Gabriel Gaté, you’re breaking my heart

Remember the good old days?  Those days before dogs needed to wear jumpers and could walk for themselves, when debt was bad and when you could watch the Tour de France without having to first endure a swarmy French cook explore the culinary mediocrity of that part of regional France where the Tour just happens to be passing through.

There are 20 stages at Le Tour but I am stumped to get past the four pillars of French delicacies: chocolate eclairs; pommes frites; bernaise sauce, and; the steak that goes with the bearnaise sauce.

I have nothing against Gabriel Gaté personally, I even went to his French cooking school in Melbourne to learn how to make California rolls…a Japanese treat that is neither Japanese nor a French delicacy. 

I don’t know much about gastronomie but I do know that a chef without a restaurant is just a cook and that someone trying to pretend to be in the South of France should try to avoid filming segments within earshot of busy tram routes in Melbourne.

Merci et au revoir

Goodbye nuclear…hello gas

It sounds like a plot from Godzilla – Japanese nuclear power plant built on fault line threatens community after earthquake causes radiation leak.  From what I recall from Mike Brady the architect, the words nuclear power plant and fault line never appeared in the same scene.  It would appear that that logic was lost in translation by the time the Brady Bunch made it Japan…Unfortunately this was the latest in a string of nuclear accidents which up until a recent moratorium had gone largely unreported.  The result, not surprisingly, is a population becoming increasingly disillusioned with the vision of nuclear power being environmently friendly, albeit they have found it is a great deal easier to spot people in the dark.  

Japan is largely powered from 2 key sources – nuclear and gas.  It currently has 55 nuclear power plants that supply 30% of its electricity with more planned (maybe).  This disaster will draw significant investigations into Japan’s nuclear power industry.  So what lessons can be drawn from this experience?

1. Don’t build anything important on a fault line;

2. Beware a Brady sporting a tiki cursed idol found in Hawaii, and;

3. Gas demand out of Japan will rise.  The Australian gas market will tighten.

Taken to the cleaners…

Australia’s Prime Minister, John Howard, single-handedly transformed ’sorry’ in to a four-letter word.  Remember when the Fonz couldn’t articulate, “I’m sorry” in Happy Days.  John Howard is the same…albeit a little less leather and a lot more green and gold parachute-material tracksuit.

John Howard’s failure to apologise to the indigenous Aboriginal community for the displacement of their peoples, crimes against humanity committed against them and destruction of their culture since colonisation is not a case of blatant insensivity.   Instead it is just about cold hard $$$.  You see, an apology is an admission of guilt and guilt is associated with liability and liability is a lawyer’s best friend.

This was a momentous occasion in Australian history for it marked the arrival of the litigious fervour from the country that gave us the notion that it is OK for you to try and sue your dry-cleaner for US$54m for having lost your pants.  As a result, we no longer live in a community that apologises for anything for we never know when it will be held against us.  In fact, if you make a mistake, get on the offensive.  Elicit any comment from the wronged party that could be construed as evidence that they were somehow responsible regardless of how implausible the circumstances or how sarcastic the remarks.  Remember, print has no intonation.

Picture this, you go through a red light and hit another car.  Accuse the other driver for having failed to stop at the intersection.  If they sarcastically respond in an ‘as-if’ tone with something along the lines of, “Yeah right.  I’m the one that went through the red light”.  Pow!  You got him!  There his words and he can’t deny it and it will hold up in court.  I wouldn’t have believed it if had not happened to a friend.

Metcash: Part II

Metcash shares fell 7% after their result in early June.  The numbers were great.  The outlook, however, disappointed (see earlier blog Metcash 101 for background).  By all accounts, the moons could not align itself any better. for Metcash  Not only is one of its largest rivals distracted by the prospect of selling itself but it is gaining market share, its a store rollout story, its refurbishment program is delivering the returns…blah blah blah.  The good news just keeps going.  The only problem is that when management gave guidance, they basically assumed that all gains made would be forgone overnight.  In short, that it’s rival would be bought and regain its lost market share instantaneously.  Think doing a u-turn on the QE2.  It will take take time.

While Metcash management is quiet ready to concede their outlook actually looks rosy, Richard Goyder, the CEO of Wesfarmers, who has just successfully won out in the battle for Coles has at least reaffirmed that he does not expect any significant turnaround in the Coles business for 3 – 5 years!  Slightly later that what Metcash has assumed by some 3 – 5 years…

You can only defy gravity for so long…I can’t see how Metcash will not be able to upgrade their forecasts on 30 August…

The Robbie McEwen Show.

Only Robbie McEwen would see no problem in naming his son Ewan.  It should therefore come as no surprise that someone like Robbie McEwen would not let a flat tyre, a crash, a bruised knee and an injured wrist get in the way of winning a stage in the toughest bike race of all.

Stage 1 of the 2007 Tour de France will go down as one of the most remarkable victories in the Tour’s history.  It wasn’t just that Robbie won, he has after all already knotched up 11 Tour stage wins before this one.  It was how he won it.

The accident took place with about 20 odd kms to go at a time when the peloton was starting to really crank up the speed.  Four members McEwen’s Predictor team dropped back and fought hard for over 15kms with Robbie just to make contact with the peloton again.

The best sprinters spend most of the last 20 or so kilos in a race jostling for the ideal position for the final sprint.  Their team mates sacrifice their chances by sitting infront of their team’s best sprinter providing not only protection from the other riders but primarily cover from the wind.

While they jostled at the front, Robbie somehow managed to weave his way through a 189 strong peloton on narrow English roads.  The overhead camera shot from one of the helicopters showed a line of 10 sprinters in single file as they slip streamed into the last few hundred metres.  Robbie was nowhere to be seen.  Sprinters can hit north of 70km/hr in the last throws of even the longest races.  Suddenly with about 50m to go a lone figure surges up the right, completely exposed to the wind.  It was Robbie.  Incredibly he powers past the other sprinters as though they were standing still.  Several try desperately to catch Robbie’s back wheel as he passes but he is too quick.  Victory is Robbie’s…

This was only Stage 1.  This Tour might yet still be more about true human feats rather than unnatural enhancements.

Allez Robbie!

Open Letter To Sydney’s Lord Mayor Clover Moore

G’day Clover,

I don’t know much about politics so it’s probably best that I ask you what it is that actually you do?  Do you have a real say in how Sydney is run or is being mayor more of a meet and greet type role?

After having read the biography of former New York mayor Rudi Guiliani, I assumed that mayor’s run cities.  You know, doing things like reduce crime and basically make life as pleasant and safe as possible for its inhabitants.

I assume that Sydney must come under a completely different mandate.  Consider for a second the non-sensical layout of the one-way streets in the CBD, the brevity of traffic lights that encourage cars to run red lights and pedestrians to risk life and limb by jaywalking, the countless homeless that tell their life story via a piece of cardboard on a street corner or the mentally ill that curse at the world.

 Logic would dictate that in a city crippled by traffic jams every alternative ought to be explored but yet parking for motorbikes is scarce (nb a fine equates to over half a year’s worth of petrol), the monorail remains limited and primarily targeted for tourists, lanes are narrow further endangering cyclists, city train stations remain unchanged from their early 1900 origins and the light rail is just a China Town peculiarity.

Remember Clover, that Rudi’s first step in cleaning up New York was to get rid of those pesky windscreen cleaners.  It was only a small step but it was a very visible step in the eyes of New Yorkers.

The claim to fame in NSW politics appears more focused on longevity (ie, a popularity contest) rather than driving progress at the risk of possibly making some unpopular decisions.

Are you just a journeyman in for the ride or will you instigate change?

Cheers 

See No Evil, Hear No Evil…The iPod Mantra

According to the Sydney Morning Herald ‘Sydney buses have struck 55 pedestrians in the city centre in the past three years’.  A shocking statistic, particularly when you consider that it really should be a great deal more.  iPods, mobiles (or cells), Blackberries and impatience are robbing us of our sense of self-preservation.  We’ve had to leave common sense at home to make room for all our gadgets.  Perhaps if we can’t see or hear danger then perhaps it can’t really impact us…

So why is Sydney such a basket case?  Poor infrastructure, traffic congestion…all the ususal suspects.  So how do the powers that be respond?  By keeping Sydneysiders on their toes…literally.

I am 6″2 and of above average fitness but have had to resign myself to the fact that I will never be able to cross a pedestrian crossing in the allotted time.  In fact, I barely get halfway before the little green man heads for the bench and the red flasher arrives.  Like his little green mate, he doesn’t like to hang around for long either and as soon as he goes solid it’s game on with a round of Frogger.

Sydney has turned itself into a fast paced centre and all it took was a little green man and a little red man.  Think of all the money New York could have saved developing a nightlife, culture and a thriving business district…