Thousandapologies

Sometimes I really feel like old Bilbo Baggins, going on a quest to some far away land to slay the dragon Smaug (in my case the beast called MACE), really enjoying it, but still happy to arrive home again in your warm cosy hobbit hole eating the familiar kinds of pastry and drinking tea. Even more so this was the case for my travel to Italy. I really loved the time we had in Ancona, meeting all those beautiful people and enjoying the beautiful country. However, to every travel there’s an end and when the end is approaching I usually cannot wait to arrive back home to my beautiful province and the lovely hills of Limburg, where my hobbit house is located and where most of my friends and family are located. Although I must say that I really feel I made or are making some new friendships with the people of MACE. Especially the last day was a blast!

The third day in Ancona started with us technical people being forced to go to the coding dungeon deep down in the Universitá building. The architects somehow figured out, maybe through clever espionage, that if you keep us programmers from all the delicious Italian coffeebreaks, we might even start to work. Best avantage of it, when being an architect, you get more food and coffee for yourself and can enjoy the beautiful surroundings of Ancona, seen from the 8th floor, better, without being bothered by some technical bladiebla. Not being able to resist so much résistance (oui?), with even some of our own side switching to the dark side of architecturism, we fled, tail between our legs, to that safe haven of the dungeon. More importantly, the cunningness of the architects led actually to some good work to be done on our side. Developers from different locations, Potsdam, Bonn, Leuven and Heerlen, started talking to each other and coding together; we immediately found out some problems that were caused by lack of communication. However, nothing beats sitting down in a room and running into problems together; no videoconference can lead to problems being solved so fast. At the end of the day I spent so many hours coding intensively away that I was a wee bit dizzy. Being allowed back into the architect’s room, getting a coffee break as a payment for our hard work, I tried out some white wine which immediately rose to my head. I had to drink a number of strong espressos to get me on my feet again. I spend that break having a nice chat with Alba about our travels; I though I was travelling a lot, turns out that she even does more. Her boss Miguel said he was even surprised whenever he saw her in the office

After the second meeting day came to its end, Rosanna suggested to go back to Porto Novo again, most of the people thought that to be a grand idea. So Tally and I needed a ride to go there… Luckily, Massimo of Nautes was so kind to bring us there. Unfortunately, he could not join us himself because he had to take care of his little daughter. Also he arranged for a ride back with Miguel and Alba. A small ride further, in which Massimo told us of his time in Rome and lots of other stuff, we arrived in Porto Novo. Thanking Massimo for his great hospitality we parted and headed for the beach and the small pub where we had spent some time the day before. Tally and I had a beer there, enjoyed the beach and about an hour later we decided to head back for the pizzeria the next social event was held.

Again the food was great and we started the evening already nice exchanging some language mixups with the Germans. Tally’s “schmecklich” always sparks that same discussion again . Suddenly Till was drawing my attention by pointing somewhere into the back of the terrace. To my great delight, the restaurant had a foosball table and Till and I having talked about that the eve before, immediately decided to play some good old table football. Soon we were joined by Marius, Massimiliano, Elisa, Mo and Rosanna’s son. Depending on the team we got our ass kicked or were kicking some ass; some combinations better than others. Netherland plus Germany for example, no good, Italy and Netherlands lot better, but the best combination was Limburg(me) and Bavaria(Mo). Thinking out some cunning tactics and some interesting strategies we really kicked some ass One thing I noticed during our games though is that Italian women, that start to lose, try to seduce you and in that way win from you, saying something like “Tim you a beautiful man, what are you doing this evening?”. Unfortunately for the woman to whom it concerns, it did not work. Here’s an action picture of us playing some “kicker”, taken by Elisa.

At some time we decided to go back to the table and some 20 minutes later we left the restaurant. Tally and I saying goodbye to some people because we would not be in the meeting the day after because we would leave then. Together with Miguel, Alba and Elena we drove back to Ancona where they safely dropped us off at our hotel. I really would have liked to stay a little bit longer enjoying their company and of the other MACE people a bit more.