Karl B

Want to go to Spain for a couple of days, on work? Sure!

That’s pretty much what happened to me this week. On Tuesday morn’ I started hearing the management talk about it, apparently there were some network problems in the Madrid and Barcelona offices. By the afternoon I had been told the situation and that I would be going either late that night or early the next.

What happened next was nothing short of tragic…okay. Not quite. A fter a mad dash to get over priced tickets. A pickup at 3:30am Wedmesday morning, and arrived back at 1:30am Friday.

What did I achieve? Found out I couldn’t do anything in the work offices because the ISPs equipment sucked, so what did I do? Managed to spend a few hours walking around Barcelona, discovering how awesome it is (I have to go back) and oh, I saw the Sagrada Familia.

Well, the G20 sumit wasn’t as big a deal for me as I would have liked it to be, not that I was trying to comit suicide by protester or anything, but I was not in the office close to the action.

To explain; in my previous post I mentioned that we were asked to work in a different office, away from the exchange, and wear casual clothing. Unfortunately due to the fact that I’m a contractor at work I don’t have a photo ID so I wasn’t allowed in the main building due to security and had to go to another one.

Anyway, on to the photos. There was a protest march which passed by one of the other work offices where I was and I’ve also shamelessly stolen pictures off twitter/twitpic. Oh there was another token turn out on the next day at the main office which I have photos of.

NB: Sorry, I realise I over hyped this!

Since I’ve become employed here, and perhaps more so since I was offered a full time contract (starts late April and lasts until the end of my working visa), I have fallen back into the worker ant mentality. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. Because of this a friend last night gave me a challenge, a mission of sorts, to post photos of myself at Stonehenge within two weeks.

I have accepted, but thought I’d make it a series and start out with something more interesting.  April 1st, the day before the G20 summit starts there will be a protest infront of the bank of England. As it so happens, I work within 300m of said bank, so tomorrow I plan to come to work (we’ve been told use an alternative site)  in a suit (we’ve been told to dress down), carrying a camera and snapping photos in the midst of the crowd.

If you have any ideas for things to do in my spare time leave a comment, I still plan on going to StoneHenge as well.

To Mum: I hope I speak with you tomorrow evening before you read my blog, if not, sorry!