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I engage in something very miserable every day: I eat last night's left-overs from a plastic box on my desk. It saves me money and it gets me through from lunch (for that is what it allegedly is) to the next evening's meal (also known as tomorrow's alleged lunch).
When I arrived in Australia seven years ago, I admired this frugality.
But, actually, what could be more miserable than last night's pasta reheated to a soggy mess in a microwave, and eaten in front of a computer screen? Maybe catching pneumonia on a rainy day in an out-of-season English resort but not many other things.
The French have a different - and better - conception of the midday meal. It is called lunch.
It is best served in local restaurants far from tourist areas. It is well-priced and, so, affordable to ordinary people. It may involve wine but not too much. Lunchers go back to work.
It is a ritual. At 12.30pm and again at 1.45pm, the restaurant is half empty. It may involve talking to a colleague or a spouse or even a lover or it may just involve communing with a book. The set menu will be best - just trust the patron and the chef. The food will be freshly cooked.
And there will be an important and essential part of this ritual: phones will be invisible. If you want to see text messages, go to the toilets and look secretly, but best of all, forget about them until you leave. You don't need to clutch your phone like it's a baby's comfort blanket.
This prompts a rule: looking at text messages while talking to someone else is deeply insulting. Either do it to insult, or don't do it.
And certainly not at lunch.
I've had some lunches in my time. I used to be a labour correspondent, and labour correspondents used to lunch at a marvellous place in Soho in London called the Gay Hussar. It was run by Hungarians who had fled the country after the Soviet invasion in 1956. It had that central European charm (not to mention an unchanging menu which featured roast goose).
A good lunch was known in the trade as "a double bottler". One was never enough.
Unfortunately - or fortunately - I missed the lunch which ended mid afternoon but where the journos retired to an upstairs room for a sleep on the floor, and then came down for dinner.
I have no yearning for that kind of lunch. Work does need to be done in afternoons.
But something more of a ritual than the plastic box with the soggy spaghetti would be nice.
Germans still believe in canteens, and their works canteens are open to outsiders. You might have roast duck and red cabbage as you sit shoulder-to-shoulder with actors at the Berliner Ensemble. Or you can sample the herring at the Scandinavian embassies. Or the pork knuckle at the police canteen.
Australia needs to discover the canteen. Or at least something more appetizing than last night's reheated misery.
HAVE YOUR SAY: Do you have leftovers for lunch? How often do you go to a restaurant for lunch? Have you been to one of the German work canteens or had the set menu at lunch in France? Email your response to echidna@theechidna.com.au.
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IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:
- A Senate inquiry into supermarkets continues. The federal agriculture minister has declared ministers need to be held more accountable for their prices, expressing confidence suppliers will soon secure better deals with grocery chains.
- Brittany Higgins has released a statement on her Instagram stories following the high-profile defamation trial Bruce Lehrmann brought against Network Ten.
THEY SAID IT: "Most Parisian diners are de facto restaurant critics. Having eaten the same dishes at home since childhood, they know their onion soup" - Simon Kuper
YOU SAID IT: Garry talked about the Law of Personal Responsibility, and raised the suggestion that those saved after making silly choices might have to volunteer for an emergency service organisation as part of the repayment. You had a lot to say.
Tony, Ross and John were each quite succinct in their replies: "Totally agree", "Yes! Absolutely!!!" and "Yes", they said, respectively.
Erik was one of a few to raise a similar issue: "The only problem I see with your suggestion is: would you want one of these idiots in your volunteer organisation? At the least, though, make them pay some of the cost of their rescue."
Similarly, Deb says, "I'm not sure I would want stupid people fighting bushfires and providing other emergency assistance, particularly if they were doing it against their will."
Joan has had some experience with stupid people. "I watched a young bloke swinging his legs over the edge of Kings Canyon to sit just up from where there was evidence of a not long ago land slip. Also along the Great Australian Bight where signs clearly state 'don't go near the edge because it crumbles into the sea and you can't be rescued', there they are ... lying down to peer over the edge and get a photo. My husband was one, many years ago, and all I could do was yell at him to throw me the car keys."
Bruce, from Tasmania, was also one of many to raise a certain yacht race. "A good example is the entitled yachty types who partake in risky activities and expect taxpayer funded rescues when they get into trouble. The Sydney-Hobart race comes to mind. People partaking of such activities should have to take out an insurance policy to cover cost of rescue."
Caroline has seen some good come from a similar program: Community Service Orders. "People who have cheated on tax or done shoplifting or theft etc are not sent to prison or heavily fined. Instead they work at weekends in the community. When I was trustee of a Sea Scout Hall that needed maintenance, I had plumber, carpenter, tree surgeon, painter as well as some with limited skills learning from and assisting them. The hall was transformed in a couple of months. This does multiple things, it gets needed community jobs done, it teaches people about community service, and it keeps people out of prison and from financial woes due to time off work and heavy fines."
Chris notes the volunteer organisation Marine Rescue, which helps people who get into trouble on the water. "Many of their rescues are due to empty fuel tanks or flat batteries. They have an effective system of sending out emails/texts after the rescue asking for donations to cover fuel, etc."
Steve Evans is a reporter on The Canberra Times. He's been a BBC correspondent in New York, London, Berlin and Seoul and the sole reporter/photographer/paper deliverer on The Glen Innes Examiner in country New South Wales. "All the jobs have been fascinating - and so it continues."
Steve Evans is a reporter on The Canberra Times. He's been a BBC correspondent in New York, London, Berlin and Seoul and the sole reporter/photographer/paper deliverer on The Glen Innes Examiner in country New South Wales. "All the jobs have been fascinating - and so it continues."
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