h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Mrs G and I were 30 years married at the beginning of January. We returned home from our holiday in Florida two days before the anniversary to find my father dying. (This wasn't a complete surprise, as we had been warned). He was suffering from pneumonia and heavily sedated, so he was asleep or unconscious. I sat with him as much as I could for four days, but he never woke up, never got any better and then died. In the middle of all this was the actual date of the wedding anniversary.

So we didn't feel like celebrating.

Tuesday of this week was Mrs G's birthday, so on Wednesday we went out to a very nice restaurant to celebrate both the birthday and the wedding anniversary. "Chapter One" is a Michelin-star restaurant in the basement of the Dublin Writers' Museum.

As you would expect in such a restaurant, I couldn't fault the place - everything was really nice. We had an aperitif, an amuse bouche, a starter, a main course and a dessert, wine with the dinner and I had coffee afterwards, which came with petit fours. None of the courses were huge, which is just as well because there were so many of them, and we left feeling comfortably full rather than stuffed, which is the way it should be.

If you're thinking of going, be sure to book at least a month in advance - two months, if you want to go on a Friday or Saturday.

Heartiest congratulations to you both

Congratulations Mr and Mrs G

Congratulations!

Any chance of more details of the menu?

I'm not good at remembering such things, but by referring the menus on the restaurant's website I can reconstruct.

The amuse bouche was a small sphere of feta cheese mousse with a slice of toasted organic beetroot stuck in it. There were various other little bits adding different flavours, including a seedling of a caper plant, and some marinated red onions.

My starter was venison - small pieces with the consistency of a salami, with fois gras and duck jelly. Again there were a few other flavours. While delicious, I found this odd, because the flavours didn't really mix. So you could have venison and duck jelly together, or venison and fois gras, or fois gras and jelly.

Mrs G had starter of salmon, crab mayonnaise and pickled seaweed.

For main course, I had cylinders of rabbit meat served with caramelised carrots and an interesting sauce. This one isn't on their website menu so I can't remember exactly what was in it.

Mrs G had turbot.

For dessert I had a selection of four different cheeses, including a delicious Coolea which is a crumbly hard cheese, like an edam that's been left in the air for a week, or a milder version of parmesan. Mrs G had a chocolate and espresso mousse with ice cream. Each of the desserts came with a recommendation as to which dessert wine would go well with them, and Mrs G took the Pedro Ximenez, which is a very sweet, dark sherry.

The coffee was very good, although I dropped one of the petit fours into my cup and splashed quite a bit of coffee over the table cloth. I was slagged mercilessly for this by my waiter, a sure sign that this is a Dublin restaurant. In some countries it would be unthinkable that a waiter would make fun of the clientele. In Dublin it is considered welcoming.

oh that sounds great. I have to run it by since he is interested in that kind of thing. I like the sound of your starter - I quite like weird things together that don't really go together - but that's mostly because I'm not a good cook.

And rabbit! brilliant.

at the waiter. He should have silently replaced your coffee and petits fours

although if that's Dublin-Stylee I suppose it's ok.

He did replace the coffee and petit fours.

The waiter was from Hong Kong but obviously well-versed in Dublin etiquette.

My brother-in-law who moved to Seattle regularly gets caught out when he makes some comment about someone he meets and is met by a stony silence - they don't realise he is joking.

Happy anniversary!

Talking about the waiter, I remember once with my parents we went to a restaurant that was part of a culinary school (In French it's called "restaurant d'application": the students practise there, under supervision of their teachers).
The young man who served the wine accidentally spilt a drop onto the table cloth.
His first reaction was to look around and see if the teacher had noticed.
My Dad's first reaction was to put his glass on top of the stain.

Congratulations Mr and Mrs G of Dublin* on your wedding anniversary.

What is the protocol these days for children on wedding anniversaries? I always call my mother on her wedding anniversary. On the first one after my father died, I sent her flowers, sometimes I am visiting about that time anyway, so I go and see her. These days, however, I wouldn't actually state that it is because of her wedding anniversary - I just think she might get a little sad at that time, so I generally try and pre-empt that and cheer her up.

But my children never remember, nor commemorate, our wedding anniversary. I can see their point. They weren't there at the time.

Now one of them is married, he does take more notice of the date, but doesn't actually call or send an e-mail or a text. Of course, we always give them a little gift on their anniversary. Until they have a home of their own (they're still flat-sharing in a little flat they had while students) we can't really give them much. There's nowhere to put anything!

These thoughts occurred to me because you didn't mention the girls. So who does remember wedding anniversaries, apart from the couple themselves?

*as opposed to all the other Mr and Mrs G's around

Congratulations to you and the Mrs!

And thanks for sharing the details of your celebration.

Waiters are different the world around, aren't they? In Cologne, the waiters in beer halls will torment you, it's a tradition. I remember one who gave Elektra a really hard time when she wanted mineral water with her meal.

'Im Bier ist auch Wasser,' he grumped. ('There's water in beer, too.')

Our girls certainly don't remember our wedding anniversary. While I normally organise meals for them, we left them to fend for themselves when we went to the restaurant. I believe they had frozen pizza.

I would find celebrating someone else's wedding anniversary as odd. It is a very personal thing between the two of us.

Normally when I mention how many years I've been married, Recumbentman turns up and trumps me with his extra 9 years or whatever it is. Surprised he hasn't done so already.

Can I help out? It'll be our 36th this April.

The advantage of the Eastertide wedding is that we are usually on holiday anyway on that date, so it's all special.

January, especially early January, is a miserable time. We've been out to restaurants on our anniversary and have been the only people there.

Congratulations! And no trumps.

Chapter One certainly is the bees knees

Congrats, the Gnomons!

I still send a card to my parents on their anniversary, and we would have a family party for significant ones. But my children would barely remember my anniversary, and I don't think I'd expect them to.

Many congratulations Gnomon and Mrs G

Sounds like you had a good time with good food and good company.

Websailor

Well you are a pair of stars, both of you. A star system