- Monday A hard day. I went from about 12AM on Monday morning all the way through until about 8:30AM on Tuesday morning as a fast for Oxfam. I have raised about £230 so far, but I want to get another twenty quid's worth of sponsorship so that I can get Future to double it to £500... Anyway, suffice it to say that it was a verrry, verry long day...
- Tuesday Worked late at the office trying to make sure that everything I had to do was done before I left for Cologne. Sorted out a camera and various other bits of a journalist's trade.
- Wednesday Pre-journey malaise struck at about 13:30. I wasn't due to catch my train until about 17:00, but I was in the mood to get off right then and there. Anyway, the hours rolled by and I ended up in one of my best friend's flats (hi Paul, hi Karen) in Acton (my flight was at 08:10 the next day so I wasn't going to do the journey from Bath to Heathrow at that time of the morning!)
- Thursday A late night the night before was pretty much set the tone for the rest of the trip as I awoke bleary-eyed at about 06:30 this morning, but I soon perked up when I realised I was on my way. The flight with Lufthansa was uneventful but I was very disappointed with the food - Lufthansa is usually better than a fridgey ham roll and some mediocre coffee... But, ah, Cologne, one of my favourite German cities, reached after a hair-raising journey from the airport with a turkish taxi driver and booking into my hotel in my halting german (I didn't know I was talking to an Australian). Still, Thursday night, eh? Got together with a couple of fellow show visitors, Michael and Jerry and took them to Päffgen - my favourite Cologne haunt. Needless to say, by the time we managed to get back to the hotel we were all the worse for wear...
- Friday First day of the show. It was a little disappointing to see that Computer 96 (otherwise known as WOA Cologne) had been reduced to just one hall this year, but it was obvious that there were more Amiga stands in that one hall than there had been in both halls last year. Spent the day at the show saying hi to people and chatting to the german dealers (in my, by now, less halting german), but the night belonged to the Amiga people. After some heated discussion between the ten or so of us we ended up going to a rather mediocre Italian. Stefan Ossowski, bless his heart (and wallet) paid for the meal, but we couldn't stop there and so, as we walked back up towards our defacto meeting point - my hotel - we called in at Haagen Dazs on the way for ice creams all round. Cheers Mark! Alone in the hotel room, I engaged in the same pursuit that thousands of businessmen must adhere to when alone in a hotel room after midnight with a TV that ostensible has cable. Yes, that's right, I spent half the night fruitlessly trawling the channels for smut of any description...
- Saturday Second day of the show. You know I've done a whole heap more of these shows standing behind the counter than in front of it so Michael, Jerry and I decided to take it easy on Saturday and go around town for a bit. After piling Michael's arms sky-high with CDs I believed fervently that he should purchase (or at least listen to at the listening posts in the record shop), I decided to head back to the hotel momentarily since I felt somewhat under the weather after the previous night's exploits. Still, Michael and I managed to take in a bit of culture by going to the Ludwig Art Gallery and looking around at the exhibits of modern art (although I swear one of them was a hoover), snearing at the post-modern, post-expressionism of it all. Give us something chocolate boxy we said. You know where you are with chocolate boxy. Still we went down to the show for most of the afternoon although all it was was a thinly veiled attempt to discover where the party was at that evening. Given the choice between the Aminet party where we determined most people would be either talking machine code or german (sorry Urban, Heinz and Angela) we made Päffgen our choice once more and dined on hearty german fare like a kilo of fatty pork on sauerkraut. We stayed there until they threw us out and then, determined to continue the party onwards, the hardcore (Greg Perry from GPSoft, Mark Habinski of Wonder Computers and my good self) descended on well-known party animal Tony Ianiri at his luxurious hotel and demanded more beers. Tony graciously complied and more drunken conversation went on until the early hours of the morning.
- Sunday Having returned to my bed at something approaching 04:30 you will appreciate the fact that I did not take too kindly to the bells in Cologne cathedral being rung, very unmusically, at 07:30, at 08:00 and 09:00 hours. Crawling downstairs and asking for Alka Seltzer didn't put me in a better mood (aren't Alka Seltzer noisy?). After attending the show and having to listen to the looping videotapes showing off Cinema4D and Reflections (amongst other noise pollution) I felt even worse, so we all decided to have a reasonably quiet evening that night. Imagine our pleasant surprise that there was a live singer at the Russian restaurant we chose which turned to tooth-gritting annoyance that she wouldn't bloody well shut up until we had to leave in order to get some dessert. After fruitlessly searching most of the town with the plaintive cry of "Strudel!" we settled on doughnuts at the Hauptbahnhof (German railway stations in cities are great - they never close and neither d all the little businesses that thrive in them. There's also a lot of entertaining wildlife that hangs around molesting people). With hugs and other forms of male bonding we bid each other goodnight and farewell until the next show since most were leaving in the morning...
- Monday To Wiesbaden by a circuitous route to stay with my best friend from Germany, Ralph. A nice gentle evening out in his and his wife's company at their favourite Chilean restaurant with reasonable (and reasonably priced) food. I also met their daughter Lysanne for the very first time and ooh, she is such a cuty!
- Tuesday Tuesday and to Oberursel we go to see Phase 5 and ask about the upcoming A\BOX project. I invited Wolf Dietrich and his girlfriend Ute out to join us for the evening, but in retrospect it was probably good that they couldn't make it. Ralph and I started in a place that sold steaks by the half kilo, met up with his friend Frank who suggested we go to his bar and things went downhill from there. After six beers in the restaurant, at least five Tequila and lemonades and five Ramazottis in Der Schweiner Fuß (the pig's foot) and then on to various bars and discos, gathering new friends as we went (hallo Astrid, Marco, Diana, Sybilla et al). Ralph and I got back to his place at about five and in time honoured drunken fashion decided we hadn't talked enough yet and stayed up until about half six.
- Wednesday Lysanne was supposed to be coming around at eight, but we both slept through her grandmother leaning on the doorbell until it sunk into my head and I warned Ralph to expect trouble. Still, Lysanne thought it was all a big game and Ralph apologised profusely to his mother... Ralph dropped me at the airport in enough time for my battered and bruised body to make it to my gate on time and I flew home through the snow that had been falling in Germany since the start of the week. I arrived back at Heathrow and informed everyone that needed to know on the telephone in a very shaky voice that I would be back in Bath that evening. I got back home at about 6PM and tumbled into the arms of my loved one and shortly thereafter fell asleep, tired but happy to be home (and relatively sober for the first night in a week).
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