I was curious to see what the Milan Furniture Fair 2009 was going to be like this year.  Many friends & colleagues had decided to sit this year out.  Their thinking was that Milan was going to be a sober affair compared with previous years & that manufacturers were looking to be present just to show solidarity & long standing tradition.  In some ways most of this was true yet I felt that it was just as exciting as other years & that there was a clear shift towar