My England Excursion

Well, I made it to England and back. Here's the recap....

Sat, 1/12

A very long 10 hour flight. My TV monitor didn't work so no movies to help the time pass. I did lots of reading, but you can only read for so long. However, I actually was able to sleep a little on the plane.

Sun, 1/13

I landed around 1pm. I had a driver come and pick me up and drive me to Cambridge. It's a beautiful drive with green fields and horse pastures. I got to my hotel about 4pm. I decided to stay in and had planned on getting room service. But airplane food totally upset my stomach so I didn't really feel like eating. I had some trail mix in my carry-on and munched on that. Yep, fine dining at it's best! Then I tried to get my internet to work, but their wireless was only good in the front lobby and very spotty in the rooms. I thought I had brought a cable so I can get internet via hardwire, but I forgot it. Reception knew I was having issues with the internet (you had to get a passcode fromthem and the internet went down while I was talking to them) and sent someone up to help me. He brought some cables for me to try (yay!). One of them matched the plug on the back of my computer and he left that one for me to use. Unfotunately, it didn't fit into any of the plugs in the room (boo!), so I gave up and decided to just use the internet at work. I managed to stay awake until about 7pm and decided I should just go to sleep. That way I'd be all rested for work the next day.

Mon, 1/14

After about 12 hours of sleep, I woke up refreshed. My Managing Director (UK speak for CEO) rented a car so we huddled into his car to get us to the office (about 30 mins drive away). Ok, I just have to say that they have super small, yet VERY efficient cars over there. And nearly everyone has a handheld navigation system suction-cupped to the windshield. Back to my accounts.... My MD had a GPS in the car and we still got lost. But it was cool, because we got to see some of Cambridge that we wouldn't have gotten to see. Once we were in the office, Monday was spent in meetings with my co-worker. We're both Marketing Specialists, but she manages EMEA and I manage the US. Our territories are very different, but we needed to decide how we can become more efficient and leverage each other with our 2008 Marketing plans. It was great to be able to vent frustrations and know that we're going through the same thing in our areas. It was also great to really get to know each other and bond - in person instead of over the phone. I think it really helped both of us and hopefully we'll work better as a team now.

Tues, 1/15

Tuesday was much like Monday. More meetings with my co-worker. We also were able to work through some hurdles we were having with other departments. It seems that we were hitting walls to get information and our two offices were getting different stories. So we sat them down and worked it all out. Halleluleah! Now we can get some work done! After work, another co-worker had invited some of us "out-of-towners" over to her house for dinner. She has a 1yr old grandson and she wanted to show him off. And yes, he was adorable! They are also doing WW, so the dinner was low in points and very yummy. We all had some wine and by the end of dinner we were having a great time. They had some "crackers" left over from Christmas and we all got to pull one. They each had a tissue paper crown, a little prize (mine had a mini tape dispenser), and a fortune. We had a lot of fun! But it was pouring rain so I put my scarf around my head to stay dry since no one had an umbrella!

Wed, 1/16

Again, more meetings. In the evening, a bunch of us went out to a seafood restaurant. I'm extremely picky when it comes to fish - it can't be too fishy tasting or I won't be able to eat it. I didn't recognize most of the fish on the menu so I chose King Prawns. Um, yeah. I wasn't expecting to see the whole shrimp on my plate - antennas and all. The look on my face must have given it away because my co-worker sitting next to me said, "You weren't expecting that, were you?" I said no. But he got the same thing, so after he teased me a bit, he showed me how to eat them - by breaking off the front half from the tail half. So not pleasing to do, but damn were they good! Me and two others decided to head back to the hotel before everyone else. But on the way back, we decided to stop into the pub across the street and have a beer - or two. Erik, who used to live in Cambridge, basically chose 3 different beers for us to chose from. I tried them all to see which I liked best. Do you know that they have a beer that tastes like Root Beer?! No joke! It was good, but not my kind of beer. When I want beer, I want beer. When I want Root Beer, I want Root Beer. But at the same time? I think not.

Thur, 1/17

Thursday was the first day of the Sales Kick-Off Meetings. This is where everyone comes together - Marketing, Sales, Product Management, Engineering, Application Engineers, and the rest of upper management discuss our plans for 2008. Overall, the meeting went well. But we were all completely drained by the end of the day. That, however, did not slow us down any for our big company dinner that night! Luckily, there was a break in the rain and we all decided to walk over to the restaurant. It was actually the same restaurant that I LOVED when I was there the last time. It's a Tappas place where they serve little plates of Spanish food - very good! We all had a great time!

Fri, 1/18

Apparently, some people came into the last day of meetings with hangovers. I, thankfully, was not one of them. I don't think I could have handled another 10 hours of meetings with a hangover. We finished up our agenda and started to leave. Because my flight was early the next morning and it's a bit of a drive to London, I decided to stay at a hotel near the airport that night. I had scheduled a cab to pick me up from the office at around 6pm. We were told that he was running a little late - like 10 - 15 minutes. My co-worker decided to keep me company - and to allow me to sit in her car to be protected from the gale-force winds that had started blowing - until the cabbie showed up. Which I am incredibly thankful for! She gets a call saying that he's still a ways away, so we decide to go to her place and the cabbie can pick me up from there. Turns out he was about 1 1/2 late! He had an earlier fare to London and he was stuck in traffic on the way back to Cambridge and it took him over 3 hours!! So, he picked me up and took me to my hotel. Well, what we thought was my hotel. There are 3 - yes 3 - different Holiday Inn's near the airport. There is one inparticular that our folks usually stay at - WRONG! I was booked at a different one about a block or two down the road. Good thing the driver came in with me. Once I got to the right hotel, I wanted to go somewhere else. Someone was having a party at the hotel restaurant and it was SOOOOO loud I could barely hear the guy at the recep[tion counter trying to check me in. I get up to my room.....and I can still hear the music and people - and I'm on the 3rd floor!! Holy Geez, they need some sound proofing in that hotel! Good thing I had earplugs.

Sat, 1/19

A very long 10 hour flight home. But this time I could watch movies! No sleeping on the plane though - it was too early to try and sleep. I landed about 1pm and tried, tried, TRIED to stay awake. But by 4pm I was exhausted! I told Brian to let me take a little nap and wake me up in 2 hours. At 6pm he woke me up and my eyes were glued together. I absolutely did not want to get up. But he made me and I tried to preoccupy myself with things to keep me awake and ended up watching a movie. At about 8pm, I just wanted to go back to sleep. So....I did.

It's taken me about a week to adjust back. For some reason, it's a lot harder for me to come back than it is to go there. But now, I think I'm pretty much back on schedule. Unfortunately this wasn't a sight-seeing trip. I think next time, I want to do the London tourist thing. I've been there twice now and yet I've not been there. Oh well, there's always next time!