December 22nd, yesterday (sorry, you missed it) was the most important day in Spain to have a chance of becoming rich: the lottery “El Gordo” is promising the highest wins of the while year. 🤑 

Canadian kids can mail their post directly to Santa Claus, address: Santa Claus, Northpole, HoH oHo. Each kid is getting a response back! Santa is really existing, I always knew it! 🎅 

In Poland, kids are getting their presents once a star is visible in the sky, to remember the night when Jesus baby was born in Bethlehem. 💫 

I want to celebrate in Slovakia next year: family’s are throwing pudding on their living room ceiling. The tradition says that brings good luck. 🍀 

New Year’s Eve in Sweden: 3pm Family gathering to watch a Donald Duck Christmas special, a tradition since 1960 to gather the Family together. 📺 

A Christmas cat in Iceland: the cat’s name is “Jolakoetturinn” and she’s making sure that kids are getting new clothes for Christmas. If you don’t, the cat is going to eat you, so the legend. 🐱 

Rollerblading in Caracas, Venezuela. Roads are closed so everyone can rollerblade to the Christmas church on Christmas Eve. The tradition is linking believe with movement and makes everyone happy on Christmas morning. 🛼

Did you know that Christmas dinner in Japan is chicken wings from KFC? A tradition since 1974. My colleague, at the moment living in Germany, is going to beak that tradition this year for the first time. Also, we just passed on our Christmas tree to the Japanese couple – their first one ❤️ and we are driving home for Christmas now 🚗 💨🎄 ~ our Family tradition.

Have a wonderful sparkling Christmas, everyone! ✨

Let’s all take a moment to say a prayer for those impacted by the senseless tragedy in Magdeburg. 🙏 I am heartbroken for these people who were just out celebrating and spreading holiday cheer. 

Merry Christmas everyone, may the holidays bring you wonderful memories and may we all do our part to continue to spread Peace and Love. ❤️🎄

A dinner show. Fine dining. Art. Technology. Each course an art piece. Some of them created by ourselves. 7 paintings ~ the Art of Dining.

Act1 – Italy: Michelangelo

Act2 – UK: Banksy 

Act3 – Spain: Pablo Picasso 

Act4 – USA: Jackson Pollock

…delicious painting!

Act5 – USA: Andy Warhol

Act6 – Spain: Salvador Dali

Act7 – Netherlands: Vincent Van Gogh

Wow! That was an interactive 7-course dinner show, transporting our senses to an incomparable experience of taste and entertainment. 🖼️ 🎨 🧑‍🎨

Christmas is a magical time of year. From holiday tradition to time spent with loved ones. It’s just something about it that brings out the best in all of us ✨

Talking about the good old times. Christmas memories. Childhood memories. Making new memories. We all had a wonderful weekend. 

Now on my way home. Suitcase is loaded with gifts, cookies & the best memories 🥰

Thank you ❤️

Ready for the final work days in 2024. The countdown is on…

It’s in December on a crisp Monday (or any other day in the week) late afternoon. We are stepping out of our home, bundled up in multiple layers of warm clothing with a wool cap on top of our hat & a big scarf around our neck. We are ready and prepared to go to the Christmas market. Yeah ✨✨✨

The days are short during this time of the year. Even though it’s only early evening the towns & villages are already developed in darkness. That’s why all the windows are so beautifully decorated and lit up. And so is the Christmas market. Shining ✨✨✨

Beautiful smells of cinnamon, bratwurst, roasted chestnuts, popcorn and mulled wine are leading us to the entrance of the Christmas market. Mmmmhhhhhh…

Time to enjoy delicious local favourites such as Currywurst and gingerbread. Moreover, these go well with a steaming glass of gluhwein. Listen to beautiful music from choirs and brass bands as you wander the stalls. The markets offer great gifts and souvenirs, too. Many of these are made by local artisans.

Visiting Christmas markets is one of the best ways to get into the holiday spirit.

The perfect place to go to do holiday shopping, enjoy a variety of holiday treats, and admire beautiful lights and decorations.

Christmas mood ❤️

After a good bowl of Irish stew, we drove to the Swabian albs, more exactly to the Ancestral seat of the Prussian Royal House and of the Hohenzollern Princes. O la la. 

Royal winter magic 👑

The only reason I’d want to be a royal: for that seven-metre-high Christmas tree! Wow! It is stunning.

We were carried away into the Christmas world of royalty and majesties. 

…50 Christmas trees… one more beautiful than the next… 

As dusk falls, the façades in the castle courtyard are regularly illuminated on a large scale. 

…accompanied by the scent of mulled wine and waffles. 

…even the cups are majestic.

Warming up over a delicious Swabian dinner. 

The souvenir shop is also pretty amazing 🤩

A beautiful 2nd Advent Sunday is ending. 

…maybe the most beautiful light spectacle in Stuttgart ✨✨✨

Stuttgart’s zoo, the Wilhelma, turned into a Christmas garden. Very beautiful. Sometimes mysterious. Definitely stunning & christmassy.  

Very beautiful! We had a fantastic walk ❤️

Our visitor, hubby’s mum, arrived. We have a bit of a Christmas program planned. It’s going to be royal tomorrow… 👑

NUR WER SICHTBAR IST, FINDET STATT.

MUT IST, ZU SEIN, WER DU BIST.

WER NICHT FRAGT, HAT SCHON EIN NEIN KASSIERT.

DONE IS BETTER THAN PERFECT.

START BEFORE YOU’RE READY.

EVER TRIED. EVER FAILED. NO MATTER.

TRY AGAIN. FAIL AGAIN. FAIL BETTER.

BE YOUR OWN F*CKING HERO.

EMPOWERED WOMEN EMPOWER WOMEN.

DU KANNST NICHT KEIN VORBILD SEIN.

ZUM START BRAUCHT ES GEGENWIND.

– Titjen Onaran –

She’s a rockstar. She’s inspiring. Not only yesterday in Karlsruhe. We need ladies like her. Fantastic event yesterday. Let’s be our own fucking heroes 🦸🏻‍♂️ 🦸🏻‍♀️ 🦸🏻 

In Germany, we love meetings.

Why einfach machen, when 8 people can diskutieren about it for 2 hours?

After the meeting, we plan noch ein Meeting to besprechen the Ergebnisse of the first meeting.

Then we put Aufgaben in the Backlog, have Standups, in denen evereybody sits at the desk. We call it “agile”.

And we have a Protokoll with Aufgaben and nobody cares about it 🙃

We make Protokolle, so that we can schieb the black Peter to someone else later.

And don’t forget das Follow-up-Meeting, to checken if everyone das Protokoll gelesen hat… spoiler: nobody did. 

Situps would make alles so much agiler!

And the beste Ding is, that the whole Meeting hätte auch just a single e-mail sein können 🫠

And a Woche later the Chef kommt back from Urlaub and decides, dass everything is falsch and schreibt one Email with the Arbeitsanweisung.

Sometimes in that meetings everybody only understands railstation. 

And then we have another meeting to plan unsere To Dos 🫠 

Very wichtig!

Dann we modifizieren the product architecture. Und plan noch ein meeting to create completely new Aufgaben.

Nooooooooo. Tu das not…..

Thats why unsere Wirtschaft kaputt geht, because zu viele Meetings. 

And wenn Du als Mitarbeiter the whole day Meetings hast, egal zu welchem Thema, you are very important.

Very wahr!

I’m not sicher if we’re produktiv, but we bestimmt used a lot of buzzwords!

Now we have AI to write Protokoll and makes new Agenda for follow up meeting.

And then they say Germans don’t have a sense of humor! 😁 

Very good zusammengefasst und in mixed Sprache aufbereitet – I love it 😀  But now I have to leave wegen eines Meetings 😉 

Hope your job is better 😎

And so it became December. Winter has arrived. The nights are -4C degrees cold. The day temperature is just above 0C. The fire inside is on. It’s cozy and warm. 

December, that’s the time of Advent, which means nothing else than waiting or getting ready for Christmas: 

Traditionally we are meeting our friends on the 1st Advent to find the most beautiful Christmas tree and bring it back home 🌲

We are getting excited for our visitor next weekend 🤶🏻

The first snowfall of the season is the best.

Disneyland Paris 21st November:

Wales today ⛄️

Irland this week:

Feldberg, Black Forest, Germany

Frankonia, near my home town in Germany:

Enjoyed a week of winter wonderland, before it’s changing back to spring temperatures tomorrow: +16C degrees in the forecast… 👙 isn’t it crazy?