Flotte Lotte

I actually felt very positive about my country this morning when I heard a very offensive person, appointed to a public position, had "voluntarily" resigned.

Voluntarily, under a wave of protests from the public. It shows it can be done and although I really ought to simply ignore these obnoxious people, I think it is a dereliction of my duty to protect my grandchildren.

Helping to educate my grandchildren is becoming a passion. I am desperately still searching for my "1066 and All That" and having to work on memory mode at the moment. Today while researching I learnt Gareth the Great is a go faster van. I would have thought that he was a "Bad King" under the 1066 format. Must have been Welsh and I seem to remember everything Welsh was Bad. But there again we do have an English Prince of Wales.

Until I find the book will limit my history lessons to Modern Day (16thC to 1914). The days when we had a Fleet worthy of our passports. As an expat in Germany, I am getting increasingly worried about the Foreign Secretary's ability to get his colleague the Defence Secretary to send a gunboat down the Rhine and ensure Her Majesty's request for Mrs Merkel to afford me every assistance, is adhered to as required.

The German word for Fleet is "Flotte". The adjective "flott" means quick, zippy, fast, brisk, perky, lively. And thus once combined to a female noun becomes "flotte". As in "Die flotte Charlotte" which perfectly describes my granddaughter. Charlotte is often shortened in German to "Lotte" and thus we get "Die flotte Lotte".

So I had a smile the other day when I picked up a local version of Country Life magazine in a doctor's waiting room and saw the article and photo on the left side of today's photo, Charlotte had been an ace on her first sledging trip a few weeks ago, following in her mothers footsteps 25 years previously,

The sledges, built by a local family business, are said to be the fastest in the amateur fun world. A basic one seater model costs around £200.

And so why the right-hand photo in the collage?

"Flotte Lotte" is a trademark name for a bit of kitchen equipment you may know as a food mill or puree sieve or if a French fan, moulinette. In fact, the French did get the patent on this machine in 1931 and first sold it as a Moulin-Légumes, then as a  Légumex and finally in 1957, Moulinex. The company making them then took this on as it's company name and today produces some 2 million a year.

About the same time as the French patented their design, a Mrs Charlotte Giebel was making them in Germany with success and thus the birth of "Flotte Lotte" in the vernacular as the generic name for this marvel machine.

The trademark name belongs to the 1943 founded GEFU who make a large range of kitchen gadgets and their version costs around 70€.

So that was today's history lesson dear Charlotte and if you show signs of further interest in your Irish Winter Olympics Team ambitions, I think I might know of a suitable Christmas present for 2018. I doubt mother who is a keen producer of homemade jams, purees etc needs another Flotte Lotte in her stocking.