A surprising coincidence: Christchurch is 43° 32′ south, Siena (where we’ve spent a lot of time in recent years) is 43° 33′ north. The latitude explains why, when the sun does come out, it is burning hot. But since we’ve been here it has mostly been overcast, and the temperature then drops sharply.
We’ve been consoling ourselves for the lack of summer weather by sampling bottles of Otago Pinot Noir. The local and rather impressive supermarket has some pretty upscale bottles if we can trust these ratings: so far, though, the bottles we’ve tried have been quaffable rather than outstanding — and seemingly all put on the market too young. When I’m feeling zippier, I’ll have to find a wine shop with earlier vintages on sale: but at the moment, we’re still just a touch jet-lagged and slightly weary.
Hence concentration hasn’t been terrific for work. But the last day or so, to get into the swing again, I’ve been re-reading Smullyan’s First-Order Logic. I’ve been struck once more what a fantastic book that is (and three cheers to Dover for republishing it too): if you don’t know it, and are logically inclined, put it on your “must read” list.