Frequent Flyer

Late on Friday night I returned from my week in Hamburg. It also marked the completion of my first month in the new job, half of which I'd spent abroad.

I had to remind myself that it was only on April 25 that I'd said good-bye to my colleagues at Coma HQ. So much has happened since then, most of all "information overload", that it sometimes feels like another life altogether. I've met so many nice people and proved the rumours that people on average gain 8 kgs in their first year in the company to be true by putting on a good 2 kgs in my first month already. Free food or, in my case, smoothies (I'm addicted!) all around you can be a curse as much as a blessing.

Hamburg was very nice indeed and I've noticed that the city has definitely grown on me since my first visit some years ago when I found the atmosphere much less welcoming than in Cologne which I'd vistited a few months before. Well, I've decided that Hamburg is my kind of place after all. The fact that Jo Malone (I bought 2 colognes and had it wrapped by the store manager in a fashion that reminded me of Rowan Atkinson's antics in "Love, Actually"...) and Habitat are a stone's throw from the office might have a little to do with that. Not mentioning all the shoe-stores...

On day two I popped out to buy a bikini from H&M as I'd forgotten to bring one and the pool in my designer hotel was simply too inviting not to try. Unlike a Norwegian colleague staying in the same place who had the dubious privilege of sharing the pool with a naked guest of the male persuasion I got to have it all to myself three times. Bliss!

Like Vienna and indeed most cities south of the North Pole, Hamburg has its version of what I like to call the "sand-pit for grown ups". There, they call it Strandpauli and I must say it's quite nice. Mojito in hand, I decided that business trips can be a bit of a holiday in disguise...