Saturday, January 26, 2008

Ole!

Our Kick-Off Meeting this year was in Madrid. I had more fun than last year in Vienna, I guess it is because this time I knew to expect lots of drinking and very short nights, so I was very good throughout, but I did not let the lack of alcohol prevent me from having good hearted silly fun on Friday night.
The hotel bar was a popular meeting point and we spend most evenings in the hotel bar, drinking mojitos made by our favorite barman, Javier. The bill for the team on the Wednesday night came up to USD5500, in our defence, the German team was drinking whisky at 60 dollar a glass! So it was not the mojitos.... (Here from L to R: Nikolai (who replaced Klaus in the Nordic), Alison, Ron, Manny, Torsten and Carrina).

On Thursday night, we had a very tasty tapas dinner in una taverna that has stood here for the last 400 years and that was a hostel for travellers. The main course was a whole leg of lamb, delicious. Followed by dancing the night away in a popular night club. Here from L to R: Alison, Carrina, Me, Estelle (from French office) and Karmelita (new marketing for the Eastern European Market based in German office). On Friday, after the meetings we took a tour of Madrid by night, unfortunately all monuments pictures came out dark. Here Simon (UK product manager), Peter, Martin (German Office - IT), Nick and Martin (who had a bad back and walked funny for 4 days) in front of the royal palace.

The dinner on Friday night was wonderful fun seating with the Italian team (above Matteo, Massimiliano and Marco) The famous Spanish red wine (Riojo) was flowing and these sexy Italian men were a feast for the eyes. Beth, Emma and I were overwhelmed with their attention and silly games. Here from left to right: Mauro (the Italian GM), Seda (Sales for Turkey and Greece), Matteo, Massimiliano, Emma (EUMEA secretary) and you all recognise Beth by now.

The gala dinner on Saturday night was hosted at the very luxurious hotel we stayed at, I am slighty disappointed that we did not have flamenco dancers for our entertainment, but we had a famous flamengo guitarist. (Here with my SA girls Dani and Alison).

9 comments:

Jeannie said...

Could I get a job with your company?

tshsmom said...

LOL Jeannie! I was about to ask the same thing. ;)

A $5500 bar bill?! Holy sh*t! How many people did this cover?

The Zombieslayer said...

I want to work with you. :)

I love Flamenco. When I was a foreign exchange student in Mexico, I was not too far from a music conservatory. In the morning, I could hear them practicing. Of course, I didn't have my guitar with me, but kept some of the phrasings in my head and stole them. I wish I could have seen how their fingers moved though, because I had to steal their techniques with my ears, which is only half of it.

And $60 glass whiskey? Geez. Just give me Jamison Irish Whiskey and I'm more than happy. Of course, I'd prefer gin, but if I were to drink whiskey...

That girl said...

What exactly do you do again? Other than look stunning in photos?? LOL

La Cremiere said...

Jeannie, Anytime we always need fun loving, slighty cynical people.

TSHSmon, in total we are a hundred, but at the bar there must have been about 50 of us. (It's the Germans...)

Zombie, anytime, you and Jeannie will fit right in. Good job on the Flamenco, I could not remember a tune to save my life, even less repeat it with an instrument. I myself, am a fan of gin.

That Girl, I am now in sales, selling optical media, flash drive, hard drives and other computer peripherals and accessories, and looking fabulous in photos... (PS: I only pick the ones where I look fab and burn the others...)

tweetey30 said...

You do look good in those photo's. I do have to say no passports this year but hoping next year.. LOL..

none said...

Those mojitos are tasty. They are starting to become popular overe here as well.

Jay said...

Oooh, look how pretty you are.
And mmmm tapas, lucky girl!

The Zombieslayer said...

I love gin. Bombay Sapphire Martini, slightly dirty, 2 olives. I used to say stirred not shaken but I don't have a preference any more. That's just for looks. A stirred martini doesn't have the cloudiness but to tell you the truth, I can't really tell the difference in taste.