I was also left wondering for several moments if the english wagtail speaks in a different language compared to the finnish one - like, if there might be a difference to the way they sing?- Already last week we had to hurry up with the design of flyers and pull-ups, because print can't do miracles - the work has to be there at a set date or they won't get done until it's too late. Still, one customer came up to me as late as this week's Monday (since we had the show on Wednesday) with some changes to the work that we had done to him, which made me go all, "Uhm... Sure, I mean I'll gladly do it, but uh, are you expecting this to be ready for Wednesday....?" Of course I said nothing aloud, I just told about it to Sam (who had his birthday on Monday! He's libra, like my dad!) who was having his day off that a situation like this had popped up, so what should I do about it. I then fixed the whole pull-up in a fast schedule so that I could send it to Sam for his evaluation, and then Sam sent the finished ensemble to print.
Tuesday was of course the most hectic day considering all the preparation that needs to get done, because it's the day before the d-day. Throughout the day I had these kinds of excited shivers going on, because I really wanted to DO THINGS and GO PLACES, and and and! I was ready to start filling all the goodie bags and carrying stuff from place a to place b and all of it, but Sam sat me onto a chair and made me do the work that I was actually supposed to do. I was sad :C
- Of course when you're working with these kinds of busypants, you get to truly notice how many things they're up to at the same time. Sam and Lewis have bought new furniture for the office, and of course they arrived at the same day as the rest of the print stuff that was to be put on our stand and to the goodiebags. Gaz, a man the size of a bear, who does a bit of this and that for Smallporate, was here to fix up the new furniture and to paint our walls a pure white colour. Because why not?! Naturally you're able to have the time to paint a wall, set-up furniture, finish a day's work, prepare all the material ready for the goodie bags and fill them, go to St. Mellion's to fix the venue for tomorrow, eat and drink at some point and actually travel between the office and St. Mellion, all in one day... But for some odd reason it still worked! I even thought that the start of the day was incredibly slow (which might of course been affected by the fact that I was so unmotivated to do the work that I had been given, because _excitement_!). Gaz was painting the wall and I ended up staring at his work from time to time, cause I would've wanted to do that too even more than my own work (I know, I'm awful, but but! I wanted to be a part of that day!). Joe was on about all day how it didn't feel like they were in a hurry. We had a little fun and laughs and overall it was as if all of us were on a restless but goofy moods. Lewis, among other things, rolled me out of the office (because I took his chair - but hey, it was nicer than mine! And now it is mine. Woo!) and I gained a fine hat in the shape of a box. Yay!
Things picked up finally from there, as they have a tendency to. The pull-ups and the prints were supposed to be delivered already in the morning, around 9 o'clock, but only a few of them found their way to the office and Sam was calling and messaging after them all through the day - especially when it included pullups for our customers as well. Finally they found their way to the office, and phew - I just so enjoy seeing my own handiwork presented in its final form. I wish that I'll never outgrow the feeling of utter excitement and wonder that fills me when someone opens a box which contains stuff that I've done, or if someone is rolling open a big poster I've made, or just about anything, when you know it's made by you and now it will be put to use. It's a very intoxicating feeling, and for some reason I think that it might be close to the kind of kicks live performers receive from standing in front of the audience.
Also the final materials for the goodiebags came with the delivery, and so me and Gaz started organizing all the papers to their individual piles, from where they'd then easily be packed into the St. Mellion goodiebags. Gaz is extremely nice and talkative person, despite his big size which might make him look threatening to some, but as soon as you talk to him, you realise what a great and humorous human being he actually is. It was nice to chit-chat with him while packing the goodiebags, it was enjoyable motoric and repetetive work.
- We were able to pack a while as Sam and Lewis where finishing up their last minute work stuff and then was the time for departure! Had to get my stuff together immediately, because I though of going straight home from St. Mellion's. We carried all that we needed to a big, white van and then we just went on our way!
I sat on the front seat (because SHOTGUN) and I enjoyed it thoroughly. I think the last time I was in a van was when I was moving from Lahti to Helsinki and I was sitting with Samuel and dad with all my belongings stuffed into the back. Overall I just love driving around so much, I miss it so much, long trips to other places, so I was really feeling it on the road. Plymouth and the travel to Cornwall in the darkness that the evening had settled onto us was absolutely lovely, it was wonderful seeing the city rise onto a hillside in a typical South-West english way, all the small light in the windows and the smell of sea air. Ah! We went through the Tamar Bridge, which according to the big numbers on it was built in 1961, and damn, was it a sight or what!
I got the idea of the English version of the famous San Francisco bridge, even if it amused Sam and he told me that it really wasn't all that big or special in the long run. It still held a wonderful view, everything looked so cool. I was as excited as a puppy!
- I didn't see a lot of St. Mellion when we arrived, the evening had settled a very heavy darkness everywhere, so we could only see lights, lights everywhere. I did manage to make out the great size of the building though, and then we were already busy carrying the stuff inside. As a place, as soon as we walked inside, I got an even stronger vibe of poshnest, due to the fitted carpet, employees brushing by in their smart suites, last hour golfers (how on earth would they see anything in the darkness?) etc. etc. The hall where the business show was to be held, was quite big, and many exhibitioners had already gotten their stands up, but there were a few people with us at the same time, and a few even after us who put their banners up and fixed their pullups. Luckily we didn't need to take care of any setting up the tables kind of stuff, since that was St. Mellion's responsibility. Overall our stand started to look like a proper business show stand and thus utterly majestic, so we decided to go grab a bite.
St. Mellion had organized tea (...dinner) for all the exhibitioners, but in the end there was only nine of us there. Well, at least the conversation was easy enough to handle and it was nice to get to know people in a smaller group! You felt a more personal touch to the people involved, which is why you then greeted them with a slightly wider smile the next morning.
- The food was absolutely fantastic - for the appetizer I chose duck terrine and for my main course I chose my very first, officially english fish 'n' chips! The whole thing was HU-GE, for a change, cause I guess the english are storing food for the long winter or something... Phew. It was divine though, and again I felt like a landslide (= a feeling that could be fixed by fitting some wheels under me and someone to push me around).
Gaz arrived to the venue around the time when we were finishing with everything (he had been going to a detour to fix some of his own things) and he snatched Joe with him when we left, while me, Lewis and Sam packed ourselves back into the van. We had been talking about the fact that I'd come back to the office to help with filling the goodiebags (the time was maybe, what, around ten in the evening at that time?), but I was on the verge of falling asleep in the van while Lewis was laughing at me and Sam made the decision for me to just drop me off home and not to take me with them to the office, cause I'd prolly just fall asleep.
- My goodness gracious how the natives drive in this country! In my opinion Sam was driving just incredibly fast, and here I had thought that it was only Lewis' forté (every single time Iäve been in his car, he's slammed the breaks in at least once), but now I'm kinda worried that the irresponsible mid-european style of driving that everyone is talking about would actually stretch all over to England. The roads in Cornwall are stupidly dark, they have no lampposts whatsoever there to light the way, only reflectors on the side of the road to mark the individual lanes and their shapes. If I hadn't been so tired I might've been a little bit uncomfortable, but during the travel it mostly made me nervously giggle about it. Sam took a special route back, so that we could cross the Tamar Bridge on our way back from Cornwall on a path that's been built on the side of the bridge. Damn it looked fine, but again some nervous laughter was involved - but at least I've seen that part of the bridge and the view it offers!
When Sam and Lewis took me home, I found out that Lewis was going to be coming to pick me up already between 6:45 and 7:00, and not at 7:30 like I had originally thought. I definitely didn't want to be thinking about it at that time of the night, but I did fix my alarm instantly, cause I didn't want to wake up to Lewis calling me why I wasn't answering the doorbell... eek.
- Earlier I had messaged Sophie if she possibly had any red nailpolish on her, cause I wanted the full Smallporate-look from head to toe - and luckily, she had some! The time was late enough for her to be in bed though by the time I arrived, since the poor thing has to wake up at six practically every day. Still, being the wonderful person that she is, she had placed the nail polish on a place where I could find it, so I could paint my nails at the wee hours of the evening at the same time as Joe and Mike were watching Avatar: The last Airbender. When Mike was going through Netflix, he stopped on Iron Sky and happened to comment on how great of a movie it is, and I instantly went DAT IS FINNISH! I don't think he believed me at first, but I explained the whole thing and pointed out the fact that my school had been a part of it, so there was no reason to argue. When I slipped that I hadn't actually seen the movie myself, Mike put it on. So the evening kind of stretched from its original schedule, but I had to leave in the middle of the movie, cause I was so dead tired, so I packed my stuff and dove unto my bed, thank you very much!
I was thinking of waking up on the sweet, sensible 5:30 o'clock on wednesday morning, but apparently I hadn't realised to change my alarm after Lewis had updated our timetables. Instead I woke up at 6.10 and I was 100% certain that I would somehow be late and everything would go to hell. Well, it didn't, I got myself up and everything prepared, I had time to have a chat with Bobby on skype and the time was already 7:22 when Lewis finally appeared behind my door (or well, he didn't actually, since he went a couple of doors too far from mine...). Joe got in for the ride as well and we drove to St. Mellion in a little morning traffic, but we arrived at the venue at around ten to eight. Lewish rushed me and Joe to go to breakfast immediately while he himself disappeared to park the car and whatnot.
- The breakfast was called Networking Breakfast, and everything that you could imagine belonging into an english breakfast was served. With Joe's hint I found the table were Sam was already seated, and sat down with some bacon, eggs and tomatoes (I just cannot do this heavy breakfast that the english are all about!). I didn't get to talk a lot to others, since there were people having a few presentations at the front of the room. It looked like Power Point could've quit everything short and sweet to the first dia, and I find it hard to focus on long speeches about businesses and co-operation offered by Plymouthian organisations so early in the morning. I was really tired but I was biting my teeth together so that I wouldn't yawn, and I kept wishing that the whole thing would pass quickly enough. There were some interesting things as well though, such as local politics, which peaked my curiosity, since I enjoy sensing the atmosphere in the english mindset and thoughts.
After the breakfast we got to go to the stand, and I was super excited about seeing myself in the middle of all the other businesspeople and just as fancy as they were. My mood was particularly high because of the Smallporate shirt that Sam loaned to me and of course the "Exhibitionist" tag hanging from my neck! I really felt like I was actually at work in there, and that damn, these people could actually come to me to ask about things! I did notice that all the other women were wearing some kind of high heels, when I was marching away in my army boots... Hehe. I'm pretty sure tht my feet were in better shape than theirs at the end of the day!
- Next to our stand there was CMP Coaching and Training, a one man company, which focuses, for example, in leadership skills and management development. The whole thing is led by an incredibly charming and luminous Chris, who I could've easily and more than willingly spend the whole day with talking about all kinds of subjects. I had heard about Chris before, when Sam and Lewis had told me on my very first days that Chris had among other things done the Myers-Briggs test(!!!), so it was really fun to get to chat with him overall. On the side Sam then said that it would be really good idea if I'd take part on the speed networking starting at nine o'clock - the whole idea of it is to people to sit opposite each other and each has a minute to themselves to explain what their company is about and what they do. Kind of like self-advertising/marketing. At first I was feeling kind of deer-in-the-headlights and immediately asked why me. After a little chat and some encouragement from Chris I was like okay, well, perhaps I'm capable of that. Personally I think I almost instinctively say "no" at first to everything, that I won't agree and I don't like this or that, before I get more comfortable with the idea and someone's like "But you'd be perfect for it!", some kind of a half assed compliment which makes me feel good about myself and after that I'm agreeing and saying YES TO ALL. Lewis prepped me a little and after I had snatched some Smallporate-brochures and taken a deep breath, I jumped in head first.
Of course I was part of that line which had to move after every two minutes, because pfft, you can't make the whole thing too easy. I guess it was better though, not having the time to get nervous at the sitting around thing when you're allowed to move a little and change seats. I felt a bit sorry for the man who was sitting next to me, who I kept poking with my elbows and gave a few kicks to so that he'd move forward when Chris, who was the ceremonial master of the whole thing, blew on his whistle (I did apologize to him afterwards tho, as kindly and nicely as I could...). It was pretty alright talking to people about Smallporate, the whole hall was just so loud as 44(?) people kept talking to each other at the same time. At points I realized that I wasn't even focusing on what the other person was telling me, especially when some people didn't even lean forward so that they'd be heard better. I was like, you want me to climb on your lap and scream to your ear, or are you interested at all? Also one of the facts that I realised was that I guess I speak adequate english since I could go through with something like that without stuttering and all. Afterwards I felt super good about myself, especially since I had gotten one particularly interested person to promise to come visit our stand and everything. Again I felt official and important, and that definitely gets your self-confidence soaring.
As a sidenote - here in England I've realized how much people are interested in a tattoo, which is written in their language. The tattoo which is the easiest to spot on my skin is possibly also the most provocative one (inside my right arm there's a text "Do what you love and fuck the rest"), and here I've been really self-conscious about it all the time. Because I was wearing a short-sleeved Smallporate shirt through out the speed networking, the tattoo was constantly visible, and two people caught onto it - the other was a guy, who knew Sam and Lewis from somewhere, and was chuckling at the tattoo, amused. I think I saved a lot of points by being cheeky and saying "--- and cause I love marketing, I work for Smallporate!" and that's when the guy got the enthusiastic idea of making it the slogan for Smallporate. The other person who commented on the tattoo was a young-ish woman, who after obvious curiosity had read the text let out a nervous laugh and was clearly awkward afterwards. I got the situation to open up with a little humour tossed in though, so that was that. Later at the Smallporate stand a man asked me about my tattoo and wondered if I had any more - he obviously had the kind of an undertone that made me think that he didn't particularly appreciate tattoos overall, but in my opinion I was able to explain my decision on getting them well enough, and I got the man to understand my thoughts about the subject. I did happen to have a livid flashback about my dad though, who back in the day asked for example if I was really thinking clearly if I'd tattoo the word "fuck" in my arm. After this kind of an official event I can say with even more clarity that yes - I don't regret my tattoo at all. My skin, my rules, my responsibility.
Lewis' mom had made cupcakes for our stand (I felt like laughing so much, I was just thinking that not my mom, lol :D), which cheered up our stand even more, but overall I think that we had the most official and smartest looking stand in the whole business show. It was fun to talk to people, I even met a girl named Charlotte, who offered her photography skills, chatted a bit more with Chris and did all sorts of useful things. For lunch I had tuna panini, which looked a lot more fine dining than I had though at first (I was picturing a bread wrapped in plastic, but fine, whatever! I don't mind!).
I was able to sit around in relative peace, what with Sam and Lewis buzzing around with stuff since they were having a talk/seminar thingy at the spot (poor Lewis, he doesn't really like taking the stage to himself no matter how good he is talking to people overall). After that it was more helping at the stand and taking care of other stuff, I went around the venue to look at the other stands and I talked with the people who I had been designing their stands last week. It was fun to socialize and speak english, I've met practically two people overall here in England who have recognized an accent from my way of speaking and immediately asked where I'm from, but most seem to be thinking that I'm english, which of course for me is the most fun. You sometimes find yourself amazed at language and how it works, how it's me who understands all these people but none of them will simply not understand me. (I was having a lot of fun on monday by talking strictly finnish for a good part of an hour, Joe and Lewis were wondering and staring at me and Lewis tried to proper listen to me, but he commented on it afterwards how he can't recognize the different tones of finnish, which makes understanding it even more difficult.)
- I had met a man in speednetworking, who introduced himself as a hypnotherapist, which I was thrilled to the bones and talked about it to Chris, who said that he could arrange us to talk about the subject somewhere together. It was a man named Duncan, who took me with him to his lunch break and explained to me how hypnotherapy works, what and how it influences people and how much it had benefitted him in the past, so much in fact that he decided to become a hypnotherapist himself. He had quite a lifestory behind him, and it was super interesting talking to him. We spoke together for about an hour, which passed so fast as I was asking all sorts of questions and my sense of time just disappeared. It was easy enough to continue on similar topics with Christ, and overall I just kept thinking how I know a person or two, easily, who could benefit from both NLP, which Chris does, as well as hypnotherapy, which is Duncan's forté.
Before I really realized it, the whole thing was over. Oopsidaisies, what on earth? Practically everyone was having a sort of a raffle in their stands, and you could enter by dropping your business card to a bowl in the stand - we, surprise surprise, had a bottle of Finlandia vodka as our prize! When Sam called out for the final time that if you want to enter for a chance to win some finnish vodka, suddenly people started piling up in dozens and the raffle was finished in good spirits. It was actually one of the men who were with us at the dinner on tuesday-evening who won the bottle, so I allowed the liquor to go to better hands with an easy mind.
Taking down the stand and packing everything didn't take long, and the familiar carrying stuff from the venue to the van and back was done practically in no time at all without much thought to it. We were one of the last people with our things, which I guess was to be expected, since we had to collect all the pull-ups of the business show itself as well. We then gathered together with Sam, Lewis, me and Joe with Chris to the downstairs bar for a debrief, and had a drink while talking about the event and what could've been better etc. I wrote down the notes about everyone's thoughts and the ideas that needed to be looked into, and that made the day practically finished.
Lewis took Joe to the city centre and took me home, and it was lovely to get inside the house and know that at least for a moment, the rush had passed. A lovely day.
P.S. I just find out that my boss is taking us here on next tuesday: http://www.adrenalinquarry.co.uk/zip-wire-activities-cornwall/
...I'll be finishing my will before tuesday then.
- We were able to pack a while as Sam and Lewis where finishing up their last minute work stuff and then was the time for departure! Had to get my stuff together immediately, because I though of going straight home from St. Mellion's. We carried all that we needed to a big, white van and then we just went on our way!
I sat on the front seat (because SHOTGUN) and I enjoyed it thoroughly. I think the last time I was in a van was when I was moving from Lahti to Helsinki and I was sitting with Samuel and dad with all my belongings stuffed into the back. Overall I just love driving around so much, I miss it so much, long trips to other places, so I was really feeling it on the road. Plymouth and the travel to Cornwall in the darkness that the evening had settled onto us was absolutely lovely, it was wonderful seeing the city rise onto a hillside in a typical South-West english way, all the small light in the windows and the smell of sea air. Ah! We went through the Tamar Bridge, which according to the big numbers on it was built in 1961, and damn, was it a sight or what!
- I didn't see a lot of St. Mellion when we arrived, the evening had settled a very heavy darkness everywhere, so we could only see lights, lights everywhere. I did manage to make out the great size of the building though, and then we were already busy carrying the stuff inside. As a place, as soon as we walked inside, I got an even stronger vibe of poshnest, due to the fitted carpet, employees brushing by in their smart suites, last hour golfers (how on earth would they see anything in the darkness?) etc. etc. The hall where the business show was to be held, was quite big, and many exhibitioners had already gotten their stands up, but there were a few people with us at the same time, and a few even after us who put their banners up and fixed their pullups. Luckily we didn't need to take care of any setting up the tables kind of stuff, since that was St. Mellion's responsibility. Overall our stand started to look like a proper business show stand and thus utterly majestic, so we decided to go grab a bite.
St. Mellion had organized tea (...dinner) for all the exhibitioners, but in the end there was only nine of us there. Well, at least the conversation was easy enough to handle and it was nice to get to know people in a smaller group! You felt a more personal touch to the people involved, which is why you then greeted them with a slightly wider smile the next morning.
- The food was absolutely fantastic - for the appetizer I chose duck terrine and for my main course I chose my very first, officially english fish 'n' chips! The whole thing was HU-GE, for a change, cause I guess the english are storing food for the long winter or something... Phew. It was divine though, and again I felt like a landslide (= a feeling that could be fixed by fitting some wheels under me and someone to push me around).
- My goodness gracious how the natives drive in this country! In my opinion Sam was driving just incredibly fast, and here I had thought that it was only Lewis' forté (every single time Iäve been in his car, he's slammed the breaks in at least once), but now I'm kinda worried that the irresponsible mid-european style of driving that everyone is talking about would actually stretch all over to England. The roads in Cornwall are stupidly dark, they have no lampposts whatsoever there to light the way, only reflectors on the side of the road to mark the individual lanes and their shapes. If I hadn't been so tired I might've been a little bit uncomfortable, but during the travel it mostly made me nervously giggle about it. Sam took a special route back, so that we could cross the Tamar Bridge on our way back from Cornwall on a path that's been built on the side of the bridge. Damn it looked fine, but again some nervous laughter was involved - but at least I've seen that part of the bridge and the view it offers!
When Sam and Lewis took me home, I found out that Lewis was going to be coming to pick me up already between 6:45 and 7:00, and not at 7:30 like I had originally thought. I definitely didn't want to be thinking about it at that time of the night, but I did fix my alarm instantly, cause I didn't want to wake up to Lewis calling me why I wasn't answering the doorbell... eek.
- Earlier I had messaged Sophie if she possibly had any red nailpolish on her, cause I wanted the full Smallporate-look from head to toe - and luckily, she had some! The time was late enough for her to be in bed though by the time I arrived, since the poor thing has to wake up at six practically every day. Still, being the wonderful person that she is, she had placed the nail polish on a place where I could find it, so I could paint my nails at the wee hours of the evening at the same time as Joe and Mike were watching Avatar: The last Airbender. When Mike was going through Netflix, he stopped on Iron Sky and happened to comment on how great of a movie it is, and I instantly went DAT IS FINNISH! I don't think he believed me at first, but I explained the whole thing and pointed out the fact that my school had been a part of it, so there was no reason to argue. When I slipped that I hadn't actually seen the movie myself, Mike put it on. So the evening kind of stretched from its original schedule, but I had to leave in the middle of the movie, cause I was so dead tired, so I packed my stuff and dove unto my bed, thank you very much!
I was thinking of waking up on the sweet, sensible 5:30 o'clock on wednesday morning, but apparently I hadn't realised to change my alarm after Lewis had updated our timetables. Instead I woke up at 6.10 and I was 100% certain that I would somehow be late and everything would go to hell. Well, it didn't, I got myself up and everything prepared, I had time to have a chat with Bobby on skype and the time was already 7:22 when Lewis finally appeared behind my door (or well, he didn't actually, since he went a couple of doors too far from mine...). Joe got in for the ride as well and we drove to St. Mellion in a little morning traffic, but we arrived at the venue at around ten to eight. Lewish rushed me and Joe to go to breakfast immediately while he himself disappeared to park the car and whatnot.
- The breakfast was called Networking Breakfast, and everything that you could imagine belonging into an english breakfast was served. With Joe's hint I found the table were Sam was already seated, and sat down with some bacon, eggs and tomatoes (I just cannot do this heavy breakfast that the english are all about!). I didn't get to talk a lot to others, since there were people having a few presentations at the front of the room. It looked like Power Point could've quit everything short and sweet to the first dia, and I find it hard to focus on long speeches about businesses and co-operation offered by Plymouthian organisations so early in the morning. I was really tired but I was biting my teeth together so that I wouldn't yawn, and I kept wishing that the whole thing would pass quickly enough. There were some interesting things as well though, such as local politics, which peaked my curiosity, since I enjoy sensing the atmosphere in the english mindset and thoughts.
After the breakfast we got to go to the stand, and I was super excited about seeing myself in the middle of all the other businesspeople and just as fancy as they were. My mood was particularly high because of the Smallporate shirt that Sam loaned to me and of course the "Exhibitionist" tag hanging from my neck! I really felt like I was actually at work in there, and that damn, these people could actually come to me to ask about things! I did notice that all the other women were wearing some kind of high heels, when I was marching away in my army boots... Hehe. I'm pretty sure tht my feet were in better shape than theirs at the end of the day!
Of course I was part of that line which had to move after every two minutes, because pfft, you can't make the whole thing too easy. I guess it was better though, not having the time to get nervous at the sitting around thing when you're allowed to move a little and change seats. I felt a bit sorry for the man who was sitting next to me, who I kept poking with my elbows and gave a few kicks to so that he'd move forward when Chris, who was the ceremonial master of the whole thing, blew on his whistle (I did apologize to him afterwards tho, as kindly and nicely as I could...). It was pretty alright talking to people about Smallporate, the whole hall was just so loud as 44(?) people kept talking to each other at the same time. At points I realized that I wasn't even focusing on what the other person was telling me, especially when some people didn't even lean forward so that they'd be heard better. I was like, you want me to climb on your lap and scream to your ear, or are you interested at all? Also one of the facts that I realised was that I guess I speak adequate english since I could go through with something like that without stuttering and all. Afterwards I felt super good about myself, especially since I had gotten one particularly interested person to promise to come visit our stand and everything. Again I felt official and important, and that definitely gets your self-confidence soaring.
As a sidenote - here in England I've realized how much people are interested in a tattoo, which is written in their language. The tattoo which is the easiest to spot on my skin is possibly also the most provocative one (inside my right arm there's a text "Do what you love and fuck the rest"), and here I've been really self-conscious about it all the time. Because I was wearing a short-sleeved Smallporate shirt through out the speed networking, the tattoo was constantly visible, and two people caught onto it - the other was a guy, who knew Sam and Lewis from somewhere, and was chuckling at the tattoo, amused. I think I saved a lot of points by being cheeky and saying "--- and cause I love marketing, I work for Smallporate!" and that's when the guy got the enthusiastic idea of making it the slogan for Smallporate. The other person who commented on the tattoo was a young-ish woman, who after obvious curiosity had read the text let out a nervous laugh and was clearly awkward afterwards. I got the situation to open up with a little humour tossed in though, so that was that. Later at the Smallporate stand a man asked me about my tattoo and wondered if I had any more - he obviously had the kind of an undertone that made me think that he didn't particularly appreciate tattoos overall, but in my opinion I was able to explain my decision on getting them well enough, and I got the man to understand my thoughts about the subject. I did happen to have a livid flashback about my dad though, who back in the day asked for example if I was really thinking clearly if I'd tattoo the word "fuck" in my arm. After this kind of an official event I can say with even more clarity that yes - I don't regret my tattoo at all. My skin, my rules, my responsibility.
Lewis' mom had made cupcakes for our stand (I felt like laughing so much, I was just thinking that not my mom, lol :D), which cheered up our stand even more, but overall I think that we had the most official and smartest looking stand in the whole business show. It was fun to talk to people, I even met a girl named Charlotte, who offered her photography skills, chatted a bit more with Chris and did all sorts of useful things. For lunch I had tuna panini, which looked a lot more fine dining than I had though at first (I was picturing a bread wrapped in plastic, but fine, whatever! I don't mind!).
- I had met a man in speednetworking, who introduced himself as a hypnotherapist, which I was thrilled to the bones and talked about it to Chris, who said that he could arrange us to talk about the subject somewhere together. It was a man named Duncan, who took me with him to his lunch break and explained to me how hypnotherapy works, what and how it influences people and how much it had benefitted him in the past, so much in fact that he decided to become a hypnotherapist himself. He had quite a lifestory behind him, and it was super interesting talking to him. We spoke together for about an hour, which passed so fast as I was asking all sorts of questions and my sense of time just disappeared. It was easy enough to continue on similar topics with Christ, and overall I just kept thinking how I know a person or two, easily, who could benefit from both NLP, which Chris does, as well as hypnotherapy, which is Duncan's forté.
Before I really realized it, the whole thing was over. Oopsidaisies, what on earth? Practically everyone was having a sort of a raffle in their stands, and you could enter by dropping your business card to a bowl in the stand - we, surprise surprise, had a bottle of Finlandia vodka as our prize! When Sam called out for the final time that if you want to enter for a chance to win some finnish vodka, suddenly people started piling up in dozens and the raffle was finished in good spirits. It was actually one of the men who were with us at the dinner on tuesday-evening who won the bottle, so I allowed the liquor to go to better hands with an easy mind.
Taking down the stand and packing everything didn't take long, and the familiar carrying stuff from the venue to the van and back was done practically in no time at all without much thought to it. We were one of the last people with our things, which I guess was to be expected, since we had to collect all the pull-ups of the business show itself as well. We then gathered together with Sam, Lewis, me and Joe with Chris to the downstairs bar for a debrief, and had a drink while talking about the event and what could've been better etc. I wrote down the notes about everyone's thoughts and the ideas that needed to be looked into, and that made the day practically finished.
Lewis took Joe to the city centre and took me home, and it was lovely to get inside the house and know that at least for a moment, the rush had passed. A lovely day.
P.S. I just find out that my boss is taking us here on next tuesday: http://www.adrenalinquarry.co.uk/zip-wire-activities-cornwall/
...I'll be finishing my will before tuesday then.
Ei kommentteja:
Lähetä kommentti