First Day at Work

I survived my first day at the ad agency!

In true style I arrived and was immediately set to work on a pitch. After quick introductions to my colleagues I was given a number of clinical papers to read up on about diabetes and was told that I'd be attending a pitch meeting tomorrow morning. In fact, it later transpired that one of the main contacts from the company was in town and he wanted to have a meeting and teleconference with some key opinion leaders as a preliminary meeting. And guess what, the client services manager asked if I would attend this meeting - these meetings actually. One meeting was scheduled for 4pm - ok. The other meeting was scheduled for 7pm - one hour after the office hours officially finish!! Well, I'm not afraid of hard work, and I don't mind staying late to complete work. I had been forewarned of this at my interview anyway. But being asked to do this on my first day, when I'd spent the whole of yesterday travelling, and I woke up this morning half asleep, was a bit much.

I initially said that I would attend the teleconference at 7pm, but when 6pm came and I could feel the shutters going down, plus my other colleagues were packing up to go home I began to question whether there really was any mileage in me staying back.

Also, the pitch is tomorrow - first thing. So from 9am until 2pm I will be stuck in this client meeting and will have to sound like I know all about diabetes and the management of impaired glucose tolerance, when I haven't done this stuff in depth for a few years! Err, not ideal.

I therefore excused myself from the meeting saying I would rather prepare for tomorrow. I'm not actually preparing anything right now. Maybe I shouldn't be writing this blog and should be still swotting up, but I need to do something else to relax!

On a less scary note, I met some of my colleagues who are very friendly. We had a nice lunch in a local restaurant and my boss paid for us. The food was really good - just as well as it's the only meal I'm having today!

I walked in to work from my flat - something that is completely unheard of in London. It was lovely to walk there across the park and along the boulevard in the morning sunshine - something that put me in a good mood. It took 25 minutes, but that is all good exercise.

Also, I've got a couple of things to look forward to this weekend - the Milan-San Remo bike race is on this Saturday so I hope to get out and see the riders. In the evening I am going to a St Patricks Day celebration, which has been organised by work colleagues. Also, I am going to a client symposium in Rome on 29th March, and have prolonged my stay there so I can do a bit of sightseeing. And the best thing of all about my stay in Milan so far is that there is a wool shop, just across the square from where I am staying, so I can crochet happy in the knowledge that I have easy access to all the yarn I need! Things are getting better!