Half way procrastination! Slow and steady wins the race!

Hey guys,

Like many people on here I’m now past the half way mark of the required minimum 20 days which is quite satisfying. Since I had managed to get this far, I felt a night of wild celebrations was in order.

I am now sprinting to the finish line, rather slowly, 2 days a week at a time. After all I don’t want to exhaust myself too much and they do say slow and steady wins the race.

What has been happening in the amazing work life of Dan!

I have been fortunate enough to have encountered another round with an extraordinary man made miracle……….….. The Folding Machine!

Well I think that is what it is called, I really should see if it has a proper name. Using my intellect and a pinch of Curtin innovation which I’ve acquired over the past 2 and a half years, I conjured up the name ‘Folding Machine’ because:
a) It folds paper; and
b) It is a machine.

The novelty is starting to disappear as we spend more time together. Although, we do work well as a team and we split the work 50/50. I insert the paper, turn it on and it folds the piece of paper into 3 sections. It doesn’t complain about the workload and works very efficiently so I’ll be giving it top marks in the peer evaluation. ;)

I was invited to attend a client meeting with the Community News group to discuss an alliance with Master Builders. The director, my supervisor, and me attended along with 2 representatives from Community News group, one of them being Damien Green.

It was a really interesting experience! I asked my supervisor what to wear and if there was anything I needed to know about this lunch. He told me everything, what to wear, what the meeting was about, what I was to expect, and said it was good I was asking these questions.

We went to a fancy restaurant, which was exciting and expensive. I don’t go to these kinds of restaurants so I was in unchartered territory from the very beginning. When we arrived at the restaurant the Community New group representatives were already there, the director introduced me and I exchanged firm hand shakes before we sat at a table.

I was already nervous, trying to suss out what to do and one of first thoughts going through my mind when I first sat at the table was, Wow there is a lot of cutlery here??? Luckily, and slightly embarrassingly, I remembered from …. Princess Diaries… Don’t ask why I watched the movie or why I remember this part of it… but remember a scene where the princess is being taught table manners and the person saying that you start from outside then work your way in, when it comes to lots of cutlery. Crisis averted!

I was then offered drinks, wine or beer but I politely declined because you hear many horror stories when alcohol is involved in formal situations. I wanted to act professional and wisely decided I don’t want to be tempted. Although but supervisor did say I was more than welcome. The Community News group reps and my director did drink red wine and beer but again this was my first formal meeting and I’m not going to jeopardise it. It was also interesting how the wine was offered and poured. The waiter first shows you the bottle, you say ok, then he pours you a bit, you give it a swirl then taste it and again confirm it is what you want and then he pours everyone a glass. Very formal!

I also felt special sitting in such a nice restaurant with important people in business suits especially when I see people walk past the restaurant and glance at us. I couldn’t help but smile back, in a polite way not an evil way.

We ordered our meals, asking for the special and the fish of the day, I ended up having veal of some kind which was very nice with fancy sun dried tomatoes and other bits and pieces. It all tasted good. All the dishes had fancy names and fancy prices to go along with the fancy names. They also ordered entrees and deserts.

The conversation was interesting because it wasn’t all business we also talked a lot about informal stuff such as sports, people’s backgrounds and reminiscing about the old days because the director and Damien Green knew each other from umpiring football ‘in the old days’. I couldn’t reminisce much about the old days because I’m only 20 years old, but I contributed where I could and especially when they were talking about their kids. I don’t have any kids but I’m about the same age as their kids so of course uni came up. I did my duties and plugged Curtin. Curtin Innovation! I think it would have been overall 30% business talk maybe even less.

Constantly throughout the lunch I was looking at everyone’s posture and body gestures because I had no idea what to do with my hands and it seems rude to fold my arms at the table. I ended up putting them politely in my lap as weird as it felt for me to be sitting like that. My back also ended up being painfully sore after awhile because I didn’t want to slouch on the chair in front of these important people. So had to sit properly which I usually don’t do.

What I took out of the lunch:
It was to suss out who we are dealing with and if the opportunity of an alliance would be possible. We did decide to go ahead with an alliance.
Formal business lunches go for a very long time, ours took 3 hours.
It isn’t all about business as well, it was a balanced conversation and some very interesting topics came up.
At the end of the lunch, the Community Newsgroup Reps paid for our meals but my director did offer to split the bill.
Hand gestures and body gestures, something you don’t think about until your in the situation and don’t know what to do
I think I quite like this aspect of the business world!

Very interesting to go to one of these, I started out very nervous and awkward but ended up feeling very comfortable. It was a good learning curve and experience.

Signing out.
Dan