Pig today, Pork tomorrow

Funny how some stories get better with the telling. Last night, Mrs P and I had dinner with some friends who were off to Siem Riep today. Same place, same resort, still the same rainy season. So Porco regaled them with stories of waking up at 4.30 am to watch the sun rise over Angkor Wat, which in the rainy season is a bit of a hit and miss affair. We missed.

One story we forgot to tell was how on the way to the temples, we saw live pigs transported on the back of motorcycles. On their backs over the back seat, legs tied and with their bits to the sky – which led to our guide commenting “Pig today, pork tomorrow”. Er … nice.

Faith – the evidence of things not seen

So Mrs P and I went to see Invisible City last night and we took away quite different things. Porco was a little disturbed by the choice to show an interview with one of the subjects a few days after he had brain surgery. Sure, it was telling it like it was but I’m not sure I would have wanted to be remembered like that. It is also clear from the talk following the screening that a lot of what the film maker wanted to achieve was possibly not quite there. Still, this is a good documentary and more than that, it is an important project. Go see it.

Last weekend, we had a double dose of Ian McKellen. First, almost four hours of King Lear on Saturday night and more than three of The Seagull was a little more than Porco can take. And at more than $1000, it had better been worth it. Hmm … not sure about that. Especially The Seagull.  For the combination of relentless ennui, the pre-Revolutionary foppery and the seductive power of the spoken word, get the DVDs of Days of Being Wild, Dangerous Liaisons and Bullets over Broadway (in that order) from HMV. $99.99 for all three. While stocks last. 

Ex omnibus non inveni

In principio erat Blog et Blog erat apud Porco et Porco erat Blog.

So although in the beginning was the blog and so on, the time has now come to divide the blog. The wine has been moved to the cellar, cooking matters have been moved to the kitchen and books to the library – which is where each of them should be. 

As for this space, well – this will be devoted to the inner life. And we all have one. There was a wonderful ad campaign a few years ago for one of the game consoles where a motley crew of geeky looking characters dressed in their workday garb describe their down time activities – playing computer games. Best of these was an unblinking young boy with a severe crew cut intoning “And I have commanded armies by night”.  

If we didn’t have an inner life then the search for the human soul would have ended a long time ago and major religions would have collapsed. There simply would not have been any point. Even Buddhism which is arguably the most “godless” religion seeks to explain life beyond birth, ageing, pain and death. Welcome to the long, dark teatime of the soul.

Bliss

Is a lazy Saturday lunch last weekend. Not too much food – just enough. Slightly surreal music from 1980’s Cantonese TV serials. And eight tubs of ice cream. And a birthday cake. For the record, we had squid in roasted pumpkin and sesame sauce, duck pie tee with mango and coriander emulsion, pasta (thanks Rachel!) with 2 sauces (confit of duck with orange sauce and onion jam, confit of pork with red wine reduction) and a deconstructed brisket of beef slow poached in broth with roasted peppers and basil oil. Photos to follow.