OH! VICTORY, HOW SWEET THY TASTE!

The following is the sms I sent my sister. There is little I can add to express how I felt after, first, winning my game on Sunday and, then, seeing how we absolutely thrashed our opponents 6-2.
"Dearest sis, I'm over the moon, love. I'm floating on cloud number nine and I can't find my way back to earth. I'm revelling among the stars, way up there, on the edge of the milky way, where the bright lights leave you blind and time is never-ending. I feel wholly and utterly fulfilled. And, no, It isn't love! We've won the championship! First we made it to the top of our group. Then, we went through the quarter-finals and semi-finals, and yesterday the final, which we won 6-2. I am now a (the oldest) member of the winning team of the Catalonia Chess League Championship - II category....."
For those of you who are interested in the full story, go to:
http://escacspec.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=354&Itemid=48
You may need a text translator (eg. babelfish.yahoo.com) as the article is in Spanish.

I THOUGHT THIS VIDEO CLIP WOULD BE THE IDEAL "FINALE" TO THIS SERIES OF ARTICLES BASED ON MY VERY OWN CHESS EXPERIENCE (and thanks to ASIMOS78 for posting it on youtube). ENJOY!

FINAL - HERE WE COME!

SHAME ON ME! Just as quickly as I won last week, I lost this week. No excuses. I played badly and lost a pawn in move 21 as a consequence of my 12th move, a stupid move which was completely unnecessary. You can imagine how I felt. The psychological effect on the team, losing a game so early, worried me and I seeked refuge in the bar (coffee, of course! Well, with just a drop of brandy, of course!).

When I got back to the playing hall we were down 2-3 with three games to go. I thought we might just draw the match. We lost one game and the other two looked like draws. So, 3-3 and everyone tense; both our team and their team. A draw would have been good for us, but incredibly, we won both games. So, 5-3 and we're through to the final. Who would have believed it! At the start of the championship, our president told us our aim was just to maintain our category. We've actually gone up to the next one and we're now going to fight to be absolute Champions. ABSOLUTELY INCREDIBLE. Wish us luck!

PLAY-OFF (1)

Those of you who are interested in chess will be pleased to know that our team won the first Play-off round. Our rivals were the Barcelona chess club "Peona i Peó", which means "Female Pawn and Male Pawn". They are reputed to be quite strong and, in fact, had two teams playing the first play-off round. Unfortunately for them, both teams lost their opportunity to go up a category.

In our case, the team in fact drew 4-4. However, draws are resolved by a special point system which gave us the victory (8 points for the first board, seven for the second, and so on). Boards number 1 and 2 drew. We won in boards number 3, 4 and 6 (total of 14 points), whereas they won in boards number 5, 7 and 8 (total of 8 points). My own rival, a seventeen-year-old girl with an enchanting smile, whose playing strength is similar to mine, asked me for a draw which my team leader would not allow me to accept. We both played on and, unfortunately for her she made a slight mistake which was sufficient for me to get a slight advantage. In the end, I sacrified my queen in a winning combination.

The position just prior to my sacrifice was as follows:

Whites (Joe Rahal): Re1, Kh1, Ph2, Qb3, Pg3, Re5, Pd7.

Black (Aina Delgado): Qf2, Pa7, Pb7, Rf7, Pg7, Ph7, Rd8, Kh8.

In this position, I played Queen takes Rook f7, to which she replied Queen takes Queen. I followed with Rook to e8 check, and she resigned. (After Rook takes Rook, Rook takes Rook, ckeck, she would be forced to take my Rook with her Queen and I, in turn, would take her Queen with my pawn giving checkmate). An interesting game which started off with Knight to f3, my usual opening move. For details of the full game send me an e-mail.

I drew in my other game, in the Terrassa open. So, one and a half points out of two is not at all bad for a weekend of chess. Let's see what next weekend has in store for us!

SPRING IS HERE

Well, nearly here! Only a couple of weeks left.

But the birds don't know that... they're out there in force singing away to their heart's content.... and ours (many of them have already returned from their winter migration).

And the flowers don't know that. They've forced their way through to emerge as beautiful as ever and splash the bare landscape with their gorgeous colours.

And in the park I saw two snow white swans gliding gracefully across the mirror surface of the lake, obviously courting. Isn't life wonderful!

Yes, I know there's misery everywhere, and people are fighting and killing each other all over the world, and men and women are tortured and kids are exploited and animals are treated badly and made to suffer. This world is full of injustice, but it does have its positive side, or at least I like to think it does.

Otherwise, what would be the point of trying to do good. Oh, yes, thousands of people are out there doing good. Volunteers, medical people, missionaries, teachers. I even venture to suggest that some, not many though, politicians are trying to do good. Ordinary people, such as yourself, or humble me; in our ordinary lives and within our ordinary families and communities, surely we're all trying to do good. And that is beautiful. There's beauty everywhere, if only we stopped and looked and learnt to appreciate it. Gilbert and Sullivan expressed it so poetically in "The Mikado" when Katisha begins her song:

There is beauty in the bellow of the blast,

There is grandeur in the growling of the gale,

There is eloquent outpouring

when the lion is a-roaring,

and the tiger is a-lashing of his tail!

Gosh! That brings back memories, of school days, and operettas, and Nanki-Poo, and Jaqueline. Sweet Jaqueline. I wonder what's become of her and her sensational voice.

Youtube has a large selection of performances, including one with Groucho Marx! The first line is the title of the song. Do listen to it, it's really good. As for the words, you can get them at:

http://math.boisestate.edu/gas/mikado/webopera/mk212.html

I raise my glass to beauty.... in spite of all the horrors that surround us. For beauty is love..... and love is beauty.

.

APOLOGIES & XMAS

My most sincere apologies for the time elapsed between my last posting and this one. This academic course is proving much busier than originally expected and I really am very short of free time. I hope to remedy this next term.

Anyway, Christmas is just around the corner and, although we're all feeling the consequences of the financial crisis, the shops seem full and people appear to be spending a fair amount of time and money. To be honest though, the discount shops seem busier than ever; I wonder whether quality this year will be sacrificed in favour of quantity.

A couple of my groups are busy rehearsing their Xmas songs for the forthcoming Christmas Carol Concert. This will take place on Thursday the 18th at around 3.30 pm. If we manage to film it I'll post some clips and a few pictures.

IF YOU'RE THINKING OF DRINKING.... THINK ALSO ABOUT NOT DRIVING :-)

OBAMA

I have no doubt that the whole world feels much better, and safer, now that Barack Obama has been elected President of the USA. I was absolutely amazed by the size of his victory, but also by the almost unchanging face of the USA political map: Republicans in the centre and Democrats on the Eastern and Western coasts. Some day, let's hope, the two will meet, as did the big railway lines once.

I've just had a thought: how about renaming Bo Didley's hit song from Hey, Bo Diddley to Hey, Obama! We could just start a new rage. Or, "I come from Alabama with Obama on my knee". I do think the new president elect will be a great source of inspiration. Let's all wish him good luck in his new job and a safe and happy stay in the White House.

NEW BLOG FOR BEGINNERS

Today, I published my first session for absolute beginners whose native language is Spanish. Those interested can go to; http://lasclasesdejoe.blogspot.com/

I hope you'll find it useful. Don't forget to send your comments.

FINANCIAL CRISIS

"Laugh and the whole world laughs with you," - says the song. - "Cry and you cry alone!"
So there's a new financial crisis. I don't know about you, but I think I've had enough bad news this year, so I'm all for a good laugh. I hope you'll join me. Here are the views of two famous comedians on the on- going financial crisis (with Spanish subtitles for my Catalan and Spanish students).

WELCOME BACK TO THE NEW ACADEMIC COURSE

Well, summer came and whispered sweet things in my ear,
as it flew south across the border.
But now that autumn's chill begins and winter's near
I start to feel a little colder ...
and a little older!

Welcome back. I hope you've all had an enjoyable summer holiday (those of you who live in the northern hemisphere, that is!). Summer went by all too fast for me - which explains my little poem above - and I do feel a little colder; must be old age creeping up on me. Anyway, I managed to write a couple of stories and compose a couple of songs, one of which is my previous posting.

So, glad to have you all back and I hope you'll continue to enjoy popping in from time to time. Do post a comment now and then.

Joe.

IN A PERFECT WORLD

I started to write this song back in May. I was hoping we could include it in our End-of-Course Peace Concert (June). However, I didn't finish it in time, so we never got round to playing it. (In fact, I never even mentioned it to the others!)

Anyway, when I did finish it, I thought I'd try and do something useful with it. So, I created the accompanying video. The quality is not exactly "PERFECT", probably due to the conversion of files to an acceptable format, but it does reflect the kind of world we live in. In any case, I'm working on it. Maybe by the time I improve it enough the world WILL be a better place!

You can also access it directly at youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mBC3LSre10Y

I hope you like it.

END-OF-COURSE CONCERT

WHAT BAD LUCK! The evening chosen for the concert turned out to be the evening of the BIG MATCH.

Spain was playing against Russia for a place in the finals of the European Footbal Cup at the precise time that our concert was starting. There was no way we could change the dates, so we played to a reduced audience - to which, of course, we shall be eternally grateful!

I hope you like the pics (click on them to enlarge). I'll post the video just as soon as it's ready.

SPECIAL REQUEST .... & USED TO

This one's for you, Marta. I know it's one of your favourite songs, and it does bring back cherished memories of those days, long gone by, when we all thought we could change the world. Thursday night's End-of-Course concert was, in a sense, a tribute to all those young, and not so young, students, workers, thinkers and idealists, who joined forces in 1968 in what has probably been the largest ever world-wide demonstration in favour of peace, equal rights, social dignity and an end to war, exploitation and the rest of this world's injustices. We're so much older now, but.....are we really any wiser! I really think we could do with a repetition.

As far as "USED TO" is concerned, and for the benefit of my Students of English, I thought the song was a good way of illustrating that "used to" , followed by an infinitive is equivalent to "usually" in the past. Let's look at a couple of examples:
Present - I usually start work at 8 am. (A habit in the present)
Past- I used to start school at 9.15 am when I was young. (A habit in the past)
In the song, Mary Hopkin sings about the place "where we used to raise a glass or two".

What a lot of students don't know, however, is that we can use "Would" with the same result:

Present - My grandparents usually visit us every Saturday evening. (A habit in the present)
Past - My grandparents would visit us every Saturday evening. (A habit in the past)
In the song, Mary Hopkin sings "We'd sing and dance....We'd live the life.... We'd fight and never lose..."

Here's the full video from youtube. (I wonder how many of you knew it's based on an original Russian folk song!). Lyrics on the left and in the video itself. Enjoy.

MORE RIDDLES & THE FEAST OF SANT JOAN

It turned out that "INVINCIBILITY" was not the word Mike had been thinking of. HIS word was "INVISIBILITY". So in fact there are at least TWO words that contain 5 "i's" and a "y", and no other vowels. Can you think of any more?

SANT JOAN - This is, without a shadow of doubt, my favourite Spanish festivity. The shortest night of the year becomes, in fact, the longest one, since very few people actually go to bed before the dawn. Indeed, it's quite common to see thousands of party-goers in Barcelona congregating on the beaches, after celebrating all night - with fireworks, cava and the traditional "Coca de Sant Joan" - to watch the sun rising on the horizon over the mediterranean sea. ABSOLUTELY MAGNIFICENT

ANSWERS

Ok, you guys and gals, you've had more than enough time to find the answers to the riddles; so, here we go:

1. Five eyes and a why - INVINCIBILITY (5 "I"'s AND A "Y")

2. Five vowels joined together in one word - This is what "askoxford.com" says

"We know of only one word in anything like standard use which has five consecutive vowels, and that is Rousseauian 'pertaining to Rousseau or his views on religion, politics, education, etc.' Apart from this, and the large vowel clusters in queueing, there are only the Greek-derived words of the pharmacopoeia type.

3. What did the big chimney say to the little chimney? - "You smoke too much!"

*******************

While we're on the subject, here are some more pearls of the English language:

- OOLOOPOOLOO - A palindrome (A word that reads the same in both directions). This one refers to a dialect spoken in Australia. I'm not sure you can call it "English", though!

- EDUCATION - A word containing all five vowels.

- ABSTEMIOUS - A word containing all five vowels IN THE RIGHT ORDER!

For more gems like these, check out this link:
http://www.askoxford.com/asktheexperts/faq/aboutwords/fivevowels?view=uk

ALSO, CHECK OUT "RIDDLES" - left-hand column - and ENJOY.