On Friday two mates from Germany which I had not seen for two years came to visit me for a few days. They also brought along an Australian lad who is on a trip through Europe at the moment after he stayed in Berlin for a year and will be returning back to Australia in December time. They started off their trip renting scooters to drive from Malaga to Sotogrande which is a 2.5 h drive on a scooter. Anyway the only lasted one hour before one had a crash, causing some pretty harsh skin damage all over his body and a wound that needed some sewing in the next best Spanish Hospital.
After that first bit of action they brought back the scooters and decided to hire a car instead, which turned out to have been a wiser choice. So the rest of the holiday my mate was on a lot of painkillers and vodka but he was ok. I asked for pictures and hope to get them at one point.
All three of them are really nice blokes and one of them actually is the bass player of the last band band I was active in before I left Germany more than two years ago. We had really good times going on the piss on Friday including a visit in the discos that Gibraltar has to offer which are playing ridiculously bad music.
Saturday we went to the beach for a short while enjoying the Mediterranean Sea and went to get some munch and a cash game in Gibraltar in the evening. Coming back home Saturday Night and sitting on the balcony till 5 am drinking, chatting and watching funny youtube videos and grinding the Bop-it toy.
Sunday was another day at the beach but this time we went to Tarifa to spend a few hours at the Atlantic Sea. Yes the weather and the water are still warm enough to actually go in there, so that's pretty cool. Almost November and we took a little bath in the sea. In the evening we went for a pretty cool all-you-can-eat buffet restaurant that I know, which offers insane value for money.
They did the basic tourist stuff like seeing Gibraltar's monkeys yesterday and in the evening we went for some more exclusive food at a restaurant in the Port of Sotogrande. I had really nicely cooked fillet medallions in Roquefort sauce and really enjoyed the meal.
Other big topic for me was my long overdue performance review at work, which finally happened yesterday night. It went really well and when you get told sentences like "your commitment and motivation are far beyond what is normal and you certainly belong in the top 10 of the company including senior management with that kind of performance" "that was by far the best performance I have seen of anyone in the first 4 months so far" it really slips down a treat!
I spoke pro-actively about a change in salary and asked for a 20% pay rise which I didn't get as my line manager said that it would not be enough and gave me a 33% rise in salary starting from 01/10/2009 and so he handed me as well an envelope with the money I didn't have on my paycheck last month. Clearly, I was amazed by the appreciation of my performance. My line Manager finished the meeting with the sentence: "that was the fastest and biggest (percentage wise) increase in salary that I ever gave".
So all what's left to say is: SHIP IT!
Furthermore my line manager let me know that they see me evolving into another role in the period of the next 6 - 12 months were I could make more use of my potential and promised me another meeting in 6 months time where we are going to talk about what my career path should be looking like. So next year I probably be thinking of doing a distance learning course which will go for 18 months and do an MBA in order to upgrade my current BA(hons) degree and possibly sneak into a role in our Operations Department.
You can bet that I am close to explode of pride at the moment and my motivation batteries have reloaded quite nicely. I am ready to take the next steps.
Btw, I started entering the working life last August and since then managed to more than double my initial wages. Man, my testicles are having the size of watermelons at the moment.
Cash games have been going ok as well with small, but steady profits. So even the stakers investments seems to pay off.
Ok, I'm finished bragging now and return to dancing around like the gay mantis again.
Talk soon
Truthans
3 years ago
2 comments:
This whole thing makes me very happy..as does your random word verification being huness which is of course heads up ness, which is very personal to me!!
Congrats mate...can't wait to come out to Gibraltar and we can all have a proper celebration.
Well done!!
Big congratulations, Hannes. 'tis very nice to hear.
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