Company Weekend (Part 3) {8539}
... I had a bit of a Frank Spencer moment in my hotel room after I'd unpacked. A bottle of Coke that I bought at the service station wascooling in my fridge. Having worked for a brewery I know all aboutfizzyness (not the technical term, obveously) and how the bubbles areless keen on escaping when the liquid is cool. So I wasnt too worriedabout the fact that the bottle had been rolling around on the floor ofthe car for an hour. This was a mistake.
I turned the top of the bottle ever-so slightly, after which thecontents of the bottle sprayed out over the wall, a bit of the bed,the floor, the bathroom door (as I ran into the bathroom to the sink,rather than just tightenign the top up again), the bathroom door andsink. Acting fast I got a handtowel and mopped up all of the Coke, leaving suspicios brown stains all over the clean white hotel towel.
The agenda for Saturday was as follows: -
14.15 Tea/coffee on arrival
14.30 Welcome and introductions
15.00 ***** Group (Gerald Attia)
15.30 ** Targets for 2005 (John)
15.45 Strategy for meeting targets (Anthony)
16.15 Intranet demo (Andrew)
16.45 Champagne moments of 2004 (John, Anthony)
17.00 Wine tasting quiz (John, Rory)
17.30 Finish
A "getting to know people better" activity helped us to find outinterestng facts about our collegues, such as who has someone famous'phone number (Chirstine has a snooker player's number as he's hercousine) and who has been to the Great Wall of China (nobody). I toldpeople I'd been canoeing (when I was about 5 in a swimmingpool onholiday) and that I'd been to a rave (a legal one I think, in a warehouse in Cambridge).
The "***** Group" session with Gerald (the big cheese from Paris) gave us an outline of our parent and sister companys and was when we got told we're not making enough proffit.
"Champagne moments of 2004" was like a school prize giving evening,although the prize was a bottle of champagne. I didn't get anything,not even "good effort in PE" like I used to get in school. Oh well.
The "Wine Tasting Quiz" was difficult, as we had to say what grape,vintage, country or origin and price wine was. We had 5 wines to try,the first was red, then a white (turned slightly 'rosa' by theleftover red in my cup. Then some more white and a couple more reds.Suffice to say my contibutions to our team weren't too helpful, butwhat do I know about wine? We somehow managed to come joint first andwon the (unfulfilled) promise of a round of drinks from out MD.
After all this fun we had a couple of hours before dinner. I went tomy room, walking past an attractive maid in the corridor.
After a few minutes, there was a nock on the door. It was theattractive young maid. Being, like most people in the hospitalityindustry, foreign her English wasn't too good. She asked me if Iwanted her to "turn down" my bed. Was this a pro-active way ofrejecting future advances from guests? Maybe she was hinting that ifI asked her to bed she would'd turn down the offer? She tried to explain what turning down my bed would entail, it didn't sound like much fun so I said "no". I did ask for a new hand towel though, toprolong our brief relationship incase me telling her that I didn'twant her to turn down my bed didn't have the desired result.
While this isn't the end of my story, I think I'll leave it here asit's dragging on slightly! I'll just say that the rest of the weekendinvolved eating dinner, drinking whisky, meeting an hen-party inscanitly-clad nurse outfits, comparing my room with other peoples,tresspassing in an vacant suite, going to bed at 4am, waking up 45mins before we're supposed to leave and sitting in a car while myhangover caught up with me.
I turned the top of the bottle ever-so slightly, after which thecontents of the bottle sprayed out over the wall, a bit of the bed,the floor, the bathroom door (as I ran into the bathroom to the sink,rather than just tightenign the top up again), the bathroom door andsink. Acting fast I got a handtowel and mopped up all of the Coke, leaving suspicios brown stains all over the clean white hotel towel.
The agenda for Saturday was as follows: -
14.15 Tea/coffee on arrival
14.30 Welcome and introductions
15.00 ***** Group (Gerald Attia)
15.30 ** Targets for 2005 (John)
15.45 Strategy for meeting targets (Anthony)
16.15 Intranet demo (Andrew)
16.45 Champagne moments of 2004 (John, Anthony)
17.00 Wine tasting quiz (John, Rory)
17.30 Finish
A "getting to know people better" activity helped us to find outinterestng facts about our collegues, such as who has someone famous'phone number (Chirstine has a snooker player's number as he's hercousine) and who has been to the Great Wall of China (nobody). I toldpeople I'd been canoeing (when I was about 5 in a swimmingpool onholiday) and that I'd been to a rave (a legal one I think, in a warehouse in Cambridge).
The "***** Group" session with Gerald (the big cheese from Paris) gave us an outline of our parent and sister companys and was when we got told we're not making enough proffit.
"Champagne moments of 2004" was like a school prize giving evening,although the prize was a bottle of champagne. I didn't get anything,not even "good effort in PE" like I used to get in school. Oh well.
The "Wine Tasting Quiz" was difficult, as we had to say what grape,vintage, country or origin and price wine was. We had 5 wines to try,the first was red, then a white (turned slightly 'rosa' by theleftover red in my cup. Then some more white and a couple more reds.Suffice to say my contibutions to our team weren't too helpful, butwhat do I know about wine? We somehow managed to come joint first andwon the (unfulfilled) promise of a round of drinks from out MD.
After all this fun we had a couple of hours before dinner. I went tomy room, walking past an attractive maid in the corridor.
After a few minutes, there was a nock on the door. It was theattractive young maid. Being, like most people in the hospitalityindustry, foreign her English wasn't too good. She asked me if Iwanted her to "turn down" my bed. Was this a pro-active way ofrejecting future advances from guests? Maybe she was hinting that ifI asked her to bed she would'd turn down the offer? She tried to explain what turning down my bed would entail, it didn't sound like much fun so I said "no". I did ask for a new hand towel though, toprolong our brief relationship incase me telling her that I didn'twant her to turn down my bed didn't have the desired result.
While this isn't the end of my story, I think I'll leave it here asit's dragging on slightly! I'll just say that the rest of the weekendinvolved eating dinner, drinking whisky, meeting an hen-party inscanitly-clad nurse outfits, comparing my room with other peoples,tresspassing in an vacant suite, going to bed at 4am, waking up 45mins before we're supposed to leave and sitting in a car while myhangover caught up with me.
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