A Lot to Catch Up On
Aug. 30th, 2003 04:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
whotheheckamiThis week I've mainly been attending ST Bits' Annual International Finance Conference in Oxford.
Day 1 - Tuesday
The day started badly when I woke up feeling very tired after an extremely broken night's sleep. Ivan had been very worried about harvest spiders in his room and had wandered about the house at 3am looking for a spider-free environment! Things got worse after I had breakfasted and got underway. I'd travelled about 20 miles when I realised that in my haste, I'd forgotten my wallet! I felt such a prat as I turned the car around and called Mendi to ask her to grab my wallet and drive out to meet me. The LOML did not let me down and pretty soon we met and she tossed me (my wallet!). The rest of my journey was a bit smoother but I didn't get much of a chance to listen to my audiobook because my phone seemed to be very popular. As I trundled down the M40 I fielded calls from Australia, Holland, Singapore and Spain.
I was ready for a rest when I arrived at Lady Margaret's Hall in Oxford! It was great to meet my colleagues (even if most of them are accountants!) Many of them had heard about my illness and were very concerned about my health. The afternoon's sessions were interesting because of their strategic nature and we discussed looking "outside the box" for solutions to "challenges" facing our business. We heard from our CEO, FD and the General Manager of our UK business. I was disapointed to have to leave before the end of the last session [because the GM was speaking a lot of sense and is extremely charismatic and good looking! ;@)] I had to meet with Peter to discuss my Appeal to my Formal Warning which will be heard on Thursday. We spent about an hour agreeing what my objectives are, discussing strategy and deciding what each of us will say.
Some R&R was needed after discussing the Appeal and it came in the form of an evening's punting. The 60 or so of us headed to the Cherwell Boat House & Restaurant and before long a flotilla of 14 punts crashed and bumped their way onto the river. I ended up in the penultinate punt to leave the boat-house along with Georges, the Finance Manager of our French business and his Deputy. With Georges at the pole we made somewhat erratic progress upstream; making repeated visits to either bank and investigating all the overhanging trees and brambles on the mile or so stretch to a pub.
I was determined to have a go for myself on the return journey and wrested the pole away from Georges. We started well and I quickly got the hang of things. Others however, were not so happy with our progress and we were visciously rammed amidships! The attack drove us into the bank and in the process of sorting ourselves out we ended running backwards downstream! I found that it was just as easy to propel the boat whilst standing at the front and so that was the way we continued. I must have being doing something right because we overtook a number of other punts on the way back to the boat-house and dinner. My unorthodox technique was rewarded after the dinner where I was given a sweatshirt for my efforts. I accepted my prize and told everybody that I was responding to a "challenge" by thinking "outside the box!" :@)
"Day 2 - Wednesday
Another day of lectures and workshops with such esoteric titles as:
IAS 39
Accounting for embedded derivatives
Fair value hedge accounting model
Foreign currency cashflow hedging
Tax planning
Reviewing transfer pricing policy
"What larks!!!"
Things brightened up in the evening with a formal dinner with reasonable food and loads of booze. I had a good time and did a fair bit of mingling, chatting and, most importantly gossiping. At some point I seemed to have started drinking Newcaste Brown Ale, a lot of Newcaste Brown Ale! Consequently, it was a very wobbly Whotheheckami who tottered back to his room in the small hours of the morning. HIC!
Day 3 - Thursday
I took time out from the Conference to present my case at my appeal against my formal warning. I had to be up early to get to our Head Office in good time and I felt pretty rough and tired after my indulgences the night before. However, it seemed to go well and I presented a strong case which stood up to a rigorous cross-examination. I won't hear the results for up to 5 days as the panel investigates the points I raised. I'm not expecting the whole thing to be quashed, but I'm confident that the Warning will be reduced in duration and/or severity.
By mid-morning I was back at the Conference and back into the scintilating round of presentations. This filled the rest of the day until it was time to go out and eat.
9 of us headed to the Quod bar for an average meal at a high price. However, the company was entertaining and the wine kept flowing. All too soon we were ushered from the closing restaurant, but the night was still young and a proposal to head to a club was eagerly accepted. We ended up at the Old Fire Station which, luckily for old farts like us, was having a 70s, 80s and 90s night.
I had a great time and danced enoogh to make my feet ache! I had hoped to meet up withdotty or florence90
but it was not to be and I had to content myself with swapping text messages between dances. 3 hours seemed to fly by and we were all surprised when the lights came on and we had to limp back to Lady Margaret Hall. We knew how late it was when we saw the milkman starting his round.
Day 4 - Friday
The first thought that entered my mind as my alarm shattered my slumbers was that 3 and a half hours sleep was nowhere near enough! I felt distinctly sub-optimal as I packed and worked up the courage to face breakfast.
I struggled through the final presentations of the Conference and headed into our Oxford office to catch up on a few things. It was a very easy decision to break away as early as possible and drive over to Gloucester to collect our friend Beautiful Blond Belinda (BBB) and bring her to stay for the weekend at Chez Who.
Day 1 - Tuesday
The day started badly when I woke up feeling very tired after an extremely broken night's sleep. Ivan had been very worried about harvest spiders in his room and had wandered about the house at 3am looking for a spider-free environment! Things got worse after I had breakfasted and got underway. I'd travelled about 20 miles when I realised that in my haste, I'd forgotten my wallet! I felt such a prat as I turned the car around and called Mendi to ask her to grab my wallet and drive out to meet me. The LOML did not let me down and pretty soon we met and she tossed me (my wallet!). The rest of my journey was a bit smoother but I didn't get much of a chance to listen to my audiobook because my phone seemed to be very popular. As I trundled down the M40 I fielded calls from Australia, Holland, Singapore and Spain.
I was ready for a rest when I arrived at Lady Margaret's Hall in Oxford! It was great to meet my colleagues (even if most of them are accountants!) Many of them had heard about my illness and were very concerned about my health. The afternoon's sessions were interesting because of their strategic nature and we discussed looking "outside the box" for solutions to "challenges" facing our business. We heard from our CEO, FD and the General Manager of our UK business. I was disapointed to have to leave before the end of the last session [because the GM was speaking a lot of sense and is extremely charismatic and good looking! ;@)] I had to meet with Peter to discuss my Appeal to my Formal Warning which will be heard on Thursday. We spent about an hour agreeing what my objectives are, discussing strategy and deciding what each of us will say.
Some R&R was needed after discussing the Appeal and it came in the form of an evening's punting. The 60 or so of us headed to the Cherwell Boat House & Restaurant and before long a flotilla of 14 punts crashed and bumped their way onto the river. I ended up in the penultinate punt to leave the boat-house along with Georges, the Finance Manager of our French business and his Deputy. With Georges at the pole we made somewhat erratic progress upstream; making repeated visits to either bank and investigating all the overhanging trees and brambles on the mile or so stretch to a pub.
I was determined to have a go for myself on the return journey and wrested the pole away from Georges. We started well and I quickly got the hang of things. Others however, were not so happy with our progress and we were visciously rammed amidships! The attack drove us into the bank and in the process of sorting ourselves out we ended running backwards downstream! I found that it was just as easy to propel the boat whilst standing at the front and so that was the way we continued. I must have being doing something right because we overtook a number of other punts on the way back to the boat-house and dinner. My unorthodox technique was rewarded after the dinner where I was given a sweatshirt for my efforts. I accepted my prize and told everybody that I was responding to a "challenge" by thinking "outside the box!" :@)
"Day 2 - Wednesday
Another day of lectures and workshops with such esoteric titles as:
IAS 39
Accounting for embedded derivatives
Fair value hedge accounting model
Foreign currency cashflow hedging
Tax planning
Reviewing transfer pricing policy
"What larks!!!"
Things brightened up in the evening with a formal dinner with reasonable food and loads of booze. I had a good time and did a fair bit of mingling, chatting and, most importantly gossiping. At some point I seemed to have started drinking Newcaste Brown Ale, a lot of Newcaste Brown Ale! Consequently, it was a very wobbly Whotheheckami who tottered back to his room in the small hours of the morning. HIC!
Day 3 - Thursday
I took time out from the Conference to present my case at my appeal against my formal warning. I had to be up early to get to our Head Office in good time and I felt pretty rough and tired after my indulgences the night before. However, it seemed to go well and I presented a strong case which stood up to a rigorous cross-examination. I won't hear the results for up to 5 days as the panel investigates the points I raised. I'm not expecting the whole thing to be quashed, but I'm confident that the Warning will be reduced in duration and/or severity.
By mid-morning I was back at the Conference and back into the scintilating round of presentations. This filled the rest of the day until it was time to go out and eat.
9 of us headed to the Quod bar for an average meal at a high price. However, the company was entertaining and the wine kept flowing. All too soon we were ushered from the closing restaurant, but the night was still young and a proposal to head to a club was eagerly accepted. We ended up at the Old Fire Station which, luckily for old farts like us, was having a 70s, 80s and 90s night.
I had a great time and danced enoogh to make my feet ache! I had hoped to meet up with
dotty or florence90but it was not to be and I had to content myself with swapping text messages between dances. 3 hours seemed to fly by and we were all surprised when the lights came on and we had to limp back to Lady Margaret Hall. We knew how late it was when we saw the milkman starting his round.
Day 4 - Friday
The first thought that entered my mind as my alarm shattered my slumbers was that 3 and a half hours sleep was nowhere near enough! I felt distinctly sub-optimal as I packed and worked up the courage to face breakfast.
I struggled through the final presentations of the Conference and headed into our Oxford office to catch up on a few things. It was a very easy decision to break away as early as possible and drive over to Gloucester to collect our friend Beautiful Blond Belinda (BBB) and bring her to stay for the weekend at Chez Who.
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no subject
Date: 2003-09-01 01:47 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-09-01 04:23 am (UTC);@)
xxx
no subject
Date: 2003-09-01 04:27 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-09-01 03:16 am (UTC)Thanks for the txt message over my birthday *grin* *hugs*
no subject
Date: 2003-09-01 04:21 am (UTC)