h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

One more weekend and it's back to the grindstone for real.

Last Christmas and New Year were absolutely great for the workers - we had Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and Boxing Day off, making that a 2-day working week. Last week New Year's Eve and New Year's Day were officially free, and between that the weekends with no school, no commitments. And the kids were home.

It meant lots of "Sunday" lunches! On the radio they always call it the stress of Christmas cooking and eating (well, they do here in Germany). To me, it means I can spend a leisurely morning in the kitchen preparing three courses, and there are willing helpers on hand to fetch and carry and peel things and offering to lay the table. The resulting long-drawn-out communal meal makes it all worth while and counteracts my guilt at having hidden in the kitchen on my own for hours.

On Monday, 6th Jan, some states in Germany have the day off, but unfortunately we don't. Never mind. As there are only half the amount of customers working, it means less phone calls and less faxes, e-mails and data transferred orders. Austria is closed, some parts of Switzerland and France, Belgium and half of Germany. On Tuesday it should be full steam ahead again, but as the big trade fair in Cologne is as the end of the month, customers will be holding back with big orders, too.

And we - at the bottom end of the food chain, those who simply type in the orders that the customers send us - will get the blame for the lower figures for the incoming orders. Bah!

Something there that does not compute for me: 'guilt at having hidden in the kitchen on my own for hours'.

I think I understand. I find baking and cooking quite restful - the cakes don't argue or need soothing. And then, you get to eat what you've been making, so it is a win-win situation. No tricky conversations with anyone.