Maximillian & Us

No, I’m not talking about the food!

I’ve been assigned to work in Hamburg, Germany for one month. I’m flying next week. I think ppl from Hamburg is called hamburger… LoL.

Anyhow this assignment sort of spoilt my plans (not like I have tonnes of activities arranged in March that takes place in London). I was hoping I can spent a longer time in London considering we have been away.

I was meant to be in London but at last minute my manager needed someone to lead the work in Germany. He said it will be a high profile assignment and will help rise my visibility in the company. He made it sound like what I’ve been invinsible in the organisation for the past 3 years!!!

Luckily Hamburg is not far so I’m coming back to London every weekend expect for one weekend where Dav will come visit. It’s like my third or fourth visit to Hamburg and second visit for Dav but it’s a nice city to visit. So we don’t mind checking out the other surrounding places. We might even consider taking the train to get out of Hamburg but we’ll see.

Maybe I can consider learning some German along the way…

Gute Nacth!

I had my performance review with my manager recently and was not that satisfied with the conclusion. I didn’t really want to talk about it and has somehow forgotten about it (esp since I’m busy filling up my social calendars with concert and plays. A subject of a separate post) but today I had a bitching session with my peers, complaining about it.

To summarised my dissatisfaction, I’ve been told I have performed very well, but I can’t be rated as the best because management has ‘reduced’ the number of ppl who can be in that category. In addition, management has already decided who will be in that before even having a discussion with each individual!

So what’s the point of setting performance objectives and reviewing the achievements of it???

Such a waste of time!!

Definitions of numpty on the Web:

• An idiot or fool
• a stupid person (mainly used in Scotland)

The whole department received an email from my big boss, advising us to make sensible decision on whether to travel to office, seeing the snow was predicted to be falling heavily. As you know, UK can’t handle severe weather very well. Everything stops when the whole country experience severe weather.

So everyone waited anxiously for the heavy snow fall to make it to London from the North.

Wednesday morning (06.01.10)

To prevent being stuck in the train or waiting a long time for a train to get to central London, I decided to work from home (Thanks to remote access!). At 0930, we received another email from the big boss. He has been stuck in the train for 2 hours and won’t make it in the office. Obviously he didn’t follow his own advice.

Half hour later, he forwarded us the email he sent out the night before with a question why didn’t he follow his own advice and hope that everyone is not caught in the transport disruption like him.

Then he started a Numpty List and put his own name on the list. And so a chain of emails started as he proceed to find out who attempted to get to office. By the end of the day, the following lists were created:

• Numpty List – Besides the big boss, 2 other colleagues attempted to get to office with one stuck in the train and the other’s car going bonkus outside his house’s driveway.
• Sensible List – Majority were in this list for staying at home.
• Super Soldier List – A colleague whose birthday was today, walked to work with knee high snow and still make it to office. So she’s been listed in the ‘Super Soldier’ list.
• Fat Soldier List – Our EA made it to office and threaten to finish the chocolates on our dept snack table. So the big boss created this list for her. hahahahahaha

This year because the company has replaced the annual formal Christmas Dinner with a Summer Party, we had to organise and pay for our own Christmas party. So 2 managers decided to organise a Christmas Pub Dinner and over one Friday drinks one day they decided to organise it as a competitive team event with games and call it the Audit Olympics!

We were grouped into 5 teams and were given a team name. As you can see, everyone dressed up for the occasion. We even took pictures underneath the office Christmas trees, which caught a lot of attention! I was a ‘Persian’, which sucks cos there really isn’t a ‘Persian’ costume which we can get. So the girls decided to dressed up like middle eastern women while the men pretended to be persian cats… LoL. Our team got 1 point deduction for coming up with bad costume..

To ‘officially’ start the Audit Olympic games, we had a torch procession from the office to the pub and even had a small ceremony to light the Olympic cauldron (we used a Christmas pudding as a replacement). We even had a deejay! hahahahaha

Then the games started. We played a total of 6 games. Majority was quite physically challenging but do-able.

I think we were probably the only function in the office which dressed up for a Christmas party. It was quite fun and everyone was very sporting and played all the games ‘created’ by the 2 managers. I was quite surprised at how much effort everyone put in to dress up and no one complained about playing any of the games… so there was definitely good team spirit within the function.

Definitely one party which I will remember for a long time.

*Phew*

It has been a very very long 2 weeks. No matter, I’m back in London now. So, let me give you a brief update.

Business Trip to Madrid

I was working in Madrid for the past 2 weeks. It was a trip I was hoping not to make. However I couldn’t get out of it when I was back from holiday. I went alone and there was so much to do. I seriously have not work long hours for a very very long time. Everyday I would head back to the hotel around 8.30pm.. the latest was around 9.30pm. People in Madrid works very long hour during the winter. I was told this is to compensate for the short working hours in the summer. People stop working at 2pm in the summer!!

Anyhow I was enjoying the food and the people even though it was very busy until the very last day. My purse was stolen in a bar on my last night in Madrid. I found out when I wanted to check-out when I got back to the hotel. I had to call the senior manager to come and assist to pay for my hotel bill. Luckily he stays very near to the hotel. He was very kind and I was surprisingly very calm. After paying my bills, the hotel helped me call the police station to lodge a police report. After that, I spent another half hour calling all the banks to cancel my debit and credit cards.

So I got back to London with no cash and no credit cards. But there are kind people all around. I shared a taxi to the airport with a few colleagues so I dont have to pay for taxi, the local HR manager gave me Euro 20 for backup and Dav came to my rescue in Heathrow airport. So all well, ends well.

Hungarian Funky Nu-Jazz Band

We were invited by a Hungarian friend to see a band playing in Old Street 2 weeks ago. Her friend is a singer in the band and they are playing for the first time in London. Since we were feeling adventurous, we thought why not. The band’s name is Barabas Lorinc Eklektric. We truly enjoyed it, I even bought their first album. After the show, we were invited to an after party by some stranger who lives nearby the club. It was quite an odd experience but we didn’t stay long. We knew it was gonna take us ages to get home. So we left at about 2am and only got home after 2 hours. We would love to do this again but I think age is catching up with us.

Seng Fun’s Hens Nite

Seng Fun’s Hens Nite was the very next day after going to see the Hungarian band. So you can imagine the level of energy I have. Anyhow the plan was to get her doll up and head to Old Street (yes, almost the same location) to attend our Burlesque Class. It was great fun! All the girls ‘dressed up’ and was very sporting. Some of us are even thinking of taking of classes. After the class, we head to Soho for dinner at a Cuban restaurant. Seng Fun was very lucky none of us girls were forcing her to do funny stuff. We ended the night having girly chat till about 3.30am!

ATP World Tour Finals

After all the excitement throughout the week, it was quite sad to know that Federer didn’t make it to the Finals of the Finals! So I had to change strategy and choose a player to support. It was my first time going to the O2 main arena. It was HUGE!

I went with 4 colleagues. We were seating at level 4 and still managed to see the court quite well. The event started with Men’s Doubles Final, which lasted just under 1.5 hours. Then it was the finals. Most of us were supporting Davydenko.. he was definitely the more experienced player. Del Potro did not show much threat.

The World Tour Finals will be played in the O2 for the next 4 yours. Maybe for next year, I should consider going for the semifinals instead.

London Philharmonic Orchestra

I almost forgot I bought tickets to this event. Since we have never been to an orchestra in London, I thought it would be an experienced. The theme was ‘A Concert of Christmas Music’ and it was held in the Festival Hall. The concert was very impressive. We have always enjoy live music, what more a full orchestra. There was also a 2 groups of choir in the concert. Although we enjoy this concert, I think Dav will not come along to another one in the future.