Finished

We sent the competition off at 3 o'clock this afternoon, and I have been lazing about since. The weather is wonderful, sunny and warmish and a perfectly blue sky, the air is fresh and clean and smells of the forest. After finishing up and debriefing, I walked downtown for lunch (at 3:30) and then bought supplies for dinner. I'm going to cook tonight and tomorrow, which I haven't done in ages, perhaps in weeks. I hate the collateral damage of working on competitions: the weeks-on-end of too little sleep and far too much packaged food. My body feels like I've spent a month at sea, eating nothing but sugared white bread.

We finished the presentation drawings at half past 3am last night, then drank a beer together to celebrate. In the end I only worked 26.5 hours this weekend, not the 30 that I had feared. Small mercies.

The project looks really good, it's got a simple, clear and sensible plan, we met all the stated criteria and only overran the required floor area by around 2%. Assuming that we don't fall through in the first round of judging, I reckon we'll land in the money again.

So, I had the afternoon off and will have tomorrow off too. I walked downtown and sat on the terrace of the Kunstmuseum for a sandwich and cappucino, thinking as I walked how nice it would be to escape to another city for a little break. As I sat over my meal, I changed tack and began to think of what I would do if I were in, say, Zürich rather than Stuttgart. Everything I thought of doing there, I was either currently doing here or could do with no additional effort or expense. Had to laugh at myself about that.

I watched the crowds flow past, and the circling pigeons, and the shadow of the setting sun creeping up the hillside opposite. There are times when I stop and look around and am almost surprised to remember where I live. This is a lovely city, and I'm lucky to have found it.

Updated to say that we lost in the second round. No money, no fame. Ah well. Sitting here (in New York, jetlagged and sleep-deprived, early morning) I find that I cannot remember what the jury said about our scheme, nor even how it looked.