Happy New Year 2024/2025 Geneva

Happy New Year!

This note is being written on January 1 on board flights from Geneva to DC/ DC to SFO. Given that we won’t land until about midnight on January 1, you will most likely get this on January 2 once we are settled at home and “re-connected.”

While Mike seemed better, he certainly is still not up to his normal, “perky” self, but he is beginning to make some snide political comments, so I’m thinking he’s moving in the right (or rather left) direction.

We hung around the hotel most of the day, beginning to catch up on the news (all of it pretty bad) and grateful we had made the change to La Reserve rather than having been stuck in the tiny room at Tiffany Hotel. Not much to report except New Years Eve dinner.. so, this note is probably mostly for the foodies in this group.

We did keep our New Years Eve dinner reservation at the hotel and knew that Mike could probably only eat some of the many different courses being served. And he continued his non-drinking/not even wine routine… in the hope that by the time we get home he’ll be back to normal. In one photo you see Mike sipping something with a straw— it’s one of those fancy non-alcoholic drinks with some kind of yuzu flavoring.

Well, the dinner was quite wonderful (some of the dishes are shown in the photos) beginning with three little cubes… one with foie gras and pear; another with lobster and citrus; and the third was beetroot and ginger… each one perfect little bite. This was followed in succession by: spider crab with green apple (sliced so thin it was like paper) and lemon; then turbot and mushroom raviolis; then wagyu beef with polenta and I think a bordelaise sauce; and then some very wonderful local cheese sitting on a sort of blueberry compote; then a mango and passion fruit “thing” with vanilla cream; and some kind of wonderful fresh lime and lime leaf dish… all followed by “mignaridises”— an assortment of little sweets and chocolates to take to the room. And I did have some wonderful wine.

We didn’t stay at the restaurant until midnight to partake in the “festivities” since we needed to pack and I don’t think Mike could have made it that long. So we retreated to pack and watch the midnight festivities around the world on CNN. As a good Nyer, it’s never New Years until I see the ball drop and for me, that’s it. And since for about the past 30 years we have nearly always been out of the country for New Years, I celebrate twice – first wherever I am and then when I see the ball drop at Times Square. Come to think of it, we’ve celebrated New Years (and my NYE birthday in some pretty exotic places, and would have been in Sofia, Bulgaria this year had we not been hit by whatever bug is going around Europe—although I’m hearing from lots of people that a similar bug is in the US as well.) in places like Tashkent, Uzbekistan; Sidi Bou Said, Tunisia; Fes, Morocco; Amman, Jordan; Cape Town, South Africa; Singapore; Quito, Ecuador; Copan, Honduras; Antalya, Turkey; Zanzibar; and more. I’m not complaining.

Anyway, I must admit that watching the midnight events around the world on TV made it really clear that Paris gets the prize. And for whatever reason they did it bigger than usual this year. While I’ve been in Paris on New Years, I’ve never actually gone to the Arc de Triomphe where the action is on that night at midnight. But, Paris capped midnight 2024 with a total extravaganza turning the Arc into a canvas for an incredible light show that celebrated the city’s landmarks and vibrating clocks that showed the passage of time. The spectacular fireworks display was beyond anything I’ve seen before and the use of graphics on the arch itself using great fonts to spell out “PARIS” was really beautiful, making the word “Paris” evident on every possible selfie and Instagram as “the” background. Frankly, six hours later when the ball dropped, it was more than disappointing—it was a commercialized stunt! Everyone in the crowd had hats sponsored by Plant Fitness emblazoned on each and every hat on every head and even the countdown showed the minute-by-minute waiting for midnight and the second-by-second wait for the ball to drop with every notice as to time change with “Kia” car dealership noted with the time left until midnight.

Oh well.

We arrived home (in Oakland) safely at about midnight on January 1, moving into January 2. The house and both cars were parked on the street and were unharmed. No catalytic converter stolen (combined we’ve had 7 stolen); no car windows broken (combined we’ve had 10 car windows broken in the past 18 months); we park on the street. Tomorrow (Thursday) seems like a good day to unpack and get resettled.

All the best for 2025… we can only hope it will be better than what we have all predicted.
Fern

PS –How can we not think it will be a better day coming when looking at the photos in this email of Ella wishing us (and all of you) a happy new year.