Yes, sitting on the coach heading towards Bavaria on 28 December last year, those words really did pass through my mind. I'd forgotten to pack the mackerel.
Now, why on earth would any sane person think about packing tinned fish when going on a half-board holiday (i.e. with breakfast and a three-course dinner included)?
Well, I'll tell you. In the final days of 2004, when all the world added a new word to their vocabulary (tsunami), I found myself in Hong Kong, visiting a former student of mine. Her parents kindly invited me to join them at a large restaurant on New Year's Eve. Looking around, I think I might have been the only non-Chinese person there. But that didn't faze [stören] me as, during my student days in Manchester and Göttingen, I had often found myself in a room full of people whose language I couldn't understand, be it Chinese, Farsi or Arabic.
Anyway, we sat at a large circular table close to an aquarium, behind which was the kitchen. The father got up, walked over to the fish tank, stabbed a finger in the direction of one hapless [unglückselig] fish swimming past and said, "That one."
About three minutes later, the fish was lying on a plate on the table, gutted, filleted and cooked. Amazing.
The father then told me why it is important to always eat fish on New Year's Eve. Apparently, the fish scales represent coins and if you eat fish, it'll be good for your money luck.
Since then, I've always done that. Even if it's just smoked salmon sandwiches or, in Budapest once, a tuna sandwich from the Subway chain.
As soon as I got to the small Bavarian village where the hotel was, I found the nearest shop selling food and bought some tinned fish and it was a good job I did so, too. The hotel didn't intend serving fish on 31 December, and I didn't feel that great either, so I picnicked in my room and made sure I had my mackerel after all since I really could use some money luck this year.
And now you know what to do in 11.5 months' time to ensure you'll be rolling in it in 2027, too: eat fish.
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