The Late Mic Podcast - Parenting, Stories and Sarcasm · Dan Hancock (UK) with his wife, Sarah (USA) - Married couple with kids, challenges and sarcasm

How We Spent One Day In Germany

·43 min·2 clips

A German TV channel lands on a close-up sex scene that leaves three people unsure if it is porn or a movie.

Dan opens by saying they went on a one-day holiday, except Sarah quickly points out that only he really did. He flew to Berlin on Monday night with Sarah and his brother Mike, then headed south to Dresden for the meeting. Sarah stayed in Berlin and spent the day exploring while he sat in the meeting. They spend quite a bit of time untangling who was where and when, because the timing becomes part of the joke. They explain that the meeting was with a company whose devices they use, and the trip was about becoming a supplier. The room had products laid out on a table, and the conversation kept circling through questions and explanations. One product took up about 45 minutes even though it was not the one they really cared about. Dan kept thinking the meeting was nearly finished, and kept being wrong. The story keeps coming back to the clock, because Dan had assumed they would be out in an hour and then on to lunch. He was hungry, he was in a city centre, and he thought the whole thing would be over much sooner. Sarah keeps challenging his timing, and the two of them bicker over whether it was half eleven, one o'clock, or later. That argument is half the fun. They land on the fact that the meeting stretched much longer than expected and ended around half three. Dan gives the company credit for giving them their whole day, which he clearly did not expect. That surprise becomes the centre of the story. The trip ends up feeling less like a Germany story and more like proof that a day can disappear inside one long meeting. The episode also stays interested in the bits around the meeting: the drive, the city, the plan to maybe see more of Berlin, and the small hope that the afternoon would still leave room for something else. Instead, the schedule swallows everything. Sarah's side of the story stays mostly outside the meeting room, which gives the conversation a nice split-screen feel. Dan is stuck in work time. Sarah gets the wandering around version. Because they are talking as a couple, the details come out in fragments, corrections, and little interruptions. They stop and restart themselves a lot. That fits the subject perfectly, because the day itself was not neat. It was long, oddly formal, and a bit absurd. The result is a travel story that feels lived in, with no attempt to make the day sound smoother than it was. By the end, they are mostly laughing at how much time the trip took to describe compared with how much actual time they spent in Germany. They say it almost took longer to record the episode than the day itself took on the ground. That pretty much sums it up: a short plan, an overlong meeting, and a lot of useful nonsense in between. The mood stays warm and teasing, with just enough frustration to make the jokes land.

As heard by us

A Germany meeting, a Dresden detour, and a running argument about how long the day really lasted.

Dan and Sarah turn a Germany work trip into a slightly messy travel story, with a Monday-night flight to Berlin, a rented car, and a Dresden meeting that runs long enough to make the rest of the day feel like a negotiation. The strongest part is their easy back and forth.

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Why you'd press play

Press play if you want a one-day Germany trip that turns into a running argument about what actually happened.

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