I bet it doesn’t happen to David…Grossman

The young woman receives me with a friendly smile and tells me “we will be a small group tonight.” She adds “you know Bayern München are playing Manchester United tonight.” There are indeed very few in the hall in which I am to read from Die Schatten der Vergangenheit sind noch lang. Turns out that I am after all not Champions League material. The woman confesses that she is quite nervous, explaining, “authors are sometimes difficult.” I try to reassure her, promise that I will not be difficult, and hold back from pointing out that the football game is due to start later in the evening, only after my event is due to end.

It goes well and the questions show interest. The organisers say goodnight and do not offer to take me out for dinner. I don’t know anyone in this town and go back to my hotel. The restaurant is closed and I can only get snack food at a bar full of loud Bayern supporters. 

Overheard in an Elevator

On the way down from the 15^th floor in the lift in a hotel in a small town in Germany:

A-    What brings you here?

B-     I am here for a conference on addiction

A-   Ah… interesting… Are you an addict?

B-    I was an addict 30 years ago, but I am clean now. 

A-     Well, …have a good day then.

 Emm, not quite overheard. 

Lufthansa II

Almost three weeks have passed since Lufthansa cancelled my flight from Tel Aviv and I have still not heard from them with their arrangements of reimbursement. Instead I get almost daily marketing emails from them. The latest one suggested that I should “Join the Muppets. Mit Lufthansa.“ Are they crazy?

Some idiot in the PR department of Lufthansa must think that sending invitations to a Muppet lottery game is the way to wipe away the memory of thousands of cancelled flights.

Lufthansa neither emailed nor smsed me to inform me of the cancelled flight. By the time I received a general “we are sorry about the strike and please get in touch with our call centre” email from them, I had already bought a ticket with another airline. Has anyone on the LH board ever tried to get in touch with their call centre?  I don’t mean through their dedicated VIP line. 

Lufthansa I

Fat high earners who strike to get even more money should GO TO HELL. 

That is what I wish the Lufthansa pilots. 

I have much sympathy for those on meagre incomes who strike, even when it inconveniences me, but those self-satisfied cigar smoking Lufthansa pilots (that is how their representatives appeared on German TV) should not get any of their demands.