Albo, Tim Gurner in gaslighting Olympics
Nobody told these blokes that admitting that you’re wrong is the power move
I patronised an opulent Japanese restaurant on Sydney's Sussex Street on Friday evening named Omakase by Prefecture 48, where I partook of a 22-course extravaganza. There were many highlights, but the one that stood apart – given recent political events – was the penultimate course of Japanese Crown Melon.
Before this storied delicacy was sliced and consumed, it was handed from diner to diner along the sushi counter in its elegant box – the kind of tactile packaging you'd expect on a new Rolex. The melon itself was perfectly chilled and incredibly sweet. The chef impressed upon us how exceptional this stock was and admitted conspiratorially to having a couple of spares out back he might part with for an extra $220 apiece.
As I drove home, ripe melon on my lap, I found myself wondering how it could possibly be that Anthony Albanese considered a pair of these sensuous fruits to be a "pretty strange" gift from his Japanese counterpart Sanae Takaichi. I mean, it wasn't a free Qantas Chairman's Lounge membership for his son, but they sure as hell beat the pig's tusk given to him by the Prime Minister of Vanuatu or the model house from East Timor's Xanana Gusmão.
