Quick Recap....

Ok so to recap because it has been far too long please find below a short outline of my last 10 days or so.

1. A big project we were working on (at work - two works that close sounds funny but just to clarify where I was working!!) was launched and overall I have to say I think everyone's hard work has really paid off and it has been a great thing to watch the process play out. 
2. I spent my first weekend in Switzerland before heading off to an event in Germany. I saw the Alps, leaves changing colors,  ate a delish sausage - which they serve to you separate from the bread, the sausage wrapped in paper and it was AWESOME, and wandered through Old Town Zurich and finished the weekend with some cheesy fondue!! 
3. Drank my first Oktoberfest beer - while in Switzerland still but the Oktoberfest set-up they had was pretty awesome. Crazy German band, a pretzel the size of my head and them some and lots of dancing on table benches. Good times had by all
4. I was able to enjoy a piece of Black Forest chocolate cake and Black Forest Ham straight from the Black Forest - both also fantastic.  I spent a week in Black Forest for an event and it also helped knock off a bit of the homesicknesses. It was really great to experience a little piece of fall even though I missed all the fall time things at home - especially the pumpkin beer and apple picking. The Black Forest was really gorgeous and good fun. I saw my second German Band of the week and this time when they began to play " Sweet Caroline" I knew what to expect!
5. Spent two hours in a cab on the way home from the airport and was entertained by a crazy cab driver that offered me a lukewarm Sprite, forced me to practice speaking French and sang along to Aretha Franklin, Michael Jackson and the Steve Miller Band. 
6. Was enlightened to the fact that during the Strike tomorrow (yes, another one...) even some of the bike rental stations will be on Strike. You see Paris has these bike stations with bikes ,you can rent, using your Navigo pass called Velib's. No one works there you simply swipe your pass at a bike machine and it automatically unlocks and Voila - the bike is yours to cruise around the city and you can drop it off at any other station. Now let's not forget that the reason for these strikes is because they want to increase the retirement age two years to sixty-two ... last time I checked un-manned bikes don't get to retire and I am pretty sure they won't last until they are sixty-two!!!! 

So I think that is about it --- I may have missed one or two things but if I think of them I will add them on there!! All in all a pretty fantastic and jammed packed ten days.