Developing business in areas where people aren't interested in business is difficult. Educating sales reps, that aren't interested in selling, is also difficult. Explaining to services executives what professional services is about seems pretty difficult too. Leading by example is hard, because, what ever you claim on your slides, it is something you're doing in real-life. But I wouldn't consider all that white collar stuff being hard work. It's just daily business, and business ought to be fun, not work.

Real hard work is what I was confronted with over the week-end.

 8:00 am, everybody on point - except the crane which was one hour late.

That's how it was before we started felling the two.

Here goes number one, which broke apart when trying to lay it down on the street.

And there goes number two, which ripped-off the cabin's roof and damaged the roof of the main building. 12 hours later everything was cleaned-up, and all damaged had been repaired.

Today I'm as dead as a doornail. Because 'working' in an office for 12 hours is nothing compared to working 12 hours physically. So how did you couch potatoes spend your week-end?

While I was waiting in-line at Frankfurt Airport's security I was confronted with this important announcement. Must be the price of success: There were approx. 50 terminals showing that information in Terminal 1. And dozens of oversized banners praising the fantastic benefits of IBM (services), Oracle (databases) and SAP (enterprise applications). What a great combination.

Oh well, most of the pax in the queue knew exactly what this was and you'll surely imagine the tone of their comments. Very few noticed that the application was running on an NT4 system - Remember, this was October 2007.

The flip side of that slightly controversial ad campaign: It would be a great opportunity for Microsoft Germany's sales force to discuss Vista deployment plus an up-sell opportunity for Microsoft System Center 2007.

Microsoft Germany will launch the Katmai-Wave by combining the introduction of Windows Server 2008, SQL Server 2008 and Visual Studio 2008 with the well established Sharepoint Conference. The combined event is scheduled for February 19th to 21st in Frankfurt.

This combination may evolve into a really profitable activity: Cost for participating Microsoft employees is 300 EUR, customers pay a little more - but that includes the apps. I wonder if the speakers for the 150 sessions need to give for their appearance too.

What a great idea. Visitors shouldn't be too surprised if they don't meet many Microsoft employees. 

Microsoft's worldwide launch event, seen as the most important enterprise launch in the company history, is scheduled for February 27th in Los Angeles.

What's the best thing you're supposed to do after a long-haul intercontinental flight? Eat. Where? Best place available close to FRA Airport. So we dined with Christina, celebrating her 25th birthday. The location: Villa Merton in Frankfurt, a cozy and high-profile restaurant. It's located in the Union International Club, a non-profit organization established 1956 to sustain cultural awareness and understanding among nations.

Great place, excellent food, expensive though. But what'd you expect in the capital of money? Funny coincidence: Our cab driver didn't know the place. Chrissy's driver forgot to pick her up and left her waiting for half an hour. Then, in a hurry, crashed his cab and brought her late.

Left the Champions bar at 4 am - 2 days without sleep: worse than sailing :-)

Oh Mann, auf was haben wir uns jetzt nur wieder eingelassen.

So sah er noch im letzten Sommer aus, der grandiose Diplomat, bevor bei der HU einige kleinere Rosstellen angemahnt wurden. "Wenn Sie das Fahrzeug noch länger fahren wollen ..."

Natürlich wollten wir - ist ja noch nicht 'mal vierzig, die Karre. Allerdings war zu dem Zeitpunkt ja auch noch nicht klar was sich im Laufe der Zeit so alles ansammeln würde. Als die Liste fer "kleinen Reparaturen" fertig war hatten sich, so ganz nebenbei, schon zwei Seiten Arbeitsaufträge ergeben. Und das Schlimmste stand noch gar nicht auf der Liste.

Wegen der kleineren Roststellen mussten doch tatsächlich erst einmal ein paar größere Teile abgebaut werden.

Danach sollte dann die Entfernung des Unterbodenschutzes für Klarheit über den tatsächlichen Arbeitsaufwand sorgen.

Vermutungen, Annahmen, Augenschein, usw. gehen mit Oldtimern allerdings eine unziemliche Allianz ein, für die das Prädikat "teuer" nich so ganz zutreffend scheint. Jedenfalls entpuppen sich die von den HU-Prüfern angemahnten kleinen Mängel als mittelschwere Katastrophe.

Wobei die offenkundig primitiven Vertuschungen einer sognennanten Fachwerkstatt kaum als Reparaturversuch akzeptiert werden dürften..

Na dann. Bin nur gespannt, ob wir das mit der kleinen Entrostungsbürste bis zur nächsten HU wieder hinbekommen. Jedenfalls ist das eine super Gelegenheit, auch gleich den neuen Kabelbaum zu verlegen, das Fahrwerk zu ersetzen, und die Innenausstattung zu erneuern.

Getriebe und Motor sind ja praktisch schon im Neuzustand :-)