Munich

I need a break, which is why I am using a few minutes of my WFH* day for this blog post.
In my "puzzle" post, I told you that I was going away for work and referred to another Munich post from a few years ago.

Last week, I've been working at the electronica from Tuesday to Friday. We did not have a power outage this time, but we had two VERY busy first days, one fairly busy Thursday and a very boring Friday, when many stall holders started packing up their stuff shortly after lunch time because most visitors had already left by then.

I did enjoy working the trade show again, although this is not my line of work anymore. It was a welcome change from my usual office work, and gave me a chance to use all my languages again, something not necessary at all during my day-to-day tasks.
My Chinese colleagues were as polite and nice as before; some were here for the first time, while I'd met others before. My friend, whose company I worked for, had been as efficient in organizing everything as in the past. She really is very good at considering the big picture as well as thinking of the small detail that can make a big difference.

My hotel room was large and clean. We'd been to the same hotel two years ago, but there had been (and still was) some renovating and redecorating going on, which probably explains the complete absence of pictures on the walls of my room (not that I missed that! I prefer an empty wall to the sometimes rather hideous "art" in hotels).

Although I did not know it beforehand, some of my working outfits matched our booth very well. Here is an example:

Some years ago, my friend, her colleague and I had been to a Turkish restaurant in Munich one night. We all had enjoyed the food very much, and went there this year again. I wasn't particularly hungry and ordered only a starter and a salad - and look what I got:

I ended up having more food than the others who had ordered main courses :-) The food was as excellent as we had remembered it.

Altogether, I enjoyed my busy week in Munich. It was physically demanding, spending every day between 8 and 12 hours on my feet without ever sitting down once. But I knew it was going to be like this and came well prepared, both in terms of fitness as in wearing the right shoes.

This was the last time this year that I've been away from home. Now I am looking forward to the days and weeks leading up to Christmas - our beautiful Christmas market opened last night, and of course my Mum, my sister and I have already been there to sample the delicious food and drinks and browse the stalls!

* = Working From Home