Royal Fruit

The King of Fruit 

Twenty years ago I had no idea there was a hierarachy among fruit. Now I know different - there is a king and a queen, and for all I know an entire court of lesser subjects. In Singapore we have even given our newest art centre the royal treatment by making it in the image of the King himself. It is fondly known as the twin durians, although I've heard a couple of ignorant tourists asking for the Big Pineapple (which actually does exist, in Queensland I believe).

Why is the smelliest fruit on earth called the King? Quite simply because the experience of the taste is absolutely divine - to aficionados anyway. And I do count myself as one. Selecting the choicest fruit is quite an art that involves a close visual inspection, a shake to listen for any telltale hollowness, and lastly and most importantly a deep inhalation of the fragrance (some would rudely say odour) exuding from the spiny outer covering. I do not pretend to be able to tell a bad one from a good one, or for that matter a 'bitter' fruit from a 'sweet' one (they all taste delicious to me). But if anyone asks me to partake, I don't need a second invitation!



The Queen of Fruit 

And as for the Queen, she is more universally accepted. The sweet segments of the fruit are the perfect complement to the slightly sticky flesh of the durian. And it is said that you must have one after the other to achieve a balance. Of course, what! This is, after all, the age of equality.

Tennis legend

Pete Sampras 

Next month will see me as usual glued to Wimbledon. I hardly watch tennis at any other time, but Wimbledon holds a special kind of attraction. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that I grew up partly in a sports-obsessed country (Australia)and it was staple fare every year - cricket in the summer, rugby in the winter, tennis in June, the Olympics, ice-skating, gymnastics, etc.

BBC World Service had an interview today with Mr Tennis Nice Guy who announced his retirement last year. He is a 14 Grand Slam winner, who often played when in a great deal of pain - and still he managed to win.

He hardly raised any objections, was always civil and polite, didn't grunt and groan when service or returning, and yet was extremely competitive and goal-oriented. His departure from tennis was a personal decision - he just had enough and wants to get on with whatever the rest of his life has to offer.

He had a cute smile too, did Pete Sampras!

Chapelle Sainte Blaise des Simples

Chapelle St Blaise 

Inside this tiny chapel in a little town called Milly-la-Foret, south of Paris, is something very unexpected, especially when you are not expecting it! The walls have been decorated by Jean Cocteau (poet, writer and film maker)- in a style quite unlike what you would expect inside a chapel. But somehow it brings the divine down to a much simpler level than we are used to seeing in a place of worship. In a tribute to Saint Blaise, Cocteau has decorated the walls with drawings of the herbs well known in this region and with which Saint Blaise (a bishop and a doctor)used to heal the sick.

There are also religious depictions of Christ, of course, but I like the juxtaposition of a divine luminary and the world of plants - because after all we are told that nature is the embodiment of the Creator and even that every created thing has a counterpart in the spiritual world. Think of all the characteristics we ascribe to flowers and herbs: rosemary is remembrance, lavendar is devotion, lily is beauty, rose is love, and so on. There are virtues reflected everywhere in creation when we come to think of it.

Gardenia Gone!

Gardenia 

They have removed the two gardenia bushes at the bottom of my block! There was no consultation with the residents, and no warning - one day they were gone leaving a gaping expanse of dirt. They left the lipstick palm intact, but that doesn't have exquisitely fragrant blooms that I can bend down to and smell the heady perfume. The next day there was a layer of dark earth. Then a bed of leafy broad-leafed plants and some smaller, very delicate looking little ones. Too delicate. They all looked dead when I walked by today.

They should have left me my gardenias.

An offer too good to refuse

The Rasmus 

Ok this is my first successful photo insertion! So here's a picture of The Rasmus cd I can't get enough of. Now I know what to do so I can make this blog a bit more lively.

Took advantage today of a 20% off storewide sale in Kinokuniya. I really shouldn't buy any more books, but I wanted a replacement copy of "Siddharta" by Hermann Hesse (my original copy has been lent to someone whose identity has long since been forgotten). It is a hardback and I couldn't believe the price at only $15 something. Then I promised my daughter a new book, so I bought her "Frenchman's Creek" by Daphne Du Maurier - I enjoyed when I was her age and she likes historical novels so this should be right up her alley. When I was in the queue I saw a copy of Dan Brown's famous indictment of the Church in "The Da Vinci Code". Of course a lot of it has been dismissed as incorrect, sensational and fabricated nonsense, but it's still on the bestselling list 6 months after publication. I'll read it first and then read all the detractors' commentaries on the net! One of them is at the Opus Dei website.

Not bad - only 3 books. Some people had shopping baskets full! I should start reading the stuff already on my shelves - by now it should take half a lifetime anyway. Some people collect bric-a-brac, I collect books.

I've been searching ...

There are plenty of songs out there - on the radio, in shopping malls, on mtv - that are so irritating that the moment I hear them I just have to remove myself from the offensive noise! That also applies to certain singers or even instrumentalists.

But I won't mention the ones I don't like, instead I have to admit to being a bit of a fan of The Rasmus. I can't explain what it is that I like about them - the lyrics perhaps, the voice certainly and the fact that I can make out what is being sung, but also the way it all hangs together. Whenever "In the Shadows" gets airtime, I have to turn up the radio and stop what I am doing to listen!

Marsala masala

For some marsala is a fortified wine from Sicily. For me, since I have foresworn all alcohol, it means masala thosai. Thosai is a thin lacey pancake made of lightly-fermented rice flour and a few herbs and spices. The masala part is a spicy, but not hot, mixture of mostly potato and other vegetable. It is pure heaven! If you don't have access to it where you live, make sure you spend your next holiday in Asia and have it for your breakfast!

Thursday Launch

This time last year we were all in the grip of the SARS scare. People were afraid to eat out, take public transport, go to the movies, etc. Concerts were cancelled, schools closed for weeks, shopping centres were like ghost towns and taxis cruised around looking desperately for custom.

Coincidentally, I am reading a book about the plague in London in 1665. It's called "At the Sign of the Sugared Plum" by Mary Hooper. Have a look at the Bloomsbury website for more details.

OK, so it's a children's book, but it doesn't mean it's not well written. Some of the things they did with the idea that it would prevent them from getting the plague were just plain nonsensical. In our enlightened times, we wouldn't be so ... unenlightened, would we? Or would we?? ... some of the supermarkets here last year were all out of vinegar because people thought it would ward off the virus. People in Korea were touting kimchi as a cure, others thought kiwifruit would do the trick.

Personally, I was worried about our three cats being rounded up and taken mewing pitifully to the slaughterhouse because SARS had been linked with people eating civet cats in Hong Kong. Never mind that the civet cat is not even remotely related to the domestic cat (actually it is one of the mongoose family).

Well, thankfully, all that is past tense and let's hope it stays in its box and never comes out to scare us all another day.