Well, I never said I wasn't bribable

From Sunday till yesterday I was in Hamburg. The official mission was to attend a time-management training at our German HQ. Well. No epiphanies there, predictably enough. I basically got the semi-scientific proof of what I had known all along -that I have no problem managing my time. Unlike the majority of my fellow attendees obviously who claimed to be perfectionists and seemed to spend their weekends working more often than not. Eeeek!

My main motivation was the knowledge that I would get to stay at the ultra-chic Side Hotel again. You could say that once you've experienced a rectangular toilet seat there's no going back. Or something like that anyway. Plus the knowledge that I could squeeze in some power-shopping in HH, which I did, making sure that Jo Malone and Massimo Dutti won't go out of business any time soon.

And guess where I'm going next week on business...Seville, ta-dah!...which is even cooler as I've never been. I just hope I'll get to see more than air-conditioned conference rooms.

Back to Hamburg - upon arrival on Sunday afternoon I strolled to the Alster river which had stalls on all 4 sides and hordes of people sampling their merchandise, mainly of the greasy culinary variety. I couldn't see a poster anywhere, but apparently I had happened upon the annual (catchily named) "Alstervergnügen". Chewing on a custom-made Heringsbrötchen without onions I elbowed my way through throngs of remarkably badly dressed people (the proverbial subdued Hanseatic chic must have had its day off). Suddenly I saw a familiar logo - Kärntenwerbung! Now I know why Klagenfurt hosts "Hamburger Fischtage", it must be a kind of mafiaesque deal between the mayors along the lines of "I get to dump my flyers on your people, you get to sell your fish to mine"...