Tag Archives: Germany

Asia, Europe, Germany

Surviving – Notes on Leading an Ordinary Life III

We lost :(( all the heavy work in the last two weeks in vain. That’s life, you can’t win them all. But at least I know that I still can work and can add value. And I was reminded that there are a lot of capable and friendly colleagues around, who can make even long hours of work a rewarding experience. Although I have to watch out that I don’t loose the work-life- balance. It might sound improbable to many non-consultants, but I consider it an achievement not to boot up the company’s laptop, not to check company email during the entire weekend during such a highly important phase like a proposal is. I even missed the message about us having lost the deal for a full day as I had not checked my mail until the previously announced deadline. Continue reading Surviving – Notes on Leading an Ordinary Life III →

Asia, Europe, Germany

Surviving – Notes on Leading an Ordinary Life

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I work again. Quite suddenly. 10 days ago I received a call of a colleague and couldn’t say “No”. Proposal, tough work usually. But honestly…it started to be a bit boring just to sit there all day and sort photos. About the only thing I got done was uploading a number of best-of series to Flickr. No appointments, no deadlines. I became very inefficient. One day I wanted to send a letter with registered post, so I had to get to the post office. I messed around all day until I noticed that the post office would close soon…at 6:30pm. I hurried there just to note that by now all ordinary people had returned from work and queued up in long lines in front of the post office to deal with their post chores. I had to wait in line for about 20 minutes. Continue reading Surviving – Notes on Leading an Ordinary Life →

Asia, Europe, Germany

IAA – International Motor Show Cars

IAA…that’s not really about Asia, but I have been to two Motor Shows in Shanghai, so I thought I simply have to take the chance to go to the IAA (“Internationale Automobil-Ausstellung” or International Motor Show Cars) right here in Frankfurt and see what’s the difference. The difference is clear right from the very beginning: In Frankfurt (nearly) all is about ecological locomotion. In Shanghai it was a mere display of car makers’ abilities: “We are here, we sell these cars.” Continue reading IAA – International Motor Show Cars →

Asia, China, Europe, Germany

Germany Interlude

The fly-back started off so great…but continued quite disappointing. I had my last project fly-back, paid by my company, thus, Business Class, on 27-APR. The first time with China Eastern, which I in the beginning had some concerns with. But a word of a colleague proved true: They aren’t so long in the long haul business, their planes are brand-new. And so it was: Very comfortable and relaxing.

Arrived in Germany an hour late, but no issue, was still 6am. The sun started to raise into a cloud-less sky, the weather promised to become as great and hot as reported over weeks in the news. I made a very very good decision: I threw my suitcases into a corner of the room, briefly checked my racing bike, which I had not moved for 2.5 years, filled up some air into the tires, loaded 2 bottles with water, changed into some biking wear and off I went: At 7:30 I was cycling out of Frankfurt. Not much traffic yet, fairly chilly. But fresh clear air you never get in Shanghai. As soon as I left Frankfurt behind me I enjoyed nature pure, even saw rare birds (I believe one was a buzzard, another right beside the street was definitely a pheasant). I was pleased to note that my bike ran as smooth as ever and that I was still able to do 50km in a good 2 hours. 😉 Continue reading Germany Interlude →

Asia, China

Flyback

About every 4 months I get a flyback, means: I return to Germany for something, which supposingly is vacation. Didn’t fully work out as vacation this time. Those, who know me, can imagine why. I had just one week in Germany. And nearly no entirely ‘free’ day… I wanted to see people, and there are even some people who wanted to see me 😉 Makes in total a pretty packed week. Continue reading Flyback →