"I listened!"

My mother .... was a pure woman .... from a noble family. And I, at least, know who my father is, ..... you pig-eating son of a whore!

Antonio Banderas, The Thirteenth Warrior

Remember the sequence in The Thirteenth Warrior where a reluctant Ahmed Ibn Fahdlan, played by Antonio Banderas, is making his way north with the Vikings?  Every night he sits by the fire, ignored by his fellow travellers as they speak in their own language.  However, as he sits and listens, night after night, he begins to pick up a word here and there, then another, and is finally able to respond to a chance comment about his mother, to the amazement and suspicion of the Vikings.

I've been in Paris for a few days now, and sadly I'm still in the "word here and there" phase.  However, I think I'm taking the right approach in just trying to get the concept of what I'm hearing, rather than do a word for word translation in my head, and so far this has worked pretty well.  And, to the best of my knowledge, no one has been offended by anything I've said - at least, I'm pretty sure they haven't made any comments about my mother.

- Sid

"So where was I? Oh, that's right - Barcelona!"

Rose Tyler...I was gonna take you to so many places...Barcelona. Not the city Barcelona, the planet Barcelona. You'll love it, fantastic place, they've got dogs with no noses! Imagine how many times a day you end up telling that joke, and it's still funny!

Doctor Who, The Parting of the Ways

One guess what port we're visiting today...*

- Sid

* Bit of an inside joke - cheers, Chris! 

Practicality Over Concept.

Every fantasy fan should visit England - specifically, the Tower of London.  Forget the overly ornate accoutrements of World of Warcraft, forget the impossible weaponry of Final Fantasy - completely forget chain mail bikinis - this is the real deal, from the various points in history when men buckled on steel plate and went out to kill each other with axe and sword.

As such, there's a harsh practicality to most of the armour that's on display.  When it has been ornamented, as in the images above, the various etchings and inlays decorate without reducing that practicality, without detracting from the armour's basic task of efficient protection.  Which makes perfect sense to me - after all, when this sort of harness was being worn, GAME OVER was a much more terminal statement than it is today.

- Sid