Constipado on long weekend (not as bad as it sounds)
So it turns out Constipado is also the equivalent of Resfriado in Spanish, which means to have a cold. Apparently constipado is has some sort of latin root associated with blockage which in the Spanish case is about blockage of the nose.
So unfortunately I had a cold which came on on the Saturday of a 4 day long weekend (Aargh). Not too bad though - gave me an opportunity to sort out a bunch of stuff but wasn't conducive to the sort of 4 day long weekend that I would normally be hoping for.
Next chance is in August sometime.
Birthday in Prague
Not a lot too this one really. Given I was meeting my colleagues for the first time and it was our quarterly get together we headed out for dinner at an Argentinian restaurant just off Wenceslas Square.
Very nice fare indeed. Some of the folks from a partner company whose offices we were having our meeting in turned up as well.
So I was a bit concerned about shooters turning up early in the evening if I let all and sundry know that it was my birthday so I held quiet until I could guage how big the night was going to be. Wise move as it turned out I think
I let everyone know that it was my birthday just as we were leaving the restaurant (hoping to get the locals to sing happy birthday for me in Czech). Duly at the pub we went to afterwards a bucket of Margarita (it was glass but certainly bucket sized) turned up for me.
Tough morning after.
Meet the colleagues
So headed off to Prague for my first meeting with my new colleagues. I had spoken to about 3 of them but didn't know what any of them looked like. So got in at 11pm and went straight to my hotel room.
So the next morning I had arranged to meet them in the hotel lobby at 8:30 I wandered down at 8:25 and they sat down next to a group that I suspected was them but thought I would suss it out first, so about 10s later another person joins the group and says - well he has checked in but he isn't in his room - realised it was my new boss.
So was introduced all round - fairly eclectic and similarly minded group to me(the readership can decide if that is a good thing or not). 2 Americans, 3 poms, 3 French, a swede and a german and of course a Spano-Australian.
Bus cram at the airport
So this incident was a bit of an insight to the Spanish character, and amused me this time but I guess the 20th time wouldn't be quite so funny.
So I was running late for my flight to Prague. (this I am sure will provide immense surprise to the readership) Madrid has recently opened a new terminal which is about 5kms by road from all of the other terminals at the airport. So currently to get from the older terminals (which is where the Metro takes you at the airport) to the new terminal you have to catch a bus.
So it took about 15 minutes for a bus to turn up so there was sizable group of people all keen to get on the 1 bus. There was no organized queue of course. I saw it coming and managed to position myself where the doors would open so I got on pretty quickly and then lots of people crammed on after me - to the extent that the doors wouldn't close when the bus driver tried to do so.
The bus driver didn't say anything like asking people in the bus to move down or asking people to get off to allow the doors to close. He just kept trying to close the doors. This went on for 2 or 3 minutes. In that time no one on the bus took it upon themselves to do either thing either. Probably wouldn't have done anything to fix the problem either because one of the people in the doorway moved to try and get out of the way of the doorways so one of the people on the kerb who hadn't been able to get on previously jumped into the gap.
Eventually somehow the doors did close but the bus didn't take off just yet. The bus driver was talking to his mate out the bus window for another minute before he finally took off.
I think if my Spanish had been better I would have said a few things - no doubt not particularly constructive though because I think it would possibly have put people's backs up - something to be careful of when I do have enough Spanish.
So amusing this time (as it gives me an anecdote) the 20th time perhaps not so.
Been Slack
I've been slack - meant to reconfigure my blog so it doesn't actually look like I am still in South America. Instead I will tantalize you with headlines and fill them in as I get the time:
Bus Cram at the airport.
Meet the colleagues.
Birthday in Prague
Constipado on long weekend (not as bad as it sounds)
PC sagas
Newspaper sharing
Busy lad!!
Moved into new house (plus photos!!)
Travelling (a lot - Prague, Spain, USA, Sweden)
Paquita Chocalatera
So anyway hopefully fill these in shortly but you just have to make up your own stories for now - hopefully the headlines give you some fodder.
