I am broke.
This month really hit my wallet big time.
Not only did I have to foot the bill for a party of nine in Barcelona (company expenses), I desperately needed a new cocktail dress & shoes for our award ceremony in Zürich.
OK, have to run off to work, so here go the bullet points:
Barcelona
> party of seven hairdressers (all ages from 18 to 50), our sales rep & moi
> Originally we had planned to go in May, but thanks to the Icelandic volcano-that-CAN-not-be-named, we were not able to fly.
> Left on Saturday 17th oct, had a paella dinner at Salamanca in Barceloneta & made sure to get them completely drunk on local cava. I needed to kill any inclination of them wanting to go out and party... (well, they did have to work the next day!)
> Sunday morning saw us at our academy. A "star" hairdresser, stylist and makeup artist presented three current trends. I had to translate - yippee. Try translating hairdresser terminology...!
> After a tapas lunch they learnt to cut one style
> One of my girls was so taken with the (extremely) short look, that she begged the guy to cut her hair. He complied, much to her delight. As there was now a "live model", it left one dummy head begging to be cut... any takers?
> Two hours later, I had finished something remotely resembling a hairstyle (which took everyone else bout 30 min) and was completely whacked. HOW they manage to hold scissors AND comb in ONE hand, I do not know! Oh, and don't get me started on the pain in my back... I needed a drink.
> The lady at the hotel bar did not take to us at first. We had shooed away handsome businessmen giving her the eye. After we asked her for the house special she started to smile (in retrospect it was quite devious, that smile). She served up a weird concoction of red wine with fanta lemon - a surprisingly tasty mixture, with awful consequences the next morning!
> Dinner was a posh affair on the beach, at a pan Asian fusion CDLC Carpe Diem lounge club.
> All started off well, until we had to order. One of the girls was terribly picky and everyone started to get frustrated with her refusal to try anything new. After I translated the menu 3 times and made numerous suggestions I was at the end of my tether.
> I also faced a further difficulty: She did not know what a date was, let alone a falafel, chickpeas she had never heard of, fish she did not like, and oh, what is a wonton? oh no, sounds scary ?!?! Did not feel like meat, chicken is ok, but did not like this that and the other..! Aargh! I felt really sorry for her and tried to keep my cool as much as possible. In the end we ordered some noodles with sweet chicken and she loved it. (Thank God)
> Sunday we took the tourist "hop on hop off" bus around the city and the afternoon we went shopping.
> Found some beautiful red shoes with plateau soles. My group did not believe that they were comfortable, so I got everyone to try them on (even those who said they could never walk in heels) and nearly had to fight to get them back!
Award ceremony in Zürich
Check out www.usgang.ch and find Swiss Hairdressing Awards held on the 31. Oct / 1. Nov in the Maag Event Hall Zürich.
Two sales reps did my hair and I looked pretty good, if I do say myself!
The dress was a simple affair jazzed up by a couple of feathers on my left shoulder.
And now I really need to get to work!