Share a great time you had on holiday

baksheesh · May-21st-2009, 04:54 PM

Here's one that might be fun. Describe an incident you had on holiday that's special to you, or stuck in your mind, and on which you stilll look back on fondly.
I'll get the ball rolling with an incident from when i was visiting my dad who was in Rome at the time. I had the day to myself and decided to make a trip to the Villa Borghesi. Now i'm an inveterate rambler, and i had a pretty good street map so i thought i'd just walk over - we were in Trastevere so it was quite a step, but doable y'understand.
Anyway, predictably i got totally lost - half those pokey little streets don't have names and i couldn't seem to find the ones on the map. I was going round in circles at one point - and the only way i knew that was that i passed the Pantheon three times - no shit!
Anyway, i'd left early enough - around 2 in the afternoon, but by the time i got to the park where the Villa Borghesi is, dusk was drawing on, and i had a whole rigmarole getting to the actual building too.
Anyway, and the whole point of this story, which paints me as a bit of an omadhaun, (and you have to remember i was seriously footsore by this time, after hours of walking in heavy shoes in serious heat, and feeling a bit lightheaded from not having eaten in quite some time) is that i came on this artificial lake in the dusk. There was a little island on it with a faux classical arch, and in the dusk with the moon rising above and a couple of swans floating on it it took my breath away. It's one of the most beautiful things i've ever seen.
Thought, i'd share that, 'tho' it's kind of hard to convey these feelings in writing i s'pose.
Anyone else got some?

clinthopson · May-21st-2009, 07:14 PM

It's always bugged me that the British Empirites (including former possessions) take a perfectly fine noun like holiday and avoid a preceding article..

It's A HOLIDAY dammit. And, for that matter, a holiday is a special day of recognition of some religious or political event.

We prefer the Frenchy noun, vacation. But we don't take vacation we take A vacation.

I guess I told you.

baksheesh · May-21st-2009, 07:22 PM

yes quite so, quite so. However, if we were to get into the peculiarities of English usage i don't think the folks on your side of the Atlantic would come out of it too well...
Be that as it may, we should stand up against the manifold abuses our glorious Queen's English suffers in this world, not least from her very own servants.
BTW don't ever speak of me in the same breath or equivilate me to the English, or relate me to the stinking Empire - they raped our people God damn it! If you knew about the famine or 1798 you'd have the tact and common courtesy not to lump 'us' all together.

Sergio Zamora · May-21st-2009, 07:23 PM

In Mexico we call it 'Friday' (or rather 'Viernes')

Pedantic Wretch · May-21st-2009, 07:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by baksheesh

our glorious Queen's English

Not that I've particularly been following this sockpuppet soap opera, but a Dubliner would be unlikely to type that.

baksheesh · May-21st-2009, 07:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pedantic Wretch

Not that I've particularly been following this sockpuppet soap opera, but a Dubliner would be unlikely to type that.

Of course he would you damn twerp! It's called sarcasm for crying out loud.

That's what i get for not using an emoticon in the first place

clinthopson · May-22nd-2009, 11:36 AM

Even more egregious is the planting of the letter u in words that work perfectly well without it.

rollhead · May-22nd-2009, 11:39 AM

and what's with being "in hospital"? Is there only one hospital in England?

Damned socialists.

And why am I even engaging this fake Irish 'sockpuppet"? I thought backsheesh and lonely-at-the-top were both frauds?

baksheesh · May-22nd-2009, 11:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by clinthopson

Even more egregious is the planting of the letter u in words that work perfectly well without it.

Hey, when you been using Word for ever and a day you end up mixing your o or your ou, or the ise or ize for that matter. Come up with something else Sherlock - that suspicion wouldn't stand up in a court of law.

clinthopson · May-22nd-2009, 11:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by baksheesh

Hey, when you been using Word for ever and a day you end up mixing your o or your ou, or the ise or ize for that matter. Come up with something else Sherlock - that suspicion wouldn't stand up in a court of law.

Now there you go again. "Court of law" is belabouring the obvious.

What other kind of court would there be for something like this? Tennis? Basketball? Inner patio? Crummy small motels?

baksheesh · May-22nd-2009, 12:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by clinthopson

Now there you go again. "Court of law" is belabouring the obvious.

What other kind of court would there be for something like this? Tennis? Basketball? Inner patio? Crummy small motels?

Hey you can hold a kangaroo court anywhere...
What about a drum head tribunal for that matter?
the Queen's english favours the pedantic...

Root Doctor · May-22nd-2009, 12:22 PM

Did somebody wake up on the wrong side of the bowl of Lucky Charms this morning?

baksheesh · May-22nd-2009, 12:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rollhead

And why am I even engaging this fake Irish 'sockpuppet"? I thought backsheesh and lonely-at-the-top were both frauds?

Et tu Rollhead?
heavy sigh...
Guess i was wrong about the human race...
Even heavier sigh.

Sobs, trailing off into the distance....

baksheesh · May-22nd-2009, 12:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Root Doctor

Did somebody wake up on the wrong side of the bowl of Lucky Charms this morning?

What the fuck is wrong with you?
Make a reference, however veiled, to leprechauns again, and you'll make an enemy for life.

clinthopson · May-22nd-2009, 12:43 PM

A bonnet is a lady's hat.

OTOH, a hood is Batman's headpiece.

I love Tullamore Dew and Phil Kelly will back me up on that.

baksheesh · May-22nd-2009, 01:38 PM

You're a good man Clint.

Mike Schwartz · May-22nd-2009, 03:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by clinthopson

It's always bugged me that the British Empirites (including former possessions) take a perfectly fine noun like holiday and avoid a preceding article..

It's A HOLIDAY dammit. And, for that matter, a holiday is a special day of recognition of some religious or political event.

We prefer the Frenchy noun, vacation. But we don't take vacation we take A vacation.

I guess I told you.

AMEN!
I thought this would be about a Holiday, since we're about to have Memorial Day in the USA...................NOT what did you do/enjoy on your summer vacation?

baksheesh · May-22nd-2009, 04:00 PM

Ahem!
Doesn't anyone want to actually describe a memorable time they had on vacation?
Hang on just a damn minute. your lot do say 'on vacation' so what the hell's wrong with 'on holiday'? For crying out loud! It's just a different term, same concept.

clinthopson · May-22nd-2009, 04:32 PM

Being retired, I'm on vacation all the time.

We take trips and there have been many.

The most memorable trip we've taken was the month we spent in Florence just a few hundred meters from the Duomo. It's the only trip I can recall where we didn't want to come home.

clinthopson · May-22nd-2009, 04:33 PM

Being retired, I'm on vacation all the time.

We take trips and there have been many.

The most memorable trip we've taken was the month we spent in Florence where we had a beautiful apartment just a few hundred meters from the Duomo. It's the only trip I can recall where we didn't want to come home.

baksheesh · May-22nd-2009, 05:32 PM

Sounds wonderful Clint! I did an elective on the Italian City States in college and from what i recall Florence was quite a force to be reckoned with back in the day. One consequence of this is that Florence has lots of great architecture and suchlike.
I've never been to Tuscany but it's high on my want list. even higher now of course!

Chaz Longue · May-26th-2009, 05:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pedantic Wretch

Not that I've particularly been following this sockpuppet soap opera, but a Dubliner would be unlikely to type that.

...let alone a silly neologism with (one hopes) less shelf-life than a crumpet, like "doable"

David Gitin · May-26th-2009, 06:17 PM

Many great times... too much to keyboard onto this space...
One good jazz-related one is when I was in Rome ten years ago during August (when the Romans flee, traffic is, dare I say 'doable'). Looking for some evening activity I scoured the newspapers looking for music (and I like many genres) finally locating an event sponsored by a local jazz society to take place in a villa. I went nuts trying to get help in locating the villa, even cabbies didn't know (although they of course pretended as they raised voices with each other in conference). Finally, I got to the formidable entrance gate on a hill. Candles every few feet marked the pathway in. The start of an enchanting evening... on the bandstand: Dave Holland Quintet!

baksheesh · May-26th-2009, 06:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chaz Longue

...let alone a silly neologism with (one hopes) less shelf-life than a crumpet, like "doable"

Hey, don't knock the vocab, it's perfectly serviceable round my way.

baksheesh · May-26th-2009, 06:49 PM

Wow, David that sounds like it was a gig to remember and no mistake! Personally i'll always regret missing the Dave Holland Big Band in Paris by two places in the queue - Grrrr!
BTW the Italians are quite vociferous aren't they? I guested with a little jazz band when i stayed in Rome, nothing major just a couple of rehearsals a week for the two months i was there, and a few small gigs. The guys would get into huge shouting matches (or what seemed like it to me) and then one of them would turn to me and explain, 'sorry, jesse, we were just discussing whether to start on the two or the three'...
Great people, great people...

lonely-at-the-top · May-27th-2009, 03:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by baksheesh

BTW the Italians are quite vociferous aren't they?
Great people, great people...

they gotta be! with all that traffic and horn honking, how would they be able to commu otherwise? I like the way they put an extra "E" to the last consonant (even when there is a vowel already

)that famous bigga-pizza-pie+a style

I once attended a conference in Milano and shared a cab from Linate with a Brit. The driver had some trouble opening the trunk, apologetically turned to my Euro-denying fellow and in an attempt to demonstrate oracy said:

"e-x-e-c-u-t-e+e me Mister"

and we both knew he messed up that T and S thing, however the Brit would reply:

"Well, your wish would be my command, but isn't that illegal even here?"

The conference went quite lame after that.....

...and guess who had to pay the cab fare?

baksheesh · May-27th-2009, 07:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lonely-at-the-top

the Brit would reply:

Mixing up our tenses here latty old chap are we?

lonely-at-the-top · May-27th-2009, 09:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by baksheesh

Mixing up our tenses here latty old chap are we?

no, it's a faked error to underline my false existence

Thank you for finding it!

Uli · May-27th-2009, 10:06 AM

Not quite the great time but your adventure in the streets of Rome just reminded me. I once got lost driving in a cornfield for about 3 hours on a day trip to Amish county downstate Illinois.

baksheesh · May-27th-2009, 10:31 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Uli

Not quite the great time but your adventure in the streets of Rome just reminded me. I once got lost driving in a cornfield for about 3 hours on a day trip to Amish county downstate Illinois.

Ha! If you discovered you were driving 'round in circles at some point, you should hold yourself responsible for some of those UFO crop circles rumours!