Company Trip and a new Local

Hamburg, Germany

15th June 2003

Here are some pics from my weekend. Here is a video from the canoeing trip.

I just finished watching an extraordinary documentary on the BBC about a man named Sir Isambard Kingdon Brunel whom built Britain in terms of developing a rail infrastructure, designing bridges and tunnels, assembling some large ships and, in the process, innovating and defying ways of thinking and conventions of his time. It was really inspiring to watch. There was a point at the end of the show that the narrator said that this man was truly great; he didn"t write books or songs or go on peace keeping missions, he built something practical that is still in use today. I think the same could be said for software engineering; perhaps I don"t write "fun" software but I hope my software has a practical application long after I have moved on.

This weekend we had a company event just north of Hamburg. The firm went via canoe for 12 KM along the Alster river and 12 KM back by bike. I loved the bike riding, I couldn"t believe how much fun it was but canoeing is something I will never do again. The boat kept making zig-zag trails because of the imbalance between myself and Anja and there were people walking along the path next to the river that were going faster than us.

At one stage I purposed a mitarbeitet (Working Partnership) with some of my co-workers. I would then tie my boat to theirs and take a moment to enjoy the river. It has to be said that you can really learn how well you work as a team when you canoe with someone and how long or short your temper really is.

On the journey back I had a nasty spill with the bike I was riding. I was coming down a steep hill with a left turn on a slope and I ended up rolling off the bike head first and doing a tumble or two. I"m walked away covered in dirt but otherwise unharmed but the lens cover on my camera not longer functions. I either have to open the thing up to try and fix it or make sure to store my camera carefully from now on. Other than that it was wonderful to bike past fields with horses, beautiful forests, quite suburban neighborhoods and really get to see a lovely part of Germany that few outsiders could ever imagine exists.

After the bike ride I had a game of catch foot ball with my boss and a few co-workers in a parking lot next to the river. Rainer would always throw the ball really hard and it would end up going around me. I was worried that it might hit a car. I told Rainer to either throw it properly or tell me which car was his so I could stand in front of it. He replied with "all of these cars are mine". It was then I realized that all the cars in the parking lot were company cars.

After that we had a nice BBQ in a park and sang a few songs. I was a bit disappointed with the catering through. The chicken wings they made were really cold in the center. But all in all it was really nice chance to hang out with my co-workers and spend some time together. We all work on different projects and often in different parts of Germany so it"s not often we get to meet up.

Once the BBQ was over we all drove up to a beautiful 4 star hotel with a country club and golf course. I was really tired by the time we got there. So instead of joining everyone in the open bar, I got a massage while watching the news and then had one of the best nights sleep I"ve ever had in my life.

The next morning I woke up and Anja and I had breakfast in the restaurant before heading down to Bremen.

Instead of taking the Elb tunnel to get out of Hamburg we drove through the city. What a difference. If you drive through the Elb on your way through Hamburg you"ll think the place is an industrial wreak but if you drive through the city you get to see how beautiful and cosmopolitan it really is.

We were going to meet up for a birthday party but the birthday boy was on his way to Paris a bit earlier than expected. We ended up going to the library to get Anja some books for her school work, buying the weeks groceries and getting my mullet cut off at a hair stylist.

Afterword we drove back to Hannover and after a little rest we headed out to an English tavern here in town. The place was unbelievable. One of the big complaints I"ve had about Hannover was that there weren"t any good pubs around. This place has solved that problem. There were people speaking English everywhere, the bar man was from Devon and the drink selection was massive and everything was really cheap. I don"t think I"ll ever quite replace the Irish pub in Bremen but this is a nice alternative to the hour drive up to Bremen.

At the end of the night I had a quick chat with Hayley on the phone about a trip to Fiji. It looks like this trip to the Western half of the Pacific Rim I have planned is going to be quite costly.