A couple fo good days in Stockholm

Winter evening sky in Stockholm, originally uploaded by CharlesFred.

At the end of two days meetings here in Stockholm. I had to stand up and make a little presentation of my objectives for the coming year at the start of the meeting on Monday morning. This was before the big bosses arrived from the UK and the US. After this, the country managers made their comments and, to be honest, there was quite a high degree of negativity, which I found quite disappointing.

However, the big boys came in and they all re-iterated the points which I was trying to make (although they ahd not seen my points). Finance is often regarded as an irritation or a necessary evils by many 'business people', but I got a good deal of back from these senior managers, which was very comforting. Still, there were a couple of country managers who stil refused to look me in the eye. Very childish.

The evenings have been good, albeit with far too much to eat and drink. Yesterday we went to a restaurant on a cliff overlooking the city where we started off with champagne, then Christmas beer, with schnaps, then beer with madeira and then some more and some more. Ooops... I don't think the schnaps really agreed with me and I woke up with a burning sensation down my throat.

Tonight it was a pizeria with beer followed by wine, followed by more beer at the hotel.

Very nice to be chatting to my colleagues in an informal setting, particularly a Scotsman/Glaswegian who is based in Dubai and an Italian with a Glaswegian accent who is based in Milan. I hope to be visiting their offices in the new year... as well as the South African office, to which I have received an invitation.

Not sure how quickly I will be scoming back here though... hmmm...