I’ve seen these ceramic graters being sold at every market and festival in Germany for the past year, and yesterday I finally got one.
It mushified a clove of garlic nicely, though getting it out again took some finessing. Rodd worked it out – you have to hold the grater on an angle and use the bristles of the brush to push down the plane of it.
I used it in my homemade ranch salad dressing alongside the Snook’s spicy baked chicken strips. (He used toban djan instead of the curry.) It was delicious!
I never ate Brussels Sprouts growing up; they were just never a thing that my Mom cooked. It may well be that the first time I ever had them was ten years ago at Porteño in Sydney. (They were were charred and tossed with bacon and they were the most delicious thing I’d ever had.) But apparently Brussels sprouts really were a lot more bitter 20+ years ago, before scientists figured out how to get high yields from less bitter heritage varieties. Huh. So if you think you don’t like them, you should give them another try.
Also a reminder that you can follow me on Mastodon at @web_goddess@aus.social. And if you’re not on Mastodon yet but still want to keep up with my posts there, you can subscribe to an RSS feed at this URL: https://aus.social/@web_goddess.rss.
At the end of November I had a couple work commitments a week apart in Paris and Luxembourg, so we decided to combine them into a single trip – the last and biggest of our time in Europe. (I suspect it’ll also be the longest blog post!) ❤️
We kicked off with a very early (6:45am!) Sunday morning TGV train from Munich.
We bought coffee and pastries to have breakfast on the train, and we just relaxed and watched the scenery as the sun came up.
By 10:30am we were crossing the Rhine into France.
The train had been moving pretty fast through Germany, but you could definitely tell when we crossed over and started really moving. (That’s about 200mph.)
The French countryside is very pretty.
We arrived at Gare de l’Est around 12:30pm and caught a taxi to our hotel. We were staying at the Hyatt Regency Paris Étoile in the northwest of the city. Not an especially touristy area, but it was fairly close to my office. After we dropped off our stuff, we headed out for a walk and ended up at the Arc de Triomphe.
We took the underground passageway and popped out right at the base of the arch.
The Arc de Triomphe honours those who fought and died for France in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. Those carvings there amused me, as the ones on the right are meant to be bearded Germans while the ones on the left are the French. In the middle under the archway is the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier from World War I.
Hey, there’s the Champs-Élysées! While it’s considered the most beautiful avenue in the world, on a rainy day with lots of traffic it just looks like any other street.
We next headed towards the Seine, passing by some very fancy shops. Mr. Snook was looking pretty fashionable himself in the Belstaff.
We crossed the Seine at the Pont de l’Alma and got our first glimpse of the Tower.
And then we were at the Tower! There’s a lot of work being done around the base, presumably ahead of Paris hosting the Olympics in 2024.
We crossed back over the Seine at the Pont d’Iéna.
On the other side, we walked up past the Trocadero Gardens to the Palais de Chaillot. Our only previous trip to Paris had been in 2001 (21 years ago!), and we both had a vague memory that this had been where we posed in front of the Tower all those years ago. Unfortunately it was fenced off for renovations…
…but I peeked through the little window. Pretty sure that’s where it was.
The date was Sunday, November 20th, which means it was our 18th wedding anniversary. I had planned something very special for dinner that night – a river cruise with Ducasse sur Seine.
This is a beautiful glass restaurant boat docked right at the Pont d’Iéna. (Note: our Uber driver was confused by the directions as the wharves are below the level of the street. He ended up letting us out on the corner and we went down the stairs to the docks.) The host took our jackets and led us to our table, which had a perfect view of the Tower.
I had booked us for 4-courses with matching wines, starting at 19:30. That meant we had an hour before the boat actually left for the 2-hr river cruise at 20:30. We had both dressed up and we were feeling pretty special.
The menu from our dinner is currently on a boat somewhere between Amsterdam and Sydney, so I don’t have exact details on what we ate. (The online menu has been updated since then.) But we started off with some small bites along with bread and butter.
There was also a small soup… potato, I think?
At 20:00, the twinkle lights went off on the Tower. 😍
For the second course, I had a beetroot and pomegranate dish while the Snook had a duck terrine.
At this point, the boat started moving! We slowly cruised east along the Seine. Here we are passing under the ornate Pont Alexandre III bridge.
We also cruised past the Tuileries Garden, where I knew a big Christmas market was happening!
Mr. Snook was enjoying himself.
The cruise goes all the way up to Île de la Cité, under the Pont Neuf, and around the island before heading back. Unfortunately the angles were such that we couldn’t really get a good view of Notre Dame.
For the mains, I had scallops while Rodd had lobster.
And then it was time for dessert! Mine involved chocolate and ice cream, while the Snook’s was clementine (orange) flavoured.
On the return trip we got to see the other side of the river (the Left Bank). Here’s the Musée d’Orsay.
And then the Tower came into sight, and we knew we were at the end of the trip. What a wonderful evening! Good food in an unforgettable setting, with my favourite person in the world.
Only a few opportunities left for a Munich bathroom selfie… This is one of my favorite handknits – Jo Sharp “Solstice” in their DK wool. I love the colours, and it’s held up so well considering I finished it in 2004! ❤️🧶
“Everything you wanted to know about pronouns but were afraid to ask” – nice Guardian article explaining why more and more companies, organisations, events, and social networks support the ability for people to nominate their pronouns. I actually covered this very briefly on an internal work meeting recently. It was prompted by someone on our team being asked for their pronouns by a tech conference, and them not understanding that it meant. I think it’s perhaps especially confusing for non-native English speakers (some languages don’t have gendered pronouns at all), and for those folks in cultures where this issue just hasn’t penetrated much yet. I explained that it’s not a big deal – there are people whose gender might not be what you expect, so if you guess their pronouns, you might get it wrong. Our internal staff directory has a place now for people to specify their pronouns if they want to, and our default Powerpoint deck includes it on the title slide as well. At our big events, we also provide stickers or pins for people to put on their name tag to indicate pronouns.
Some folks think their own gender and pronouns are pretty obvious, so there’s no need to specify. And that’s fine; it’s not like there’s any mandate or expectation. But for me, it comes down to politeness and wanting to make people feel comfortable. If me listing my pronouns (she/her/hers, for the record) on the internal staff directory helps to normalise this a bit more – and make it that much less embarrassing for someone who does need to do it – then why wouldn’t I? It’s not like it’s a huge hardship for me. I’m certainly not going to get offended if someone chooses to state theirs.
Of course, there are those who claim the sticking point is grammar. They don’t like people identifying as “they/them,” and they erroneously claim the singular they/them is incorrect. Guess what? English uses singular they/them all the time and you probably don’t even notice. In fact, I used it all through this blog post. Didja catch that? 😃
Someone I know on Facebook made the following image, which might help if you still don’t get it…
Lastly, I know that some folks are very worried they’ll get someone’s pronouns wrong. Honestly, it’s okay. It’s like getting someone’s name wrong. Just correct yourself, apologise to them if they’re there, and try to do better next time. Honestly, it’s probably less of an issue than you think. When you’re talking to someone, you’ll most likely just use “you” rather than any gendered pronouns. It’s really only an issue when you’re talking about someone, or introducing them to a third person.
