So, this week I has mainly been in Italy – Lake Como 🙂 for training on pressure transmitters.

There were about 30 of us – ABB sales team, 2 of us office bods, and the alliance partners had sent over some representatives so ~I got to meet people I deal wioth on a day to day basis too.

Hard life eh? in the office Monday, then picked up Tuesday at stupid o’clock and off to the airport, arriving at the ABB factory in Ossucio at about 13.30 in time for lunch and then a tour of the factory – very impressive. The drive from the airport took us to Como, then around the lake so we got to see various views of this beautiful area on the Switzerland/Italy border.

After a couple of presentations and some Q&A, it was back to Como to the hotel – it was decided we’d meet up at 19.00, have a beer, then go for dinner.

I got to my room, unpacked, had a shower, then headed down to the bar – my colleague Alan was there, but no sign of any bar staff, and the room was very stuffy – I told him I was heading outside to the square.

So I headed straight to the outside seating area of a bar and ordered a beer – round about 5 minutes later one of the alliance guys came over, we introduced ourselves to each other the civilised way (more beer), and sat in the sun chatting and watching the world go by. Withing 10 minutes, we had probably 90% of the ABB posse with us and the beer was flowing…it took the organiser quite some time to get us all together to go to dinner (akin to herding cats).

Dinner was fucking awful – shellfish and pasta starter, followed by fish…I HATE fish. Still, beer was good, ditto the bread. After dinner it was back to the bar in the square for a few more hours of drinking then off to bed.

Following day was 07.00 start, down to the hydrofoil and a trip across the lake to Lenno, then 30 minute walk (uphill) to the factory. The morning was taken with presentations and discussions on the product range, then in the afternoon we split into groups – the principals off to discuss sales strategies, us bods to partake in training.

The training was mainly about the new wireless models, so we started with lots of questions regarding security, data verification etc (this was really well inside my comfort zone!), then had some hands-on with the equipment to learn how to setup everything, blah, blah, blah…

The walk back to the hydrofoil port was very hot – temperature was around 29 degrees – and downhill. On cobbled walkways. I was glad I’d decided not to wear shoes, but instead some very comfy trainer type footwear. There were more than a few people complaining of sore feet.

That evening was almost a mirror of the first – the bar on the square had now become our base, and from there we headed off to a different restaurant for dinner (delicious lump of cow this time…nom, nom).

Back to the square and more beer – I went to bed around 23.30 but there was a hardcore of the guys who partied until 04.00.

Thursday breakfast was amusing – I was wide awake and full of beans, but there were more than a few heavy heads. We had a couple of hours discussing everything, then everybody made their way back to the airport and home. Alan and I didn’t have a flight until 21.40 so spent the afternoon in Como, having some lunch, a few beers, and generally soaking up some sun.

And this week: Monday is a bank holiday, I’ve booked Tuesday and Wednesday off, so nothing until Thursday for me…although I do have to paint some fence panels.

Life is good 🙂