts about food:

Two months ago, I go into the bakery/patisserie (in France) and order my bread. On the other side of the shop is a display cabinet with fruit tarts (and other desert-y things), including some very nice ones with little yellow-green mirabelle plums.
I ask the girl for a fruit tart. Which sort? she asks. Plum, I say. Her: we don't have any plum tarts. Yes, you do - they're over there. No, we don't, shes says, not moving.
After a little pantomime 'yes-you-do-no-we-don't', I drag her over (well almost) and point out the tart.
'Ooohhhh' she says with Gallic disdain, 'that's mirabelle, not plum'
But the mirabelle's a sort of plum, I fight my case.
She looks at me like you'd look at a small child who'd made some understandable, but actually utterly crass, mistake.
'That's - a - mir-a-belle' she says, very slowly. End of.

Well now we know what a mirabelle is and looks like... and I can imagine all the looks smile biggrin

-- Edited by Michael D on Wednesday 4th of October 2017 08:48:27 AM

steven · Tennis legend

Coup Droit wrote:
Ok, little 'mirabelle' anecdote, for those who have nothing better to do for a couple of minutes (it's not a very good anecdote, page back now if you want, but confirms everything you ever thought about the French and their utterly fixed thoughts about food:

Two months ago, I go into the bakery/patisserie (in France) and order my bread. On the other side of the shop is a display cabinet with fruit tarts (and other desert-y things), including some very nice ones with little yellow-green mirabelle plums.
I ask the girl for a fruit tart. Which sort? she asks. Plum, I say. Her: we don't have any plum tarts. Yes, you do - they're over there. No, we don't, shes says, not moving.
After a little pantomime 'yes-you-do-no-we-don't', I drag her over (well almost) and point out the tart.
'Ooohhhh' she says with Gallic disdain, 'that's mirabelle, not plum'
But the mirabelle's a sort of plum, I fight my case.
She looks at me like you'd look at a small child who'd made some understandable, but actually utterly crass, mistake.
'That's - a - mir-a-belle' she says, very slowly. End of.

LOL you paint the scene very vividly.

I don't know where your scene played out but I was once told that 'tarte aux mirabelles' was the best thing about Alsace. Having been there, I would beg to differ - quite a few things beat it, especially the view across the Schwarzwald to the Alps from the top of the Ballon d'Alsace on a clear day and almost everything about Strasbourg except the astronomical pollen count!

Funnily enough, a German friend was lamenting the fact that it was impossible to get Zwetschgen in the UK recently. I originally thought Zwetschge was just southern German for Pflaume (the usual German word for plum) but, assured it was something different, wondered if it might be German for mirabelle. Apparently not. It's so much easier to just call them plums, or maybe --- plums, where --- is the colour, isn't it!

Still, if you think the French are obsessed with food, the Chinese make them look quite casual about it - endless varieties of noodle, endless different types of crab ("but you said you loved crabmeat" "yes but I meant mitten crabs, you can only get them in China" - though in fact http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/features/will-we-soon-be-tucking-into-mitten-crabs-fresh-from-the-thames-1717807.html suggests the opposite, but sadly Brits treat them as a pest rather than as a delicacy!) and generally at least a dozen words for foods for which we have only one or two words. Still, whisper it ... they do seem to make better food than the French too. evileye

steven · Tennis legend

I meant to add (back to the tennis ...), it appears to have rained virtually all day in Tunisia again so the R1 singles matches are going to be played with doubles scoring tomorrow.

indiana · Tennis legend

Bah. Have MTBs if they must but the spread of no Ads has to be stopped wherever possible !!

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Nah, you've got to feel for the poor tournament ref, Indy - they haven't even got through the qualis in the men's event yet and it's Thursday ! I wouldn't care about no-Ads - I'd make it indoor ping-pong to decide the outstanding matches - or table football, players' choice.

NB Loved the mitten crab story, steven, I'm not the bravest about seafood but if someone made me Thames crab soup, that'd be very nice. smile . I remember reading about a bunch of Italian immigrants to the US in the 1930s being moved to the South, somewhere, and being put up in old warehouses given bags of cornmeal. And frying pans. Which they prompty started making into polenta. And the American women trying to grab back the corn because the Italians were 'ruining' it by making slop. (even though isn't polenta a bit like grits?). And cooking a batch of cornbread, which the Italians thought revolting. And both sides kicking off huge fuss to the guy in charge, practically rioting, who, wisely, said he wasn't getting involved and people could do what they liked with their food. Food is such a part of a person's identity...

steven · Tennis legend

Now they've given up on playing anything but the men's FQR matches today, so R1 will start on Friday. The forecast is for little or no rain on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, so they might yet have a chance to finish the tournament. It's also supposed to be dry this evening but presumably there are no lights (as well as no indoor options), so a dry evening won't be any help.

blob · All-time great

THEY SHOULD PLAY MTB RULES EVERY WEEK!!!
MTB IS FANTASTIC!!!
MTB IS THE SAVIOUR OF TENNIS!!!

Ahem! 6-1 3-6 [10-7]

Jaggy1876 · Grand Slam Champion

Please no MTBs, almost a lottery, save it for the other sport with tennis balls if we must.

That all said, if this acts as a kickstart then there is a positive.

Michael D · All-time great

Delighted to see that playing an MTB instead of a third set agrees with Mirabelle.. smile smile That's a very rare point of late, even if against an unranked 17 yr old!

Michael D · All-time great

R1: NJOZE, Mirabelle (GBR) 994 beat SENKAROVA, Adriana (SVK) UNR 17yo JCH=240 6-1 3-6 10-7 (shortened format)
R2: NJOZE, Mirabelle (GBR) 994 vs (6) HOFER, Verena (ITA) 800

indiana · Tennis legend

The indignity of finally dropping out of the top 25 table this coming Monday has clearly seen Mirabelle earn the point to retake Olivia Nicholls to move back in on Monday week.

Good to win