Pain-au-Raison

Recipe:

Purchase precooked, frozen.
Bounce around in a car boot for a day.
Take for a jaunt on a car ferry.
Delay cooking while those around you, folk passing by, give advice.
Locate oven.
Do knowing bloke talk about Celsius and Farring-Height.
Think of a number, wop doughy globs nearest the element that’s working.
Shut oven door.
Discuss Plan B and locate a cafe that serves pain-au-raisin.

Scarecrow

Auckland city. I have always walked past this corner shop and cafe to my preferred cafe. But there lunchtime was over, expired, gone. So I returned to the cafe on the corner.

The staff member delighted with my thank you for a fine salad. Familiar accent, Rome, a lively conversation and I departed for with a free meal tucked under my arm. “See you again,”I say –
No free salad next time!
Laughter.

Oooooh, no!

An eel.

Our hottest day this summer. Happy families in the river. It’s warm.

An eel swims by. He’s superb at underwater. I depart company over water. A young woman about to enter the water. Instinc . A shriek.

I swim my lengths and depart while the woman is still negotiating terms with Neil the Eel. I am sure they will come to a fluid arrangement.

Whiskey

In the beginning there was bread
Bread from grain then from that grain
Whiskey

Kiln dried, it’s Irish you see
So the whiskey is spelled with a ‘e’

In Scotland it’s boiled over twice
In Ireland once more – distilled thrice

In a barrel three years to gain flavor
Then two drops of water to savour

From grain to whiskey to the artisan, the cooper, the barrel maker
Near forgotten skills of staves, croze, the chine

And so it came to pass on this Monday afternoon
A day from rain to a drop of water
Jameson Cooper’s Croze
In sunlight, amongst flowers
And talk
Of Whisky
And Whiskey