Iceland

What a trip that was. Where do I start? Firstly it was awesome seeing the South African bunch that I so rarely get to catch up with. Alison looked cute as ever and in spite of missing Dani very much, the new girl, Kate, is equally as lovely. Manny, the SA Manager, also invited his dear friend, now a partner of ours, Lindi to the trip. I had met Lindi two years ago, she's the kind of extra-ordinary fun-loving-ultra smart woman, and I loved her.

(Kate, Me, Alison, Lindi)

We wasted no time in celebrating our reunion at Heathrow airport with a free flow of Gin and Tonics for the girls and beers for the boys, it was 11 am... The trip was non-stop amazing sights and activities so I'll let the pictures speak for themselves... except the last one maybe, which will require a bit of explaining.

We started with the Blue Lagoon

The hot spring was so warm that when I went out in the cold and wind to take the pictures I did not feel the cold at all. These images were followed with a drinking session in the designated area of the Lagoon, specifically Blue Lagoon Cocktails which were lovely. It's a wonder no one drowned.

The evening was followed with something equally unique... A drink in Surely the Coolest Bar in Town (Me, Alison, Nikolaj, Lindi and Peter)

You guessed it! It's an Ice bar. Woo-hoo. Although, with my over-acting imagination, I thought it was going to be like in that James Bond film with Pierce Brosman, a giant igloo with ice scuplture and ice furniture, this was mostly a fridge freezer with ice on the walls but still Minus 20 degrees celsius.
(Here with Alison and Clive)

After a hard day of work, we went to a typical Icelandic dinner. It was a regal, I stuffed my face silly I enjoyed so much, sachimi, rainbow trout, cod fish and lots of delicious things I wasn't sure what they were.

Here with Torsten thanking him for the great organisation (he's the man who planned it all). He promised me at that point that I had seen nothing yet. Followed by after dinner drinks:

A little too much drinking

(Kenneth and Martin)

A little bounding

(Kate and Peter)

A little singing

(Torsten and Ron)

After a hard day's work and a hard night partying; we went on a tour of the island (in fact just a small portion, the island is gigantic and it would take 8 hours to drive to the next town just a eighth of the island away) This is where the Tectonic Plates meet, on the right, the American Plate and on the left, the Continental plate; in the middle Peter, Rudiger and Manny.

We then went to the Gullfoss Waterfalls, absolutely amazing, I loved it, you walk along a long and narrow, snow covered cliff to reach the waterfall and it is breathtaking, there is three levels of falls, this is the third one and most impressive - I kept wondering what the debit of water was ?

but got even more mesmerised when I saw the first level of the fall, because you cannot see where the water is coming from? Then my brain went into a buzz of whether the power of the water could actually defeat gravity!!! (you also notice the geek in me)

So I walked back up above the waterfall and there I saw it, for miles the water is gently coming from the mountain in the distance.

This is a 20 meter geyser, I managed to catch it just as it was emerging. Martin who had been freezing his hands trying to video it ran out of memory on film just before it erupted.

Okay, at first, this looks weird, but it's not, it's my foot. Well, okay, it is a weird looking foot and that's why I am showing it and what looks like shadow under the bump is in fact a bruise. I have no pictures to explain why I am injured, so you need to use your imagination

On the last trip of the day, we were going to visit a glacier, we were in these huge four wheels drive and I thought, like everyone else that we were going to drive there - none of us knew what to expect. but in the middle of the snow covered mountain, were snow mobiles waiting for us. I was scared so I jumped on one behind Nikolaj who is a big strong man, he'll take of me. It was frightening enough because of the speed we were travelling at, my helmet was shaking and I was scared it would fly off and injure Martin who was right behind us. But we made it safely to the Glacier and it was impressive, I did not take any pictures because I was all wrapped up and could not reach my camera, we had a snow ball fight which was good fun and started our journey back. Half way back, we had to climb a steep slanted slope, Nikolaj and I were very good and as told by the instructor leaning as much as possible towards the slope so that the snow mobile would not roll back, but now that you've seen my foot you all guessed it, we did tumble - I never saw it coming, one minute I was leaning to the left and the next I was lying in the snow with the 280kilos snow mobile crushing my right foot while head in the snow I was whailing 'my foot is stuck, my foot is stuck and thinking it's lucky I'm wearing this helmet or I'd be freezing my face right now.' Martin jumped off his snow mobil and Nikolaj got back on his feet and the two of them heaved the machine back up and away from me. That is the story, so since I have been in pain. nothing's broken and my doctor was incapable of giving me something for the pain, so I am treating myself with herbal and natural remedies like foot bath in Dead Sea Salt recommended by my dad and lots of Arnica and Bach flower recommended by my mom. It seems to help, today my foot is less swollen and less painful but rest and foot up it is for me...

Anyhow, this remains the best trip we've had as a group and altough Iceland was never one of my top 20 destinations I would now strongly recommend it and it's only a matter of time till I go back there with Alex.

Julie's Birthday

Julie is my colleague, she is in Customer Service and is possibly the loveliest person in the company. She has taken over a lot of the Marketing when I moved to Sales, so I guess I used that as an opportunity to get closer to her, besides we work in the same open plan for the last 2 years ++. In the last few months, I participate to decorate omy colleagues' desks on their birthdays. For Peter last year, I put his face on Borat and for Hannah, who shares the same birthday, I put her face on Jodie (a British Hottie); but this time, I outdid myself for Julie, because she is extra special, I gave her a whole new family. Julie has a weight complex which I don't know where she gets it from because she is very fit and slim and as she left work on Thursday, she begged us not to put her face on The Vicar of Dibley, a funny British comedy, where the Vicar, played by Dawn French is a very big lady. We wouldn't have thought of it if she had not mentioned it, Hannah came up with the idea of using a picture of the cast instead of just the character and I went to work...

Bottom row: Hannah, Ann and Julie. Top row: Ron, Nick, Me, Peter, Martin, Mike (The company Director) and Jane.

What's the big secret keeping me away from blogging?

I can finally reveal (I think I can anyway) the reason that has been and will continue keeping me away from my blog and reading your blogs (I still get regular updates from Kitem though).

You are now reading from the new UK Retail National Account Manager - Ta-Da!

A few months ago, a young man joined the team as sales executive to support Martin and take away the load from me so that I could focus on Marketing and business development, unfortunately things did not go as planned and sadly Russell left our team as quickly as he joined - No, I did not beat him or torture him - he had a long journey to work, which he hated, amongst other reasons which are irrelevant now. So I found myself absolutely swamped trying to catch up with all the range reviews and year end promotions to plan, the marketing events to organise and attend. To put it simply I was doing two full-time jobs in the time given to one human being. It was exhausting but I coped really well, and before I knew it, Ron was calling me to his office to say very nice words indeed: "Helen, I don't know why we're looking to recruit outside the company when we have the perfect candidate within"... Not being the brightest one, I waited for him to continue, till the light switched on in my head that he was actually talking about me!!!! memememe, perfect, clever, beautiful me! (oops I'm being over confident again).

That said, I wasn't meant to tell anyone, and what happens when something is not quite official? Well, you start doing the new job but continue doing the old one at the same time. Martin introduced as the UK Retail National Account Manager to all of his customers that will now be mine (and as you know, I get on famously with all of them, so it's simply awesome) and I still have to cope with my current job until someone comes in to take over my role; that will be in January by the looks of it, so I won't be around here much till then - but I do think about all of you everyday and I do miss you loads.

In the meantime, Alex and I are escaping this stressful times, with a four day trip to Rome! So have a brilliant weekend. Love you all.

PS: Kitem is offline for a few days while she is changing ISP. She sends her love to you all and will be back on Wednesday.

Happiness? Priceless

I'm happy, because:

My boss listened to one of my concern regarding the business and took action accordingly; I like being taken seriously, I'm not just a pretty face you know?

My dear brother was giving up hope of coming to France for Christmas; but I found a solution and Hope is restored that they can make it afterall.

I received a progress report from my little sponsored kid, Jonas, and he is doing very well; and it delights me, that my little help has given him so much more; he is doing very well at school and looks very well too. The only other picture I had of him, he looked... tired and angry; look at him now! He likes football, dancing and gospel music; sounds like mighty fine hobbies to me. And he drew a truck for me. Awwww! I'm smitten.

It Could Have Been a Brilliant Career

Since I do not have a daily update to share with you lots because my life is ruled by my job and pretty uneventful after work, I have decided to write on topics inspired by song titles in our iTunes. Should I shuffle or just pick Belle & Sebastian interesting song titles? :)

It Could Have Been a Brilliant Career

Or is it already? Define career, wise man might ask.
I always imagined a career would be Melanie Griffith in Working Girl from PA to Boss or Charlie Sheen in Wall Street; someone climbing the corporate ladder; someone recognised for their efforts and wits; someone who makes lots of $$$.

But now, I've been working for 9 years:
2 years holding odd jobs as a PA in a French school, a babysitter, a french tutor, a computer tutor, a waitress and a conference and incentive assistant.
5 years as a marketing exec in an IT security company; where I worked my arse off and earned peanuts, drove a tiny car that I loved just because it was mine, althought technically it wasn't, it was Kitem's, and owned a nice apartment in a new development.
6 months unemployed, trying to live the dream in London to have a nicer life.
18 months in the perfect job, where I get to shine everyday.

It may not be a career, but it brings enough money home and this time I have a very nice car with my name on it and I live in a lovely area of the city and I am happy to go to work every day, and my boss appreciates my work and rewards me in consequence; I always have projects to look forward to; and I may not be a manager, I may not be in the news for being the best person in the world at my job but I know I'm good and my peers recognise that, and my parents and loved ones are proud of me and that means the world to me, that's more than I could have ever wished for outside of Hollywood.

Secret Santa

Geez. How lame does it get? Either my secret santa does not like me much or knows me very little. I got a chocolate egg, (is it Easter yet?) I don't like cholocate eggs so much and a mood light. Alright, granted I might have been a bit of a lunatic lately. But it is not true all year round and I've had very stretched last few weeks, one oughts to become sensitive when it drags on.

Bloody get me something useful or pretty, or at the very least funny. He/she could have got me a make-up or a fantasy jewelry, they make very nice things in the UK, or some lingerie. Anything but a mood light!

Anyway, I was Martin's secret santa and I got him that funny book, but when we were up to Manchester, we touched on the topic and he complained that people made it so dull, that it was always something proper or nice and he wanted something naughty and embarassing. He had no idea he was instructing his benefactor. So I had the book and thought he won;t like it as a secret santa present. I got him some stress balls in the shape (and feel) of boobs. He was delighted! He loved them. He never suspected they came from me either. Quite cool. It made it worth the effort of getting something else.

Ugly Duckling

What a failed and horrible night. I hated most of the evening. I was so miserable. I ended up being the sad drunk who cries at the end of the bloody party. Why? Because I realise that I get along with everyone one on one, but in a group I simply don't belong. It is not the first time I feel that way about my company. All the girls have their group of friends, and although I try to join in the fun as I would when I go to customers' parties, I find myself being excluded. I am taller than all the girls so I always end up in the back of the group pictures as well. I don't get their sense of humour either.

I got upset in the bus when my colleague kicked my drink off my hands which spilled on her dress and she started screaming at me. I was stunned by this rudeness and just went to the front of the bus looking forward to arriving at the party where my friends (Martin, Nick, Ron, Rudiger, etc) were... or so I thought.

When these guys saw the swarm of pretty girls they paid me no attention. and I realised that I am only popular when I am one of the three girls of a party of 15. Even Martin was dirty dancing with some of the girls. But Ron did invite me to rock'n'roll, which is always fun. And I did have a pleasant dinner with Ingvar, Brian, Steve and Rudiger. I felt so heartbroken though. I spend so much time with these guys I thought I knew them and I thought we were friends, but they are just men!

The only satisfaction I have is that they do not pay me attention because I am one of the lads, they have enough respect for me not to hit on me. That also means I am the ugly duckling. I am possibly the smartest woman in the office along with Jane and I am well respected, but realising that you don't really have friends either on the guys or girls, it hurts. Of course Julie and Ann, even Carrina came to look after me. Ingvar went on and on about how brilliant I was at my job and I was one in a million. Martin sat me down later to explain how boys will be boys. Sarah also checked on me but she is the one girl in the office who does not like me. I'm not sure why she doesn't but every time I try to break the ice, she ignores me. I could not care less under normal circumstances. Last night, I'm the one who rejected her. I told her I'd be happy to tell her what's on my mind if she was my friend, but she's not.

Overall it was not a bad night because I had a good time with the bosses, but it had such a bad start and ending to the evening. At least in vienna if this happens again I can leave the party, I am not stranded in a place I don't like with a bad frame of mind.

I think it is time for me to learn about self preservation. I must protect my feelings from situation like these. If I am not going to learn and accept that friendships are just superficial then I am not going to be friends with anyone in the work place anymore so that I won't care when they forget my existence.

Stunning after all?

What a day... It did me good to express regret of something I knew I would do before I actually do it, because I forced myself to make an effort and I quite like the results. at least if I don't come out okay of the pictures, I'll have the satisfaction to know that I tried.

Last night I did my nails while watching Secretary (2002), a strange but captivating story with James Spader. Then today I finished my errands, which consisted of finding a tasteful, artistic present for our best customer, and although I did not find it, I found out I can commission the work and got the name of an artist to call on - so I thought of commissionning a family portrait since it is a family business and they love taking pictures, that sounds like a much better present than anything I could have found. I hope Ron approves.


Having completed my task early I went to Boots to find a concealer for my acne as it really upsets me when I look back at photos and all I see are my stupid pimples. I went to Clinique because I like their products although they are expensive, the girl gave me a full professional make-up!!! I did buy a few of her products but I needed/wanted them.

Then I did a pathetic bun but it holds on, I don't care if it looks weird and all over the place, at least from the front and profile I look lovely.

Regional Sales Meeting

A while ago I promised pictures of the UK region sales meeting and I did not post them... maybe to protect the identity of my colleagues, but it's not like anyone will be after them. I got a bit paranoid when a British Airways hostess made the headlines for being fired after blogging naughty stories and images of things happening in her job. I love this job and all these people are so lovely and brilliant to work with. Below is starting from me, Martin, Lovely Dani from South Africa, Nick, and Torsten from Denmark.
Next meeting is the Kick-Off Meeting in Vienna. I can hardly wait, I've started shopping for lovely clothes to wear at the dinner parties when I'm there.

Office Christmas Party

Tomorrow night is the office Christmas party and all the girls in the office got their hands manicured, their hair cut and dyed and some even got spray tan. They look great.

True to my nature, I think 'sod it'. I can foresee myself working too late to actually do any of this, then I'll rush home in the traffic and I'll jump in the shower, I'll struggle to put my hair up they'll fall all over the place and after 45 minutes of pulling my hair, I'll leave them down, then I'll apply a thin layer of make-up because I don't want to hide my face or natural features and I'll put on my nice long black dress and a necklace and I'll jump into a cab and arrive all stressed out and undone at the party and I'll feel bad for not making an effort to look as stunning as the other girls. I can't understand myself sometimes, it's not a beauty contest and I'd much rather polish my wits and work out my brains. I don't mean to undermine my colleagues, they're lovely and clever girls and take time to make themselves up extra nice, I wish I'd bother.

Naive?

Dictionary.com defines the word as:
1. having or showing unaffected simplicity of nature or absence of artificiality; unsophisticated; ingenuous.
2. having or showing a lack of experience, judgment, or information; credulous

Yup, that's me... Although most of the time it's on purpose, you can actually pretend to be naive so you don't have to justify something.... like when someone flirts with you and you're not interested acting naive can help greatly or when I do something wrong, I can act all naive "oh I did not understand it like that". However, most of the time I am geniuningly naive and it's cute being naive at 8 but just plain stupid being naive at almost 30. Sigh. Got a lot to learn about life.

blah blah blah... Sorry, I almost got philosophical there...

Re: What to do?

Hey Steven,

Looking like that, I'm surprised you haven't... Maybe you're in the wrong job.

Hammer,

Yeah, Martin recommends I make fun of the customer by leading him on, but I find that very risquee. Might land me more trouble than I'm already in. I'll leave it till the New Year and see how he is. He was pretty wasted, so I'm hoping he does not remember his misbehaving. Anyway, I'm probably going to turn down the sales promotion so I don't have to visit the customers on my own.

What to do?

I've been out and about with Martin inviting our customers to Christmas dinner parties and thanking them for the good business this year. A few nights ago I was in Manchester, this time the client was inviting us to their big do. The dinner was lovely I mingled with all the different buyers and other suppliers. However, much later in the night, my customer was very drunk and he was literaly all over me. I put him back in his place as gently as I could explaining that it would be very awkward talking about display cabinets if he went any further, even though he seemed cool about it, it still feels awkward. it also compromises my option of getting into sales next year. I don't know what else to do. If I choose to go into sales, I won't have Martin to lean on or hide behind when a customer makes it... difficult.

Christmas Hamper

The company sent Christmas hampers to all of us. That's very lovely, my hamper came in a large basket, I will have to find some use for that basket now.

It's full of chocolates and biscuits and yummy food stuff, a couple of bottles of French and Italian wines as well.

Back to Eschborn

On Monday and Tuesday I was off to Germany to attend a training on the systems setup by the German sales office. These were very good systems although most of them would need to be customized before being implemented in the UK region. It was interesting nonetheless. Over dinner, my colleagues who are all more senior than I in the company were reminiscing about how great the past Kick-Off meetings had been. In the past four years they have been to Berlin, Lisbon, Athens, Nice and Johannesburg. I can't believe I have missed all these great places... Kick Off meeting 2007 is Vienna, although it is another amazing place and that I have very fond memories of Vienna, I've been there many times and could probably volunteer as the tour guide. Oh well, I will have to wait for 2008 to discover a new amazing place.

It was a very good meeting, and I was glad I had long chats with Nick, because we never chatted much about anything else but work, while here I told him about all the places I've lived and he told me about his family and background. It was also nice seeing Fabrizio and Luis again and meeting more colleagues from the other offices.

Oslo

I was up in Oslo for three days this week. Unfortunately I did not see much of the beautiful Nordic city. I arrived late on the Tuesday night, Wednesday was a 18-hour business day and on Thursday night I was too exhausted to drag myself out. Indeed, Wednesday was very busy, we were at the exhibition at 8am and I stopped talking and demonstrating the products at 7pm. This is what I call a successful day when one can put in 11 hours straight and not feel tired, the clients were really good, asking questions and showing a genuine interest. At one point I realised that I had gathered a crowd of 9 people and I did not feel intimidated.

That night, there was the gala dinner, Klaus and I sat at the table of the largest store in Norway, although we were not seating with our product category manager, it was interesting to find out how these category managers work. What I liked best is that they have their own corporate drinking song!!! So we were all invited to stand on our chairs with a glass of Jagermeister and sing along loud and proud the corporate song. I reckon we should have one too, since drinking is an important requirement where I work. When I suggested it to my boss, he said, any song and any drink is our corporate identity. hi hi hi.

Moving out (Back to work)

17/07/06
We're back from holiday more tired than before we left and we have twelve days to plan our move. It should have been plenty of time but an unexpected work project was waiting around the corner. Not only was it educating, interesting and challenging but it also took me to Oslo! Ok, not that cool since we only saw it from the plane, but still :P). And a week later I was going up North to Manchester with Martin to meet with our customers. So it left me little time to pack. I did everything just 3 days before the move.