On Thursday, 16 September, 2010, the usual small group of Melbourne-based Fellows and some of their partners gathered at Muttis Restaurant for the annual celebration of the birthdate of Alexander von Humboldt. All were conscious of the fact that the celebration dinner should have been two days earlier but, unfortunately, Muttis Restaurant, a more recently established restaurant in Elgin Street with an excellent Southern German-style cuisine, does not open on a Tuesday and the opportunity to hold our birthday celebrations with Muttis owner, Ulrich, and his staff, seemed too good to miss. Ulrich takes pride in his own German-style beer which is specially brewed and supplied to him (according to his instructions) by a small Melbourne brewer. It is indeed an excellent drop!
The average age of our attendees was considerably reduced by the acceptance of our invitation to join the celebration, by the recently arrived DAAD Lecturer in the School of Languages and Linguistics at Melbourne University, Ms Tina Stubenrauch (far right in the picture), and her German Language Teaching Assistant, Ms Betina Sedlaczek (centre), pictured here in learned discussion, with Rolf Beilharz obviously listening and learning.
The consensus shared around the table by those attending (as pictured from left to right: Ian Nicholls, Siham Bryant, Vyrna and Rolf Beilharz, Betina and Tina (as above), Jill Finlayson, Joyce and John Nelson, Robin Hill, Gary Bryant and Chris Nicholls (with Trevor Finlayson taking the picture)) was that it was an excellent choice of venue for the occasion and perhaps worth a future visit, with, hopefully, a larger attendance.