Explanations about the title will follow but let's start with the important bit. Life in Daimlerstrasse 15 (our R&D department) has been business as usual - meaning there is no routine or pattern to follow except meal times! Every day brings different challenges and experiences that I've risen to meet. I finally cracked the German software I'm using so I  can now stop harassing my lab partner, Ben, if I need to find something for my program. He's been fantastic help but I'm pretty sure he's just tuned out the frequency of my voice now - the only thing he seems to hear me say is the word "coffee". I also finished the physical system remodelling I had been doing so my brand spanking new project system now works, albeit not exactly as I had hoped. However that's what R&D is like - every time you change something a new set of questions are waiting to be answered! So far the work has been very rewarding though, and it's allowing my confidence in my abilities to grow as I come up with professional solutions for problems encountered. On a side not, for the benefit of my brother, by "cracking" I meant learning - not everyone thinks in the same way you do studying "Ethical Hacking" at university. Yeah, you read it correctly. Ethical. Hacking. Together in a sentence. Google it.

Weekday entertainment consisted of the usual Wednesday badminton match (although on this occasion I played 2 hours), going for a few walks around town and a relaxed night out with colleagues on Friday. The conversation flowed thick and fast, many laughs were shared, and a good time was had by all. The highpoint of the night was a story that's possibly the bravest thing I've ever heard of. Guys, you know that universal question that men all around the world dread of hearing? The one where you'd rather go 10 rounds with Mike Tyson instead of answering? I have the answer.

When a woman asks you "Have I put on weight?" the answer is to pick her up, carry her to the nearest weighing scales and dump her on them while saying "I don't know, have you?" How Ben survived doing that I have no idea...

Having tried (and failed) to get some early nights in amongst all this (it's just not possible when you've got a To Do list the length of Bill Gates' tax form) the weekend arrived in a speedy blur, and I was off to Hamburg! On the way we (I went with a colleague) visited Wuppertal to see the world's oldest suspended railway system, only to find it was closed for maintenance! On the plus side, once we stopped for lunch the girl serving us gave me free cake when she found out I was Scottish. I would love to think it was down to my devilish charm but then there are scores of folk back home to testify against this. Let's just say it was lucky charm! Hamburg itself has to be the best place I've visited so far! Saturday night was spent exploring the old city and St. Pauli areas, taking in the sights of the city hall, St. Michaels Church, the Chillihaus and of course ... the Reeperbahn. Organised mayhem was all I can say it was! I would advise going to see it if you ever the chance - the atmosphere alone is electric! The night finished with cocktails in the Tower Bar, overlooking the glowing lights of the entire city.

Sunday was another early start (aaaaargh!) to see the Fish Market in action since it closes at 9.30am. Moving in amongst the huge crowds of people, listening to the crying of the vendors selling their wares, you really feel something of the cultural background of the city. Hamburg is still one of the largest ports in the world and it's strange but warming to see the small individual fishing businesses thrive in the market while directly across the river gigantic cargo tankers are unloaded for multi-billion euro companies. The rest of the day was punctuated by a boat trip down the Elbe, a climb up St. Michaels Church (154 m high), and a visit to U-434 which was a Soviet submarine built in 1976 to serve during the Cold War (it was just renamed). Again, once I introduced myself as Scottish, the luck continued to flow as we got to join a tour of the ship for free! And it doesn't stop there - once I finally arrived back home and dragged myself into work on Monday - I was gifted a bottle of organic grape juice by a colleague at work (cheers I.B!) because I said I missed the stuff, and then a bottle of Chilean Merlot by my neighbours that evening just because I like red wine! I swear the Irish don't have this much luck!

Cheers for reading folks! Tune in next week! Have fun!

Iain