I spent a week in Wilmslow, a very posh suburb to Manchester where there are far more Bentley's than Fiats...
Having arrived to Wilmslow on Sunday evening (at 19-ish) following a two hour train trip from London... I immediately met up with a group of the others who were on the same training course. The reason I was up there was for Pareto Law (the recruitment agency that I got the job through) sales training (the foundations of selling). It was an extremely interesting week of training culminating in Thursday's cold-call test where we (we were a group of 23 people on the course) one by one had to call the trainer who was pretending to be a potential buyer of our product. We had to convince him to have a meeting. I went fourth out of 23 and was the first person to successfully book a meeting so I was extremely happy with that although I felt slightly like I had weaselled my way in... ie. there is a lot of room for improvement... but all in all, a great training session and learned a hell of a lot in terms of Sales...
It is also interesting, already on the day I arrived, I felt a bit under the weather and unfortunately I wasn't able to shake off the sore throat, stuffy nose and headache throughout the week... this in part meant that I wasn't as social with the other individuals in the group as I might have been. At the same time I was also not interested in spending any more time with the guy I work with than I would have to and he was ... as he normally is... loud and self-centered and good at initially connecting with people. The combination meant that I took a real backseat which is extremely interesting and worthwhile at times.
It's always interesting with group dynamics and especially when there are so many different personality types and people that want to take up a lot of place. The fact that the ages ranged from 21 to 47 also had a major part to play although some of the people in their 30's acted more like 21 year olds than certain 21 yo's... The English society is very much about going out and socialising and drinking every night... and if you miss out ... especially if it is a bad reason, then that can be quite detrimental to your "social-standing" ... it's definitely interesting... dynamics of a group!!!
While up in the Manchester area I was fortunate enough to meet up with two of my friends from yesteryear... I met with Ria, a Finnish PhD student in Manchester on the Monday night at Kro2. A great Danish bar in manchester. It was really interesting to hear how she's been doing. It's a completely different world, the world of doctoring!!!
On Tuesday I had the fantastic opportunity of going to Chester to meet my really close friend Byron... meet his lovely girlfriend Gemma, their dog Poppit, and see their current flat... everything was absolutely fantastic!!! Had a lovely lovely meal and a great chat... really miss Byron! Glad we're in the same country at least... Now Anne and I need to get up there so Anne and Gemma can ride horses and Byron and I sit in the pub and reminisce...!!! :-)
Finally, yesterday after having arrived back in London at 21.00, Anne and I went to meet another of my closest friends, Gemma and Alex... we went to a pub called the Queenshead & Artichoke on Albany Road (just opposite Great Portland Street). Great tapas and atmosphere.. highly recommend it!!!
Now I'm back in London with a cold... hopefully meeting up with my friend Santiago from Colombia who I met in Slovakia!!! Life keeps on tick tick ticking away...
Finally... last weekend Anne and I attended an AWESOME Michael Jackson themed party hosted by my sister Mathilda and Simon... it was their house warming party... to make things better Antonia and my cousin Louise came over from New York and Sweden respectively... earlier in the day a group of 15 of us had learned the Thriller dance at the Pineapple Dance Studios at Covent Garden... Hugely recommend it... it's expensive £25 per person for 2 hours.. but a great group activity, great bonding and a lot of fun!!! Get ready to sweat... I'll try to get a video up of the dance shortly...!!!
Here's one or two pictures to leave with... :-)
