Thursday 10 September 2009

Episode 14: The one which is slightly controversial

I don't know why I'm convinced this one is controversial. I think it's because i've been seeing quite a bit of Anthony, so technically I shouldn't be cruising for other guys - for want of a better phrase. But it seems that I'm suffering from FOMO (fear of missing out), which will from now on be my excuse for absolutely everything.

So last weekend I went to Hungary for a works do. Yes you read that right. 30 of us from the UK office went to Budapest for the weekend all expenses paid, to take part in the annual company international football tournament. Obviously I didn't play any of this football; I went as a dedicated supporter. Nonetheless I still had a great time meeting all the other people who work in the markets, and putting faces to the people that I email.

There are 7 markets in total - Hungary, Poland, Romania, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Mexico and the UK. All in all I think there must have been close to 500 of us on the day. And the sun was shining and everybody was in good spirts.

Halfway through the afternoon, I went to queue for a hotdog and this Mexican guy came up to me and asked to take my photo. I thought nothing of it, and posed and smiled. Then 2 minutes later, this Polish guy asked to take my photo. I thought he was being a bit pervy so I said only if we could get somebody from each market in the photo. So I grabbed the nearest Slovakian and Romanian people but he got annoyed with me because he only wanted pictures of foreign girls. I thought it was a bit weird and left it at that.

Then later on in the afternoon, I was sat in another part of the stadium and the Hungarian cheerleaders came up to me and asked if they could have a photo. At this point I began to suspect it must be a black thing (don't shout at me, I have a built in knack for this), but thought nothing of it, and just smiled and struck a pose.

Then on my way back to the bus, a bunch of Romanians ran up to me and were like 'Hi, how are you' and started chatting away. One of them happened to be a rather dashing young chap called David who had the most perfectly shaped eyebrows that I have ever seen on a man. I made a mental note to find him later, and got back on the bus to the hotel.

The evening's entertainment was a boat trip up and down the Danube and then a party boat disco. Random people kept stopping me to say hello everywhere I went which sounds hard to believe, but it really did happen. Our Hungarian host actually confirmed to me later on that it was because I had dark skin but she was like - don't be offended, they are not being rude, they are just curious!.

Great.

Midway through the evening I caught up with David. I don't remember how, but we ended up chatting together for pretty much the whole night. And I was genuinely amazed at his standard of English, especially when he told me he'd learnt mostly from films like Pulp Fiction and Swordfish. We discovered a mutual love for house music, quentin tarantino films and trips to Italy and then had a bit of a boogie on the dance floor.

The party finished up at about 3am and we walked back to the hotel where we just chatted and stuff*. And it was lovely.

We went down for breakfast in the morning before he left on the coach for his 18hour trip back to Bucharest, and he promised to keep in touch via email.

So i'm back home now and true to his word, he emailed me on Monday. Now considering I didn't give him my email address, I'm pretty chuffed. Although to be fair, I am the only Georgina in Provident UK. Anyway, he writes really sweet emails and puts Kiss at the bottom instead of xx. Which I find hilarious - I think this must a European thing.

Obviously nothing will come of this, I'm not going to move to Romania or anything. If he lived in England then things would be a little different I think. But he doesn't, so they won't. And I haven't had an email today, so think it's fizzled out already.

Incidentally, we've just had our team awards this month, and I received an acknowledgement for going above and beyond the call of duty for building relationships between the UK team and the Romanian team. Fortunately, the group head of marketing thought it was because I did a few extra hours last week. Well I guess I did really!

Anyway, that's all from me.

Oh incase any of you were wondering, I haven't heard back from that journalist guy. I guess perhaps GATC isn't quite right for Company magazine. I'll keep trying though.


Kiss



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