The Journal

Every embassy keeps a journal. It is not a marketing device; it is an obligation. The Ministry of Culture takes the view that a nation posted abroad must explain itself patiently, in writing, to whoever wanders past — because the alternative is a nation that is merely present, and Kaltora has never been interested in being merely present.

Kaldo's is the first embassy of Kaltora, and it is at the rear of the DADAA Building on Adelaide Street, Fremantle. Around the back, ten seconds from Clancy's, a short walk from the Fremantle Markets. We are not open yet. But the writing does not have to wait for the door, and there is a great deal to explain: why a king holds the title Defender of Proper Coffee, why Kaltoran street food is assembled rather than cooked, why the national dish is eaten with one hand and no cutlery, and how to say hello in a language that fewer than sixty-one million people speak.

So this is where we put the long answers. Some of it is history. Some of it is coffee. Some of it is Fremantle, which we are still learning, and which has turned out to be a great deal more Kaltoran than it realises. New dispatches arrive when there is something worth saying — which, the Ministry insists, is not the same as regularly.