early steps

Hamburg – Got up a little bit earlier today to run around the Alster lake before breakfast, which I had agreed to take with my colleague at 7PM. Still a bit sleepy I hit the road at 5:50 AM. It was the first time since long that I ran the course by daylight. The light made me feel much slower than when I run in the dark. The city was waking up, people living in their magnificent villas on the lake shore were taking switching on lights in their bedrooms while the street lighting was switched off. The legs were a little stiff, the sense of freshness at the birth of a sunny morning was great. I ran around the outer Alster lake counter clockwise, then clockwise around the much smaller inner Alster lake to return to the hotel for a shower, shave and fueling up for another day at Airbus. In the subway stations, on the way to Airbus, the signs above the platforms count the days until the kick-off of the 2006 Soccer World Championships: “Noch 79 Tage!” What was meant to be a count-down towards a world class event, now is scaring time-ticker to a frightening pay-off for the Germans: the performance of their national team is a major concern and federal priority. Even in federal parliament questions have been asked addressing this issue; public confidence in an acceptable result for Germany is evaporating like water in a desert. The coach, Jürgen Klinsmann, promised a good result in the next test match against the US, which is today…let’s see what happens. I personally have great confidence in Jürgen Klinsmann, but I admit that it’s based on pure irrational sympathy: he speaks with the same accent as my grandmother who lives in southern Germany and I liked his style of running when he was still a football player himself. So I blame the players, not the coach. A crucial meeting with our Airbus client this morning. He’s always hard to catch, but this morning he took two hours for a wrap-up of our work of the past few months. It felt good that he was satisfied about what we did. For determining the way forward and our role therein he requires some time, so next week is going to be my last trip to Hamburg within this project. A new project is waiting for me already. More about that later. On the plane back home I enjoyed a very nice view over the northern German and Dutch coast with the Waddenisles just in front. Frieslands lakes like scattered mirror pieces. The whole flight I tried to concentrate on my book, but I failed as I couldn't help following a conversation among two young professionals in advertising.