Six nations prognostications

Round 3 of the Six Nations is almost upon us and it provides three mtches, any or all of which could produce an upset.

Ireland vs Wales

Ten days ago this looked a certain victory for Wales. Ireland have been totally unconvincing so far and Wales have looked quite sharp. However, Ruddock's resignation and Thomas' withdrawal through injury must raise questions about the Welsh. They are still, on paper, a stronger team and the main thing Ireland have going for them is that the game is at Lansdowne.

Ireland 23 - Wales 30

France vs Italy

I wish this game was in Rome but it's not. Home field will not be much of an advantage to the French as the Parisian crowd is as fickle and unpredictable as the French team. France will also miss Fabien Pelous, who is injured. The French midfield has been really woeful so far and if it continues wobbly, Italy have a real chance. Still, France will probably muddle through.

France 20 - Italy 10

Scotland vs England

At last, an interesting Scotland - England game! The Scots have looked in remarkably fine fettle recently but the England forwards must have salivated watching the scrum that led to the Welsh penalty try. The Scots will play like men possessed in front of a Murrayfield crowd doing a collective impersonation of the clan McAdder but they won't be able to keep it up against a bigger, faster, fitter England side. Expect this one to go like England - Wales; close for an hour and then a rout for twenty minutes.

Scotland 13 - England 41

Another Canada US difference

It has struck me ever since I came to Canada how different the judicial systems and traditions of the USA, Canada and Britain are. Oversimplifying, the USA has a long tradition of judicial activism and, especially in recent years, has produced a highly polarised Supreme Court and quite astonishingly (to a Brit/Canadian) vicious battles over court appointments. Britain on the other hand has a fairly weak judiciary and it's pretty much exclusively recruited from impeccably small "c" conservative Establishment sources by the sort of secretive process the Brits love so much.

Canada is really very different from either. Canada's Supreme Court has, since 1982, wielded powers almost as great as the US Supreme Court and hasn't been afraid to make bold rulings in highly sensitive areas; language rights, gay marriage, healthcare guarantees and so on. Despite that it would be unfair to describe the court, or appointments to it, as politicised. This article in today's Globe and Mail is highly illustrative. Three candidates are being considered for a vacancy on the court by a newly elected and very conservative Prime Minister, yet none of them can be considered controversial. Two are highly thought of judges with no obvious political baggage and one is a distinguished legal scholar. One is even married to a former NDP provincial cabinet minister. All three would give the American right apoplectic fits.

Another interesting difference is that, should Madam Justice Hunt be appointed, the Supreme Court of Canada would have a female majority which contrasts rather sharply with the two female members of the US Supreme Court and the solitary female Lord of Appeal in Ordinary in the UK.

A request

I want to have some fun with my profile page. Specifically I want to add some "endorsements" or "health warnings", in which the honoured members of the f-list give the hoi polloi reasons why they might or might not want to "be my friend". So have at it. Be kind or be rude but please be your usual witty, amusing selves. Comments are open and you can even be anonymous though I think that would be a bit gutless.

A slow walk around Loblaws.

A some of you know, I have spent a fair amount of my working life in and around the food industry, as well as being somewhat food obsessed generally. As a result I sometimes spend more time in the supermarket looking at products I would be most unlikely to buy than the average punter. Today I was struck by a number of trends in my local Loblaw (1) store.

Fresh, chilled entrees finally seem to have arrived. Of course, they've been around in the UK for around twenty years but logistics has always been a huge barrier here. I remember the discussions at a large US soup company some fifteen years ago where it was not considered viable to take the product to market even in the Boston-Washington corridor.

The general range of "Indian" (2) products available is now more or less comparable to a Sainsbury or Tesco. It's only taken an extra fifteen years for that to happen! Most of thse products are either manufactured here or imported from the UK. Next to nothing comes from India. Oddly enough, Indian stores here carry Indian convenience foods but the selection is quite different. That's also true of certain kinds of Chinese food, though typically not entrees.

The Thais are now exporting for the European/North American market. There are loads of Thai manufactured products on the shelf that no Thai person would ever buy and that you wouldn't find in a Thai grocery here; premixed salad dressing and pad thai sauce for example. Even some of the things that you might see, like curry pastes or roasted chilli paste, have obviously been made rethought for the western market; different packaging, smaller sizes and higher prices! They've probably been substantially dechillied for the Canadian market too but I don't know that for sure. Thai food in restaurants here is usually terribly bland. Oddly though, they didn't have something as basic as fish sauce.

FN1 - Loblaw is a fairly upscale supermarket chain that pioneered premium private label in Canada and very obviously rips off marketing concepts from Sainsbury and Tesco.

FN2 - "Indian" as in Finchley. The sort of thing the average UK high street curry house serves as reinterpreted by Tesco.

Kitten progress

As well as the meds, I'm now feeding the kittens Feline Development Formula three times per day as well as as much kibble as they want. I'm also keeping them segregated from the older ctas, not least because we suspect Jane may be carrying coccidia. Her records seem to imply that her littermates died from it or something similar. I'm cautiously optimistic. I think G&W kitten has maybe gained 25g or so in the last 48 hours which is promising but I'm still dealing with a fairly worrying looking litterbox. I've decided not to go to SkiBurn this weekend because I think I need to stay with these guys. Cross your claws for us!