Remembering a year of virtual insanity

{ April 4, 2008 @ 2:06 pm } · { Being back in the UK, Spainisms, spain expats }
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Remembering a year of virtual insanity.


Since returning to the UK (after working for a web-based property portal in sunny Spain for over a year), I have realised that my ‘international’ working experience was exactly that - an experience! 
Unlike the repetitive nature of British working life, no two days were ever the same while I was abroad. Each hour offered a new and exciting challenge, whether it was strictly work-related or something more juicy, like one of the directors throwing a hissy fit and threatening  to give another member of staff a broken jaw. There was never a dull moment.
Right now, I’m sat at the desk of my new job in the UK and I long for someone to light a cigar in the office, change their job title every two minutes, bring their pet poodle in or for an i ll-tempered director to shout at everybody til they cry. But no, that kind of thing just doesn’t happen here. Don’t get me wrong, there’s bitching and back-stabbing but it’s all done on the quiet. No one speaks out here and that makes for a very dull working day. A day I’m sick to death of because its the same thing, over and over and over and over.
There were some real characters at the office in Spain. I remember looking around in a meeting and thinking ‘not one of these people is sane, they’re all freaks!’. That might sound a little harsh but it’s true. In their own little ways, they were all slightly crazy and that’s what made the place such fun. 
Let’s see - there was the woman that waddled like a penguin when she walked, so me and my friends named her, erm, Penguin, there was a guy that looked like Frankenstein’s Monster, a couple of stalker-type lads in the sales department, a bloke who thought he was smooth but actually resembled a pot-belly pig, a compulsive liar, a coke addict (no, not the drug, I’m talking Coca Cola here, seriously!), a couple of prostitutes, one or two kerb crawlers, a girl obsessed with American sitcoms, a cool and very amusing South African guy (love you!), a middle-aged Spanish pot-smoking hippy woman, a girl with extreme coffee breath, a totally insane receptionist (love you!), a very fun Argentinean girl and a London lass with a love of leopard-prints! The rest were horrendous - I couldn’t begin to describe them to you. Even as a writer, I simply can’t find enough words!

Anyway, if you worked for the same company and enjoyed the daily ‘episodes’, share your story with me - I’d love to hear what your highlights were!

I wish we’d have had a ’school-photo’ kind of picture taken!

Recommended track: ‘I Still Remember’ by Bloc Party.

4 Comments »

  1. Simon Said:

    on April 7, 2008 at 10:12 am

    I’m trying to work out which one of those descriptions is me… or am I in the “horrendous” category? :)

  2. rebelette Said:

    on April 7, 2008 at 10:57 am

    Hi Simon, don’t worry - I didn’t include you in the ‘horrendous’ category either!
    Did you recognise anyone in there?
    I think you should try and guess who they all are and I’ll tell you whether you got them right! lol

    ;)

  3. Simon Said:

    on April 8, 2008 at 1:05 pm

    Lol, erm, yeah I think I can take a guess at a couple of the curb crawlers, the pot smoking spanish hippie, insane receptionist and leopard print, some of the others I might struggle with.. !

    How long to go?

  4. rebelette Said:

    on April 8, 2008 at 3:14 pm

    Well, I can’t give them away, for obvious reasons but I you’re probably spot-on with your guesses.

    2 weeks…

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