Cooking outside the country

Out of curiosity, I recently checked Borders on Pitt Street Mall for the Abel & Cole Cookbook. This is a book about cooking local food with the seasons, and is very much aimed at British seasons, British foods (or at least North West Europe foods) and local conditions. So it was a surprise to see it all the way over here, but a pleasant one - HarperCollins are earning their cut!

Some thoughts from the last week

I'm playing with Blogger settings and trying to make collapsible posts. This means I can talk about films without ruining them. Click on Read More! if you want the film ruined anyway, or if you've already seen them.

Pirates of the Carribean 3: At Worlds End. ....(cont.) More of the same from the popular nautical franchise, as the reviews probably all said. It was too long by about half an hour, but if cutting it had meant taking out Keith Richards' appearances, let it run for an hour or so more, as far as I was concerned. I've been waiting, like many others, a few years now to see the Stones' guitarist make this cameo, so it was great to see it finally happen. He didn't do much, but he didn't need to. Great outfits, outrageously contrived storylines, ridiculous special effects and Johnny Depp camping it up for what must be the final time as Captain Jack Sparrow, made for a fun evening. Afterwards I ate chicken.

28 Weeks Later. Another sequel, I must be getting a taste for them. ...(cont.) Set in London a few months after 28 Days Later finishes, the British Isles are now supposed free of infection. Children are even being brought back in, among them the two heroes of the story. Taken to a secure compound in Canary Wharf, they escape to find pictures of their mother who was taken by the infected. And they find more than they bargained for when they make it back to their old house. Some incredible moments from Robert Carlyle, the bit with the eyes was particularly nasty, and when all the people are trapped in the room, and the boy sees his daddy you know what's going to happen. It's like amore grown up version of the bit in Gremlins with the swimming pool. At the end, when they pan up to the Eiffel Tower, you can't help but wonder if they'll call the next film 28 Months Later, and how they can possibly contain the virus now it's on mainland Europe.

Australia vs Wales, Telstra Stadium. I was so tempted to go, there were loads of tickets left, and now I wish I had....(cont.) Wales took off to an early lead, with two tries from nowhere, showing some pretty sloppy Australian defence. The Wallabies fought back, really working for their points. By half time the score was 17-12 to Wales. The second half was dominated by the Wallabies, but this wasn't reflected in the scoreline - by the whistle Wales were still 2 points ahead. Heartbreakingly for Wales, Australia crossed the line in the final play and ran away with it. As neither an Australian or a Welshman, I was on the edge of my seat. Oh, and I didn't abridge this for spoiler reasons, I'm just enjoying the new settings, and it'll make the post look prettier.

Circus Oz, Opera Theatre. ....(cont.) Like lots of circuses these days, no animals, just some stunnign acrobatics. Drunk contortionists, singing stuntmen, trapeze-artist-choolgirls, all giving a distinctly Australian flavour to the circus theme. There was a great variety of performance, with my least favourite being the rock-singer/ringmistress, and a slightly dissappointing 'stage engulfed with fire' ending, but well worth a look if you're in town.

I'm off to see another film tonight, an independent thing at a cinema by the Opera House, and then we're into Elissa's Birthday territory (Elissa's birthday officially runs from Wednesday to Wednesday, though it's actually this Friday). More on that later.

Thoughts, language, the nature of consciousness and the Australian Rugby Union Team

Language is a curious thing. I often wonder to myself how I managed to think before I could understand English (the only language I feel I have an adequate grasp of so far). When you think, you tend to think in a language. Not just that you find it easiest to articulate thoughts in a certain language, but when you're thinking, the thoughts organise themselves in the language you're most comfortable with. Anyway, that's what I sometimes find. Douglas Adams once said something about a race of people who found it impossible to feel sad, simply because they didn't have a word for it, or something like that.

I was walking down Pitt Street earlier today and I was invited into a sports shop, where four Wallabies were signing things. I thought to myself "That might be fun", but then realised I was thinking it in an English Accent, and that that accent might not be the best one to have in a room with four Aussie internationals.

An apology to Ben and Emma - really I should have had them sign a St George's Flag. I'll do better if the opportunity arises again.

My First Doof

This script from On The Hour was something that kept coming back to me over the weekend (the bit at the bottom of that section from Monsignor Trebe Lopez). I went to a party out in the bush. A Doof, as the locals seem to call it. The drive there was a challenge - we had to follow complicated directions involving resetting the trip counter in the car and taking turnings at given points, it was all a bit cloak and dagger.

When we got there it was about midnight, almost 1am. It was down rocky tracks, miles from anywhere and in a basin, so the sound was well shielded. There were tents and fires, and luminous string marked out a kind of roof over the dance floor. UV lights lit up the string and, later, the words "I'm Matt" on my hand, and a large proportion of Ben's face. Dogs wandered the area with glowsticks on their collars. (Didn't Dennis Potter write a drama serial of the same name?). The music was Psy-trance, I'm assured. From 1-2am it was bearable, (I'm not a dancey person,) but then it got slowly worse. I know people who would have loved it, but I wasn't one of them and seemingly I wasn't with any of them.

So at about 5am we went and slept in the car. In the morning it was still going (it ran til 3pm) but I woke up and Elissa and I watched an episode of Family Guy on my MP3 player and then we went home. I enjoyed myself a lot more than I thought I would. But I can't see me going again. Photos should follow soon.

Things not working properly even after you've given them a good thumping

Douglas Adams said "We notice things that don't work. We don't notice things that do. We notice computers, we don't notice pennies. We notice e-book readers, we don't notice books."

At my old work, we had a database that was pretty impressive, but that on occasions failed to work. There were lots of "wouldn't it be great if"s and "if only it did this"s. At the company I now work with, there's a database system and it fundamentally works. But on occasions it doesn't work. Sometimes because people do silly things with it. Sometimes because computer programmers don't know as much about everyone's job as the people that do the job, so don't foresee an eventuality.

This week, we discovered a host of customers had been sent statements that were not complete. This was down to a human error but a perfect system would have highlighted the error, I think, and mentioned it during the printing process. I've spent most of today explaining the error to several clients.

I usually agree with everything Douglas Adams says, and everything he infers. He was someone who not only shared a lot of my world view, but shaped it. I shared his view, from an early age. The quote at the top seems to come from someone who makes a living without needing to use things that don't work, and seemed to imply it was a bad thing. I'm glad things don't work sometimes, and a lot of my old colleagues probably are too, if they think about it. If we ever make a system or an object that just works, it will stop people from working, and all of the offices will be filled with shiny infallible machines. And I'll have no money to buy food, clothes, long weekends in Singapore and festival tickets. Or the wine I'm drinking right now. So, I'd like to raise a cheap Australian Cabernet Sauvignon to things that don't work. Cheers!

Chick, Gary and the Sydney Symphony

Last night I was witness to the premiere of 5 new orchestral works, arrangements of duets by Gary Burton and Chick Corea. The last time I saw Chick and Gary was in Singapore a few weeks ago. They sounded like they'd been practising since then, and they were impressive enough to start with. Michelle told me in Singapore that the sound wouldn't be as good in the Opera House, and she was right - the acoustics are remarkable in Esplanade, and seeing the same act in both locations drove that home.

What really made the evening this time round, though, was the orchestra they threw in on top. The first piece it sounded like Chick and Gary were taking it in turns with the orchestra, but for the rest of the show it just added a richness and colour to the performance that, well, only a hundred extra musicians can. There was one piece in both concerts where Chick Corea started plucking the strings inside the piano, and this part had so much continuity added to it by sitting on a bed of strings. When the strings all came in pizzicato the second time through, it was almost comical, but it exaggerated a point in the music which was meant to be tongue in cheek, so comical was what they were aiming for.

It's not the gig of my life - I've decided that this sort of intellectual lift-music jazz isn't the music I'm looking for - but it was a great experience to see two masters of their art joined by a hundred masters of theirs.

iGoogle

I hate to advertise a company already so hugely successful, but I'm really enjoying iGoogle. I got into personalising Google a year or two ago, but they revamped it recently, and it's now pretty. The function is the same though. From one page, I have the weather in three cities, the time in four, my Gmail inbox (summarised) my flickr photos, news from Britain and Australia and quotes of the day. Today, Woody Allen said "Most of the time I don't have much fun. The rest of the time I don't have any fun at all".

If you have a Google account, have a play with it, it's good fun.

Book club

I bought myself a kite! It's being posted in the next few days, and it's exactly the kite I've wanted, ever since I knew anything about kites. Anyway, that's an aside really, the crux of this post is the book club...

This evening, I've organised a book club, to meet somewhere in Central Sydney. All the responses I've had so far have been female (I'm kicking myself I didn't organise a book club when I was single), and interested in a wide variety of books. They're also the first people I've met socially through my own efforts, rather than Elissa's. After a month and a half, that's either a resounding seal of approval for Elissa's friends, or a pretty poor showing on my part. Possibly both.

Anyway, I'll tell you how it goes.

What's that Skippy? You go well with oregano, garlic and tomatoes?

This evening I made kangaroo lasagne. It was delicious. Kangaroo mince is lighter in flavour and fat content than beef, and slightly cheaper. It's good stuff! I'll be cooking plenty more local animals before I leave, but rest assured, they'll all be kangaroos. Australians frown on the cooking of endangered species, as do I.

CDs

Since I've come to Australia I have bought:

Jeff Buckley - Grace. I don't know why it's taken me so long to actually own this CD.
Jeff Buckley - Sketches from My Sweetheart the Drunk. It's also about time I got this. I haven't listened to it much, but the inlay card waffles about how the songs weren't finished. I'd have to repeat what Herbie said about Miles a week or two ago - I think most singer/songwriters would have been delighted to have recorded some of Jeff Buckley's mistakes.
Easy Star All Stars - Radiodread. This is so much fun! From the start of Airbag you can just feel the subtlety with which they've changed it, only moving what they had to. The Jamaican edge to Fitter Happier makes me smile.
The Flaming Lips - The Soft Bulletin. A friend lended me this CD in April last year and I loved it from the beginning. Sadly when my MP3 player died, so too did my rip of this album, and there was no time to re-rip it. Now I've bought it I realise I was missing the first track, and now I've fallen in love with the album all over again.
The Flaming Lips - Clouds Taste Metallic.
The Flaming Lips - Transmissions from the Satellite Heart. Haven't listened to these yet. The weight of expectation bears heavy on them though.
Simon and Garfunkel - Old Friends; Live on Stage. They sound older, slightly more out of breath in some of the quicker ones. The songs sound brighter, looser, more fun. Somehow that takes something away from the earnestness of the original recordings. I haven't heard the Central Park album, but I imagine it to be similar. Still, they're the two voices and the one songwriter that are the most enduring listening in my collection, and I'm still taken with this new take on the old material. I'm still kicking myself for not having made the concert in 2004 in Hyde Park.

I've realised I haven't bought a bad CD yet since I left the UK. Maybe on a traveller's budget, I'm being more careful, or maybe as I get older I'm just finding more and more joy in all music. Maybe I've just been lucky. Anyway, more brief CD reviews will follow next time I get some spare cash!

And I'll buy some jazz next time too.

Tim Minchin - Not Eating Pigs for Peace

Last night I saw Tim Minchin at the Opera House 'Studio', perform his show, So Rock. It consisted of some pretty funny standup, and some very funny songs, my favourtie of which is here, on Youtube, I think. There were a few slightly lacklustre parts of the performance, but most of it was done with enthusiasm and good cheer. I wouldn't call him bellyachingly funny, but when he's good he's very good. It was well worth the price of the ticket of course.

Tonight Elissa and I have more complimentary tickets for the Studio, this time to see Mark Watson. I'll keep you posted.

The Chaser's War on Hamburgers

This lunchtime I'm afraid I was in MacDonalds, on Pitt St. A gentleman walked in, dressed rather like the chap pictured, tried to get behind the counter and steal some burgers. He was foiled. Several camcorders picked it up. I'm expecting to see it on The Chaser's War on Everything tonight.