Monday, November 09, 2009
TechEd Berlin - Day 1 - Berlin Wall, 20th anniversary
Ah, hindsight...
Back on Saturday when I was packing, I decided to not take my DMs with me. They’re not comfortable enough yet but they would have kept my feet dry. And I forgot to bring the cagoule that I planned to use, having seen the predicted weather forecast.
So here I am standing in the rain for an interminable length of time waiting for some giant dominos to be pushed over. My feet are wet and the rain has soaked through my coat, jumper and T-shirt. And this while being in an umbrella forest. Umbrellas are great – a single person can keep quite dry while sheltering under one. This benefit quickly disappears when overlapping umbrellas form a cascading waterfall of drips.
Two hours. That was today’s “interminable”, as calculated from the photo timestamps. Two hours of being squashed up with lots of other people ensuring no-one poked me in the eye with their opened umbrella. And when the dominos DID fall, I pretty much missed it in the chaos of bobbing heads and cameras.
Did I get anything out of the evening? Of course. Highlights, or at least mediumlights (in no particular order).
Back on Saturday when I was packing, I decided to not take my DMs with me. They’re not comfortable enough yet but they would have kept my feet dry. And I forgot to bring the cagoule that I planned to use, having seen the predicted weather forecast.
So here I am standing in the rain for an interminable length of time waiting for some giant dominos to be pushed over. My feet are wet and the rain has soaked through my coat, jumper and T-shirt. And this while being in an umbrella forest. Umbrellas are great – a single person can keep quite dry while sheltering under one. This benefit quickly disappears when overlapping umbrellas form a cascading waterfall of drips.
Two hours. That was today’s “interminable”, as calculated from the photo timestamps. Two hours of being squashed up with lots of other people ensuring no-one poked me in the eye with their opened umbrella. And when the dominos DID fall, I pretty much missed it in the chaos of bobbing heads and cameras.
Did I get anything out of the evening? Of course. Highlights, or at least mediumlights (in no particular order).
- Trying to listen to Hilary Clinton while her delivery was being translated into German over the top.
- Watching Gorbachev on a screen some distance away when the rain stopped. Apparently also in attendance were Lech Walechsa, Nicolas Sarkozy, Dmitry Medwedew, and Gordon Brown but it was impossible to tell with the umbrella forest blocking out anything worth seeing.
- Glauwein and Rostbratwurst from the stalls
- Hearing Jon Bon Jovi play his new song. This was working hard to avoid being a lowlight. One song – not particularly memorable. Left wondering “why?”
- Fireworks at the end were good (although half-hidden by smoke at times)
- Watching outside broadcast units in action. I was disappointed to see some drunken local trying to gatecrash a presenter’s delivery. Wasn’t even the mildly amusing jape in the background but trying to run in front of the camera instead.
- Seeing the Holocaust Memorial. It was kind of weird seeing people clambering over the concrete blocks like they were playground obstacles.
- On the way back, buying a litre of premium (4.9%) pils for €2.50 from a shop by the underground station.
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