In reference to Thomas’ fondness for acronyms, we now call it CMLDO (pronounced “cimaldo”). This year, we started at the Christmas market in Schwabing, followed by dinner at Ö1, surrounded by silhouettes of Austrian celebrities. The one resembling Cristiano Ronaldo is, in fact, Falco — although some of the younger lab members apparently had no idea who that was...

Later, we moved on for drinks at the new Schwabinger 7. On a side note, a WWII bomb was discovered on the site of the old S7 and had to be detonated after the neighborhood was evacuated. I used to go there and always found the place somehow “special” — without realizing that I had literally been sitting on a bomb.