Actual tennis and a mini review
I had other content for tonight, I'll get to it in a moment, but what a refreshing change to come home to see a match being played in sunshine with every hope of it running its course. The fact that it was Henin v S WIlliams - everyone's tip for the match of the quarters - was a bonus. I came in at the start of the second set, and the points were really intense. Like the crowd, I wanted Henin to win, and believed she would, even though she didn't contain Serena as well as she had in the French. But at the beginning of the third,, she just decided to up a gear, and there wasn't much Serena could do about it. Even when things got tight, there was certainly enough of a cushion. Henin is the player to beat, her quality has shone through so far this tournament.
Um, sorry for the 'shone'. Doubles next - poor mixeds, still on the first round. Murray is indeed becoming a star of the Championship. More involving was the next doubles match they showed, Mike Bryan (played by Bob Bryan) and Lisa Raymond (played by Maura Tierney) versus Melanie South (played by a heftier Thora Birch) and Alex Bogdanovic (played by a hedgehog) all played some entertaining tennis from what I was. And the Brits won! They beat the number 1 seeds who had plenty of titles between them. Just as I was wondering why Melanies 'Shotmaker' South wasn't higher up in the rankings, the commentators kindly explained she wasn't the best mover, but that that was protected more in doubles. Well, why doesn't she concentrate on doubles then? Her serving was very solid, her volleying and hand and eye co-ordination class and she stayed with Bryan. Erm. Yeah. Hopefully there will be just as much tennis tomorrow, because it was starting to feel like a tennis debating tournament.
Word of the day: (Justine Henin's as shared by Tracey 'not biased in the American player's favour at all' Austin) aggressivity.
Sally at School: Ethel Talbot, Nelson
This is a mid-read review!
Maybe it's the school setting, but I'm finding SatS less annoying than the other Talbots (see previous entries). The ellipses seem to have vanished, maybe it's a later book or maybe a punctuation pedant edited it, although, most of Sally's dialogue or soliliquizing breaks off with a dash, but that's tolerable. It's the story of a spoiled girl, who was brought up in India by an ayah and a military father, but has been sent back to England at the age of fourteen. Full of false pride, bravado and heedlessness, she's too much for her relatives to handle and is sent to Beech Towers, a school in the Downs (there's local detail, which is always fun). Unwilling to submit to discipline in the form of dormitory prefects or the spirit of the law on punishments, Sally's propensity for pranks, encounters with gypsies and steep learning curve make up the story. She isn't meant to be sympathetic - Talbot has the ace of foil Josy, a younger girl, who sees some of Sally's vulnerability, chums up with her and ends up getting involved in some 'rows' because of it - she's meant to change and become a proper schoolgirl. I'm just over half way and I think I can guess how the elements are going to come together to effect that change.
The ideals of Britishness, (Bolsheveikism is equated to anarchy and unBritishness!) are very colonial and slightly hilarious, the treatment of the Gypsies as stereotyped as anything Blyton managed, obviously the tale is deeply unPC, but all Talbot's other walk-on characters are stereotyped, from schoolboys Sally meets at the outset to an Oirish tea-shop owner. The schoolgirls and mistresses are given more depth, and there's an echo of the Chalet School in the approach to discipline and moulding the girls, which I like, so that, and the feeling of relief that it isn't dreadful is making me look kindly upon it.
Um, sorry for the 'shone'. Doubles next - poor mixeds, still on the first round. Murray is indeed becoming a star of the Championship. More involving was the next doubles match they showed, Mike Bryan (played by Bob Bryan) and Lisa Raymond (played by Maura Tierney) versus Melanie South (played by a heftier Thora Birch) and Alex Bogdanovic (played by a hedgehog) all played some entertaining tennis from what I was. And the Brits won! They beat the number 1 seeds who had plenty of titles between them. Just as I was wondering why Melanies 'Shotmaker' South wasn't higher up in the rankings, the commentators kindly explained she wasn't the best mover, but that that was protected more in doubles. Well, why doesn't she concentrate on doubles then? Her serving was very solid, her volleying and hand and eye co-ordination class and she stayed with Bryan. Erm. Yeah. Hopefully there will be just as much tennis tomorrow, because it was starting to feel like a tennis debating tournament.
Word of the day: (Justine Henin's as shared by Tracey 'not biased in the American player's favour at all' Austin) aggressivity.
Sally at School: Ethel Talbot, Nelson
This is a mid-read review!
Maybe it's the school setting, but I'm finding SatS less annoying than the other Talbots (see previous entries). The ellipses seem to have vanished, maybe it's a later book or maybe a punctuation pedant edited it, although, most of Sally's dialogue or soliliquizing breaks off with a dash, but that's tolerable. It's the story of a spoiled girl, who was brought up in India by an ayah and a military father, but has been sent back to England at the age of fourteen. Full of false pride, bravado and heedlessness, she's too much for her relatives to handle and is sent to Beech Towers, a school in the Downs (there's local detail, which is always fun). Unwilling to submit to discipline in the form of dormitory prefects or the spirit of the law on punishments, Sally's propensity for pranks, encounters with gypsies and steep learning curve make up the story. She isn't meant to be sympathetic - Talbot has the ace of foil Josy, a younger girl, who sees some of Sally's vulnerability, chums up with her and ends up getting involved in some 'rows' because of it - she's meant to change and become a proper schoolgirl. I'm just over half way and I think I can guess how the elements are going to come together to effect that change.
The ideals of Britishness, (Bolsheveikism is equated to anarchy and unBritishness!) are very colonial and slightly hilarious, the treatment of the Gypsies as stereotyped as anything Blyton managed, obviously the tale is deeply unPC, but all Talbot's other walk-on characters are stereotyped, from schoolboys Sally meets at the outset to an Oirish tea-shop owner. The schoolgirls and mistresses are given more depth, and there's an echo of the Chalet School in the approach to discipline and moulding the girls, which I like, so that, and the feeling of relief that it isn't dreadful is making me look kindly upon it.