London 2012 Part Four

A long weekend as it's Good Friday today! This week was a pretty short week, given that I was in KL for a day and Friday is a public holiday ~ only 3 working day in the office, with a farewell drinks session for the boss last night. I reckoned he should be on the flight back to LDN by now & I'll have to start getting used to the empty seat next to my desk soon. A brand new month/quarter next week, so let's all enjoy the weekend first!

 

*** You can read all about P1, P2 & P3 here.

I had a good night rest and woke up to see this straight out from my window :)

 
I wished I was here on vacation instead of a conference ... just sipping tea & eating scones out from my balcony window, basking in the warm morning sun.
 
Breakfast @ the Restaurant, which I totally enjoyed all my meals there, especially the wide range of desserts that they have!
  
Breakfast, just one of the sides that I started with :) We were really well-fed during the conference, with 2 tea-breaks on top of the 3 meals.  

We attended one full day of conference, divided into morning & afternoon session. For the morning session, we listened in to the new features of the upcoming product launch. It was also a moment of personal glory when the deal that I was working on (the 1st combi-deal signed ever) was mentioned by the big bosses during the event :)

Lunch ~ I must stressed that the cheesecake was really finger-licking good!
With some time to spare before the next session commenced, we headed up to the roof terrace. This place offered stunning picturesque view of the city. I didn't have my camera with me, so I used my iphone to capture the panaromic view.

Most of the colleges can be viewed from the roof garden. It would be nice if I had a glass of champagne in my hand, relaxing on one of the sofas and watching the world passes by *dreamy mood*

Is it me or everything just looked too wonderfully-to-be-true here? Even the flowers looked extremely picture-worthy, lol!

Sales & AM team were put to a stress test during the afternoon session, where each individual was assigned a scenario to role-play. It was nerve-wreaking, as you had to present in front of all your peers, who clearly knows the product as well as you do, perhaps even better. Scores were also given based on your presentation. It was all good-fun & we now know what are our strengths & weaknesses, so we can perform better during our clients meetings. I left the room with more insights on myself & what are the areas that I could work on.

London 2012 Part Three

 

Happy mid-week! As I'm blogging this entry, it dawned upon me that it will be the boss's last day in the office tomorrow, as he will be heading back to LDN (after staying in Asia for 2 years) to take up an extended role. Leaving drinks tml night and we planned to get him drunk, so he can sleep his way through his flight on Friday morning, lol! Hopefully, I won't have to nurse another hangover on Friday.

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Read P1 & P2 here.

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We travelled to Cambridge, around 80km north of LDN, for a 3D2N sales conference.

I love being in the countryside, away from the tall buildings and be closer to nature. This is something that you can't experience in Singapore :( 

 

We checked into a nice boutique hotel, The Varsity Hotel & Spa, located on the edge of the picturesque River Cam in the heart of Cambridge. Old school keys for the room :)

 

 When I entered the room, I was delighted to see the old English cottage charm that the hotel has retained, especially love the wall-paper!

 

They even have a chest of drawers available for you to put your clothes. I can totally imagine myself staying here for a very long time. 

 

Comes equipped with coffee & tea. 

 

Our T-shirt & Welcome note placed in each room.  

The view from my window ... I'm loving this place already :)   

They even provide complimentary walking tours every Saturday at 2pm, lead by one of their experienced guides, taking guests on a tour of the historic sites of central Cambridge. So, take advantage of this if you're heading for a trip there! 

The Varsity Hotel & Spa

Thompson's Lane (Off Bridge Street)

Cambridge CB5 8AQ

United Kingdom

Tel:+44 0 1223 30 60 30

Email: info@thevarsityhotel.co.uk 

 

A change of clothes, before heading downstairs for buffet lunch. 

Lunch consisted of sandwiches, wraps, salads and whats-not. The raspberry cheesecake dessert certainly tops my list of must-have desserts!

After a hearty lunch, we attended the first part of the conference ~ where we reviewed on our performance from the past year and the objective for the year ahead, as well as the product road-map. It was certainly good exposure for all of us, as we get first-hand information from the relevant department heads, allowing us to brainstorm on how we can introduce all these new functionalities to our clients. 

We had a private room @ St John's College, but before that, drinks/catch up session at the reception area. When it was time for dinner, we were ushered into the room & boy, it felt like having dinner @ Hogwats! 4 rows of table were placed horizontally with a long table that joined all the tables at the end. The bosses sat at the end, just like how the head-masters sat in the movie :) 

 I found my place-card at the 1st table, but we didn't have a table tagged to the table, lol! Each table consisted of a good mixture of people from the 3 teams (AM, Product & Sales) across the different offices, so as to interact better with one another.

 

Graduation hats, which we all had to wear :) 

 

Time to start off the 3-course meal that was prepared for us. 

London 2012 Part Two

 

Just finished packing my bags for KL, leaving tomorrow morning. Traveling alone this time round, with a busy schedule, I hope I'll be able to catch my flight back given the short time that I have for commuting to the airport from my last meeting *fingers crossed*.

  

Back to updating the entries for London trip (P1 here) ~ We arrived at the hotel at close to 8am. Rooms were not available for us, so we had a quick wash-up before heading for breakfast near our office. 

 

Still in my flight gear, lol! 
 

Breakfast @ Patisserie Valerie, located around 15 min walk from the hotel / 5 min walk from the office. This place was named after the founder, Madam Valerie, a Belgian born lady who went to London on a mission to introduce fine continental pastisserie to the English. They have a lot of outlets located throughout London, serving different menus as well according to the location.

 

Hot chocolate (GBP2.80) & latte (GBP2.80) to warm up our cold bodies! It was freezing cold (by my standards) even though the sun shone on brightly outside. The window-facing-the-sun-seat was also chosen on purpose >.<

Ordered from their all-day breakfast & brunch selection (GBP7.95) ~ full english breakfast which came with choice of two fried/poached/scrambled eggs, bacon, cumberland sausage, grilled tomatoes, mushroom & toast. It was really yummy, but the portion was too big for me, so I had to leave the toast untouched.

Patisserie Valerie
37 Brushfield St 
London E1 6AA  United Kingdom
Tel: +44 20 7247 4906

I stayed on the 5th floor, together with a few colleagues. The walkway was dimly lit & felt as if we were walking inside a spacecraft, haha!
  

We managed to get a room once we came back from breakfast. By then, our other colleagues from Asia have arrived in London and were making their way to the hotel. So, we freshened  up and headed to the lobby to meet up with them. I was extremely tired and suffering from jet-lag, but I had to prevent myself from sleeping so I won't have problems sleeping later in the night. So, the rest of the team decided to head out for sight-seeing.

Patisserie Valerie was first opened in Frith Street in London's Soho in 1926 by Belgian born Madam Valerie. She came to London on a mission to introduce fine Continental Patisserie to the English. It was an instant success. - See more at: http://www.patisserie-valerie.co.uk/about.aspx#sthash.zNl60Hz1.dpuf

Patisserie Valerie was first opened in Frith Street in London's Soho in 1926 by Belgian born Madam Valerie. She came to London on a mission to introduce fine Continental Patisserie to the English. It was an instant success. - See more at: http://www.patisserie-valerie.co.uk/about.aspx#sthash.zNl60Hz1.dpuf

Sight-seeing include a trip to Selfridge :) I was on good behaviour and didn't buy a single thing *beams with pride, lol* 

Patisserie Valerie was first opened in Frith Street in London's Soho in 1926 by Belgian born Madam Valerie. She came to London on a mission to introduce fine Continental Patisserie to the English. It was an instant success. - See more at: http://www.patisserie-valerie.co.uk/about.aspx#sthash.zNl60Hz1.dpu

Patisserie Valerie was first opened in Frith Street in London's Soho in 1926 by Belgian born Madam Valerie. She came to London on a mission to introduce fine Continental Patisserie to the English. It was an instant success. - See more at: http://www.patisserie-valerie.co.uk/about.aspx#sthash.zNl60Hz1

The AM team met up for drinks first, before adjourning for a cozy dinner @ Meson Los Barriles, located within walking distance from the hotel.

 

Drinking is the culture in the office, haha! Whenever we go, there are bound to be booze and more booze. 

 

We catch up over dinner & also introducing Sidney to the rest of the team. The tapas were all amazing ~ I was told that these were really authentic Spanish food, a rare find in London.

 

The AM team, with Cindy in Product team. Most of the AMs are girls, apart from Japan & America, where guys dominated the team, lol!   

While I googled for the address for the restaurant, I came across a comment in a forum saying that the restaurant has closed down as of 20th Dec 2012, due to the management ramping up the rents around the area. I dunno how true that is, but I've put down the address in case anyone is keen to visit this place (if it is still around).

Menson Los Barriles

8A Lamb Street, Spitalfields Market

London E1 6EA

Tel: +44 (0)20 7375 3136

 I reached the hotel, feeling completely zoned out! Met up with the rest of the guys who went to the stadium & caught the live actions from the EPL match. We headed back to our rooms instead of opting for a nights' out. Guess everyone just wanted to hop into bed and enjoy a night of undisturbed rest. 

 

Filled up my breakfast requirement & hung the bag outside my door. 

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Woke up the next morning with the breakfast carrier hanging outside the hotel door. 

 

Healthy pot of yogurt, banana and orange juice. 

Dressed causally for the day, for we had to take the coach from Central London to Cambridge, where we will be staying for 2 nights for the conference.

Packed my breakfast into my bag, together with all the necessities - scarf (checked), camera (checked), water (checked), document file (checked).

 

On the way to Cambridge!