Monthly Archives: September 2007

Hi all,

I’m back from my business trip to Herzogenaurach, Germany. It was a tiring 4-day trip because it treatened my health and made us homesick.

On Monday, I took metro then the train to Schipol Airport. It was raining a bit and the airport was busy with people and following the new airport rules. My manager and I met at the check-in counter. We left Amsterdam and flew to Nuremberg Airport in Germany. Usually we go directly to a hotel in Herzogenaurach but our hotels – Ramada Hotel, Herzo hotel and others -were full, luckily there was one more hotel available, the Movenpick hotel, at the airport. Our Finance boss rented a car, so we followed her to our office in Herzogenaurach. Adi offices can be found in 3 different locations around the area but you need to drive to each place.

The user test workshop starts on the same day. I think I’m the only one who doesn’t speak German and cannot understand 90% of the language. So, of course when the Germans started to speak German, I started to have a daydream instead.

First day, as usual, there was a dinner arranged for the participants. So, we walked to the town and went to an Italian restaurant. At first, we were sitting at a long table outside the restaurant. The rain suddenly came down and we all took our things, drinks and servies and went inside. The food was wow. I had wine, bread and special butter, wine, some kind of special salad on a very big plate, wine, special pasta with seafood and nice combination of whatsoever which I cannot remember, wine, dessert and espresso. I was so full I almost couldn’t walk back to the car. On the way back to the car, all of us were wet from the heavy shower. Nice experience, we don’t have that kind of rain in Netherlands.

On our second day, after having breakfast (again German style), we took a taxi to the office. Took us about 45 minutes to the office because there was a construction on the way. Nothing much I can say about the workshop because it’s for another departments area. But now I get the idea how they work. Hmm.. To me the finance session was fun, not for the others. Many things will be left out from Rbk system and many new things to learn for us as well. Later the finance people had a special session for the big project brainstorming. (You know that this is about the migration of our Rbk system to Adi system, don’t you? It’s a very big project indeed.)

That evening, we went to a typical German restaurant on a small hill. My manager P (my direct boss), another manager, an IT guy, my Finance Project Director from UK (my other direct boss) and I enjoyed the huge meal on the table. Later on a former Reebok Controller (for my countries), now working on projects as well, joined us. We had a nice time that evening and we talked about our projects, their projects, and my projects.

The third day we had a morning session with the user test workshop team, then off to the brainstorming session again, lunch and then back to the workshop for the last session.

It ended a bit late so both P and I were also late for our meeting. Everyone from Netherlands left that day and we had to stay another night for our meeting to transfer my work to Germany. We met HJ, one of the top management people and discussed about our upcoming project. We also met a VAT guy from the States and a couple of people from the Accounting department.

Around 5pm, P and I took a taxi and went to the Adi Outlet Store. This was my fifth time going there. So, to me there was nothing special anymore. I didn’t spend 450 Euros like I used to. Now, I just bought a few for my hubby and for myself. P bought a lot for her 7-year old daughter.

Unfortunately we didn’t have a good feeling back to the hotel. It seemed the people who booked our accomodation and plane didn’t extend our one-night. But we managed to get back the room and guess what, both our rooms were not cleaned. That’s fine because both P and I only thought about home. We had our dinner at the airport restaurant. Pretty funny I would say, going back to the airport just to have a nice dinner. Hmmm..

One more day and we would be home. Those few days, I did not feel good. My ulcer problem attacked me and it was worse when we were in a taxi. Smelly and well… smelly. I had ulcer problem and I had fever. But that did not stop me from attending the last day of the meeting. Well! I AM the important person here, it’s my work to be transfered to them. Yes, them! It is my baby and they are going to tear off my baby and spread all over Germany, Austria and East Europe. :’(

We finished our meeting by 12noon and left to the airport. Took our luggage and enthusiastically went to the airport to go home.

You just have to see how our face become brighten to be in a cold and rainy Netherlands that we call home. (Just for the record, P is a Belgian, and I am a Malaysian but our family – hubby, kids you know – is in the Netherlands and that’s our home.)