Luckily the band still plays on..

Hail Komarade
As the work minutes thankfully (although not quick enough) turned in to work days, I am left with only a couple of tasks to finish before the week has finally drawn to a close. My superior at work has gone on holiday for a couple of weeks. It'll be different without him each morning popping his head through the door from his office and every time looking like his Christmases have all come at once by seeing that I'm sitting at my desk with a thoughful-looking frown on my face. The numbers of people in the office vicinity have dwindled down to zero, so all I have to remind me there are people around is the smoke lingering down the corridor from a secretarys destress smoke. Still though, there is a great incentive to going to lunch. A brisk walk past the fellow collegues toward the Kasino builds up the anticipation to see who's manning the coffee machine. There's very little competition for me at work, since everyone has at least a wife (I doubt more than one) , and most have kids (but I spose that hasn't always stopped anyone in the past). I try in earnest, but I'll have to extend my efforts farther than compliments on their coffee-making expertise.

Despite its name, Kasino, I have only seen one one-armed bandit - and even then I haven't seen her steal anything). This is the local kai area and the meals are decidedly cheap, and of the three menus, most are well-stocked with various German meats - these guys certainly know their meats.

Retail Therapy
Today I finally went out and purchased a jacket. It wasn't just any jacket, but a shiny one. It's always a hard decision between fashion and practicality (i.e. not getting pneumonia), so I was happy to find one that would suit both needs. I also bought a pair of gloves in preparation for Tuesday's skiing trip to the Alps.

Ski bunnies ahoy
I'm going to be heading on Monday night and crashing at wee Hannes's place (the diminutive is due to two Hanneses working in the Juniper EMEA region, and he's the youngest - I doubt it's the endearment type of diminutive). Then on Tuesday morning, we'll head to somewhere in the Alps that I can't pronounce and return Tuesday night. Then I'll spend Wednesday cruising around Munich seeing if I can find some trouble. Munich, I'm told, is a very beautiful city. I'll remember to take some photos and upload them, all for your viewing pleasure - especially the ones of leaderhosen *shudder*.

Opera
Tonight's opera night - Il Viaggio a Reims and I was hoping I'd have some time set aside to know wtf it's about. All I know is that it's an Italian opera and it's got German Untertitlen on a screen to one side. It could be a story about a convicted paedophille for all I know, but I'm sure the program would have an English section....surely.