Friday 12 September 2008

A Friendly Navigation Voice

Currently I’m sitting in a hotel room in Essen (GER) writing you this post. It’s 7.30 in the morning and I just got out of bed. For the next three days I’m Umpiring for the “Internationale Deutsche Meisterschaft der Frauen im Match Race”.

For sure the one thing I’ve learned already at this event, is to get a car-navigation system. A friendly voice telling me how to get to the “Alma Strasse” and my hotel. Essen is a large town and in a strange traffic flow I feel like a tourist keeping everybody waiting, sorting out the street names - if I can find the bloody sign, that is – and reading a map at the same time, while driving. Some of the moves I’ve made, must have been illegal in any traffic-system. Best behavior for a foreigner….

Late yesterday evening I met Leif, the Finnish Chief Ump and Katrin, one of the locals. We had a beer and talked about certification and umpiring. Leif already has many many years experience under his belt and I suspect it would be interesting to do some umpiring with him. Not that it is going to happen, because I’ll probably be paired with one of the national people.
The venue is a small bend in the river Ruhr, called Baldeney See.
Looking out the window, no wind at the moment, so we’ll see how much the current can help…

I’ll keep you informed, but posting may be a little erratic the next couple of days.

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