Wednesday
10th September/ Thursday 11th September 2003
Week 29, Days 169/170
This was one training workshop trip I was really looking forward to.
The last for a few months and meeting up with the guys I had done training
with before in the big smoke. I headed to London the night before, arriving
at Putney Lodge to a bit of a mix up with rooms. When everything was
sorted it turned out that I had my own room. I slept while most of the
others went in search of food.
The next morning, after filling up on breakfast, we headed to ND (Nando's
Distribution) but taxi! Big mistake. London in the morning during rush
hour is not where you want to be. It took us over an hour to get there
and we were more tired from the trip than from the lack of sleep the
night before. That day's training involved us meeting the guys at ND
so we can put names to faces when we call them with problems with our
stock and orders, techonology and other things. We learned about the
new Intranet they're putting in place (and we can't wait for it now!),
learned a bit more about how to put through food poisoning complaints,
but the bit we loved the most was how the pickers put all our orders
through. We each got assigned to a picker, who took us around with order
forms and made us pick up the food and put it into the cages that we
always receive our stock in. It was fun, though the fridges were a little
too cold for comfort. We all looked dead sexy in our orange helmets
and hairnets (got the pictures to prove it!).
That night we hit the town for Jackie's birthday. Stopping at a drink
store on the way back from ND, I went to Jackie & Heidi's room and
waited while they got ready. Heidi straightened my hair (how girly)
for me which was a nice change. When we were FINALLY ready, we left
and caught the tube to town. We ended up at Coventry and ate italian
for dinner. Then searched for a decent place for a drink. We decided
upon a Belgian bar (or was it Dutch?!) and as Jackie had brought with
her, 2 packs of playing cards, played some drinking games. The best
was one where you put an empty beer glass in the middle and then put
all the cards around it face down. Taking turns, you flip a card over.
If you get a black card you take a drink, if you get a red you don't
and if you get a king, you have to pour some of your drink into the
empty glass. The person to pick up the last king has to drink the concoction
in the beer glass. The first lucky person to do so was Ash. Second time
round was overly suspenseful as Michelle picked up the last card which
happened to be the last king!
Off we went in search of a club that Ash recommended only to discover
that it had a private function on so we couldn't get in. Wandering the
streets Jackie and ran into an arcade place and attempted to play on
those dancing japanese games, only to stuff it up majorly. In comes
this Japanese bloke with legwarmer socks on. He puts in his coins and
gets going. I have never seen anything like it - he was a champion at
the game! It was absolutely nuts but boy could he move!
Finally we headed to a pub (which was it again? Something like O'briens
or something) and danced the night away to cheesey pop, rock ballads
and funky tunes before going home. I was most impressed with the selection
of Chupa Chups & perfumes available from the lady in the bathroom.
The next day, all very tired, some of us hungover (not me though), we
sat in for a lesson with Marcello on Finance. Lucky for us it finished
early - it was very interesting and applicable to our jobs which was
nice though. And we made the long trek back to our homes.
Michelle, Ash, Charlie, Jackie, Stacey & Heidi dig the hairnets.
But Katie, Nikki & I prefer the hard hats.
Couldn't resist making the guys do it - from left: Phil, Ash, Charlie
& Ben.
On our way for a damn good night out.
All photos ©Vanessa T. Martins, 2003.
