I am sure that we have all done something at one point or other that we hoped would never see the light of day. Just like most embarrassing stories this one began with a few beers.
Oktoberfest is indeed a very large and special festival but in Germany it seems that during the summer months there is a festival every single weekend if not every single day. I never did manage to make it to “drei straßenfest” in Frankfurt which from the name appears to be a festival for the three small streets in that part of town.
Our project was in Stuttgart and although it also has more than its share of small festivals there were two big ones that took place every year, one in spring and one in fall. It was at the fall festival that a lot of us from the project let our hair down. Just like like Oktoberfest, beers are served by the Maß1
At these Stuttgart festivals, just like the Oktoberfest festival, there is a local constabulary to help keep order. With that much beer flowing there can be arguments between patrons as well as other interesting issues. I never heard about it at the time, but it seems that a couple of people from our group were caught in the middle of a call to nature. It was almost certain that they would be caught as the building they “were watering” turned out to be one that housed this same group of security personnel.
This is actually a fairly naughty turn of events and is taken very seriously at such a large and organized event as this. Normally there would be some formalities but due to a spot of luck they were able to talk there way out of it, but not without first involving their bosses. This turned out to be a big manager from the client who was several levels above one of developers while the other boss was the direct boss for the other, er, infringer.
1 One Maß is approximately 1 quart