October 2007 Archives

I have been too busy to comment on the final result of the World Cup game played last weekend, or indeed la petite-finale the day before...

There have been some commentators bemoaning the loss of a spectacle, with the almost purely defensive tactics of the English in almost all of the games running up to the final. The fact remains, as one of my (English) colleagues pointed out, the English were the closest out of either team in the Final to score a try...

Sadly, for New Zealand All Blacks and the Australian Wallabies, it doesn't matter how many games you win between World Cup Tournaments, when the game you really want to win in, you don't even get to play in...

My lovely English colleague says, and she is right, that the All Blacks would have given anything to have been in the last 2 World Cup Finals, and to have won one of them..., and those other 22 matches they've lost to the All Blacks amount to nothing.

Another colleague, a Frenchman, on his way to a new posting in the land of the long white cloud mentioned to me this week how good it was to have been a supporter of Les Bleus at a pub in Singapore a few weeks ago, with a bunch of Kiwis when they beat the All Blacks...(may not have been not such a good feeling at half time when the ABs were in front)

(Translation: If you believe one day that the All Blacks can win the World Cup)

Well, the spate of email Kiwi World Cup jokes has diminished, and I've seen a few Aussie jokes pop up too, but I haven't seen any email jokes circulating on the departure of the French from the World Cup campaign last weekend.

My NZ colleagues are over the disappointment of their quarter-final departure, (at least, so they say) and a few of us will pay some attention to the final on Sunday morning, our time, because, it is after all a World Cup Final. Alas, for the Kiwis, the buzz in the office has gone, and it will be another four years to build up to the next campaign.

Dinner on Sunday night was a very special occasion, and we made our way to the south side of the Yarra to New Restaurant of the Year, in the recently released Good Food Guide, Rockpool Bar and Grill, the establishment of which has been a feature of a recent program on Pay TV here in Australia.

The restaurant has an open kitchen, superb fittings and a wonderful warm ambience, created by low, but not dim lighting, noise suppression materials meaning that you could hear the buzz of conversations but not be overwhelmed by the noise, attentive service, without being over the top, and knowledgeable advice from the Waiting staff and the Sommelier, created excellent atmosphere in which to enjoy the meal to come.

We were seated close enough to the kitchen to see the chefs at their work stations, working quietly and efficiently (no Gordon Ramsay tirades visible when we were there) Our viewing of a range of Food Channel on Pay TV has given us a new appreciation of the difficulties in working in a restaurant kitchen. But, having seen what happens in this one admittedly well staffed kitchen, perhaps what we see on TV is but a small glimpse of the real action, where the team in the kitchen works like a well oiled machine...

The menu is a broad one, and the wine list is superb, bringing back very pleasant memories of our visits to Saint Emilion and Hermitage, Cote du Rhone in France in 2003. The list was so wide that it was a pleasure to be able to get advise from an exceedingly knowledgeable sommelier, to make the choice of a wine to go with different main courses much more stress free. And, as I’d had a sneak preview of the menu on the internet, I was able to choose without any trouble, a starter of Lobster, avocado and zucchini salad with hazelnuts and lime mousse. This pleasing combination of flavours was an excellent start to the meal. G enjoyed a crab omelette with prawn sauce, followed by rump steak, and we shared side dishes of cabbage and potato gratin, and boiled green vegetables with lemon and olive oil dressing. We were not able to resist a third course: G choosing cheese, with some French Beaufort cheese, Will Studd imported Stilton and a washed rind cheese; and for me a rhubarb and apple crumble, with vanilla ice-cream and crème anglais, the size of which was surprisingly generous.

The occasion?

Thirty years together…(and the equivalent of a voucher to subsidise the event to ease the pain…)

As G has often remarked, you don’t get a sentence like that for murder…

Yesterday, the current sorry state of antipodean rugby was discussed at much length after the departure of both the Wallabies and the All Blacks from the World Cup for 2007 at the quarter final stage.

This ignoble combination of events resulted in some black humour emails circulating, including this one:

Q: What’s the difference between the All Blacks and a tea bag?

A: The teabag stays in the cup longer.

Apparently 141 New Zealanders who had booked packages for the World Cup semi-Finals and Final departed Auckland yesterday for France despite the disappointment of their team failing against France at the weekend. The only reason I am not saying how many Aussies did the same is that I don’t know. But it would be a bit of a tragedy to cross paths with either the All Blacks or the Wallabies on their way home, at Singapore or Dubai.., except that you might be able to tell them exactly what you thought of their performance on Saturday night…

And to finish (for now, at least)
"I would have thought that the knowledge that you are going to be leapt upon by half-a-dozen congratulatory, but sweaty team-mates would be inducement not to score a goal."
-- Arthur Marshall

As I have come relatively recently to an appreciation of Rugby in it's various forms, it's probably less of a disappointment than it might be for others I know, to have to report that both Australia and New Zealand have failed at the quarter final level of the World Cup, despite NZ being the favourites, and Australia having looked pretty good in the pool matches.

Nevertheless, as mentioned in my previous post, it's what happens on the day that counts. So, the shock of having neither team progress will wear off after a while.

Maybe there is even a tinge of relief that I can front up to work tomorrow, for if the All Blacks had won, there might have been a certain amount of teasing of the Aussies in our workplace. All I have to put up with is the pleasantly surprised reaction of an English colleague who had no expectations that her team could win, but who will be thrilled, all the same!

Since my last post, I have had some cause to consider the ongoing puzzle of why the All Blacks have been the best performers in Rugby Union internationals since 1987, but have failed to win the World Cup, the only event that they really want to win.

But, as I ponder this puzzle, I have also been considering the psychological status of the many Kiwis I am acquainted with, and what it would mean to be unsuccessful yet again in the current World Cup Campaign. That doubt exists in their minds, is very clear, because as we all know, it doesn't matter in the slightest what has gone before, it's the performance on the day that counts. And there are still 3 hurdles to get over, before they can bask in reflected glory, and they dare not put on an arrogant face at this stage of the competition, as they know how awful it feels to not make the Final...

Still, many interesting conversations occur between the keen rugby fans at work, with pre match discussions on the pluses and minuses for various teams and chances of winning, and the post match post mortems of what went wrong and why.

If I'm beginning to sound like a bit of a rugby fan, it's mainly because I'm in withdrawal from the end of the AFL season, and in the gap before the cricket season begins in earnest. And, it's great fun to gently stir the pot, to get reactions from my one eyed colleagues.

Now that the AFL and NRL grand finals are over, we can finally turn our attention to the more interesting stages of the Rugby World Cup, and the quarter finals which commence this weekend.

Prior to my current employment, I knew almost nothing about Rugby, and had never actually watched more than one game, that one being the Rugby League grand final in 1998, when Melbourne Storm won the Grand Final in the first year of participation in the NRL.

Following some indoctrination into the joys of Rugby by various people, I have now attended a Rugby League Test Match between Australia and New Zealand, and I’ve watched quite a few games on TV, so I know a little bit about it, and enough to enjoy watching a match, especially when they are close.

Like my Kiwi work mates, who have come lately to Australian Rules football and know nothing about household names such as Alex Jesaulenko, Jack Dyer or Carl Ditterich, I know nothing about the legends of Rugby Union, or League for that matter, unless they were a household name in Australia. For that, read David Campesi, John Eels et al.

Earlier this week I read an interesting article about rugby in The Age newspaper, and only realised at the end that the author, David Kirk, was the only All Blacks Captain to have ever won the World Cup, and who just happens to be CEO of Fairfax. (owners of The Age) I have to admit that I have never heard of him before reading the article. And neither did I know Anton Oliver either, who apparently is also a former All Black who can string more than two words together coherently.

You can possibly read from this that I may have cast an aspersion or two on the abilities of rugby players to be articulate and well read.

That there are fine examples of rounded, educated and articulate rugby players, I do not doubt. What I do have a problem with is the force with which bodies collide in both forms of Rugby, but particularly in League. And I don’t enjoy watching this type of incident in AFL either. But, now that I have discovered that there are a few hunks, playing rugby, it’s a bit more of an incentive to watch…

The weekend now approaches, with some anticipation. Will the All Blacks falter at the first real hurdle that they face when they play France in the early hours of Sunday morning, our time? France was shocked by their unexpected loss to Argentina in their first match, and I am certain that they would not have wanted to play the All Blacks in Cardiff this weekend, much preferring to have played off in Paris against a lesser opponent.

The Wallabies face up to England on Saturday evening, our time, and while they should win, will they?

A fresh pot of coffee you didn't make yourself...
An unexpected phone call from an old friend...
Green stoplights on your way to work...
The fastest line at the grocery store...
A good sing-along song on the radio..
Your keys found right where you left them.