Gripe

Lunchtime, yesterday – Porco did a library run. The first in a very long time. So he runs through the ritual – search for the Times Book of Obituaries. Nine months after the book arrives, it is still not available for loan.  Then he goes through the US and UK bestsellers’ lists from six months ago. Few are on the shelves or even on the catalogue. And another thing, the search system is 20 years old and predates packet switching and the Internet – it uses something called Boolean connectors. Porco should know – he got a part-time job testing bits of the system when he 18 years old. Porco is a big fan of libraries but he felt he had to complain about all this three months ago – he filled in a card at the library and requested the pleasure of a response. Patient pig.   

Consider the lilies

So Porco took this admonition of our Lord’s to his heart and bought some – Mrs P loves them especially if they are of the Canna variety (although Cannae are not really lilies). However, lilies shed pollen – all over our wooden floors. Bright yellow stuff and the floors need to be cleaned and waxed. After some consideration, Mrs P decided – no more lilies.

Anyway, back to the sermon. The latest iteration of the foreign talent debate has centred on the question whether Singaporeans dislike foreigners and whether they are welcomed here. As Mr Wang points out, this is missing the point. It’s not about foreigners, whether we like them, the fact they are here or if Porco or Mr Wang is affected.

It’s the policy, stupid.

The way they are held out to be paragons of talent, parabolically speaking. How they grow, and how even if they neither toil nor spin, they are portrayed by the powers that be (not celestial in this case) in all their glory. But even lilies sometimes disappoint and, as surely as the Lord giveth and taketh away, policies change. Go consider. 

Auf Wiedersehen, Mr Wang

Mr Wang ist ausser Haus – Weidmannsheil und Viel Erfolg!

Et in arcadia ego

In Porco, vino. Et in vino, veritas. Ergo – in Porco, veritas.

Porco tells the truth when he says some wines are too expensive to drink and that prices are not necessarily an indication of how good a wine is. Big names will always command big prices which are not always justified. In a recent double horizontal, we tasted a flight of 1994’s (Cos, Du Cru and La Mission) against a flight of 1997’s (Barton, Poyferre and Pichon).

The Pichon, Cos, Du Cru and La Mission were roughly twice the price of the Barton and the Poyferre but the Barton was the best of the lot. All were rated in the high 80’s.

We got a little crazy towards the end of the evening and when the 2001 Rieussec was a little disappointing, our host tried to prove a point (as in 100 points against 99 points by Parker’s reckoning) by serving up two bottles of 2001 Y’quem. Now the Y’quem is 50 per cent more expensive than the Rieussec but was not much better. So much for ratings. 

Wild Thing

Who says all Australian wines taste alike? I could have sworn this offering, the Wild One Shiraz 2004, from Wildcroft Estate was a Croze Hermitage or a Cornas but no, this was from the bottom of the Mornington peninsula south of Melbourne. So, there is a corner of Australia that is forever Northern Rhone.