All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy

So early Monday morning I headed for the office. You could tell it was going to be a beautiful day; at least as far as the weather was concerned.


We didn't get to enjoy the weather much, because the three of us spent most of the following days in a cubicle originally meant for one person alone...

... and worked. A lot. But one evening we went out and had a drink (or two). Right behind the hotel is a place called Esplanade Biermarkt. They have a beer menu with more than 100 varieties from all over the world.

The menu was clearly asking too much of Sonja, who is not known as a heavy drinker. So when the waitress appeared for the second time, she panicked slightly and selected something that she thought sounded nice. It did, but she overlooked that it contained 10.5% alcohol and came in a 750ml bottle. When Stephan pointed it out to her (with a mix of astonishment and amusement on his face), she truely panicked, but the waitress was already gone. Agonising moments passed in which Sonja pondered what to do, while I deliberated if I should take "before" and "after" photos of her. But to her great relief the bottle arrived still sealed and the waitress agreed to exchange it for a different one, smaller and less alcoholic.

Sonja flew home the next day to resume work in Cologne. And the day after that, Stephan left me too. When I got into the empty office Friday morning, he had left lots of things for me behind: files, a stapler, an apple... everything marked with a post it "instruction". The stapler said "beware - technology" and the camomile tea was apparently meant to calm my nerves:

But at the end of the day it was clear that I would have to come into the office again Saturday morning for a telephone conference and I needed something stronger than this. So I went back to the Biermarkt and had the beer Sonja returned unopened two nights before:

When I ordered it, the waitress asked me if I knew that it was a large bottle. She told me that a couple of nights before someone had been horror-stricken, when the bottle arrived and sent it back. Therefore she (the waitress) would now always make sure that the customer was aware about the size. So Sonja made a lasting impression.

But a large bottle and lots of alcohol was what I needed. I know, you shouldn't drink to forget your misery. But trust me ... that night it helped.