Client Entertainment

In Australia, I go on far more in-person client events than I ever did working in SF. Naturally a good percentage of these are also fun events meant for us to get to know the clients a little better, build relationships and also have fun. Unfortunately for me, these 'fun' 'events aren't ones that I would consider universally fun...particularly because so far they have been in fields that I don't excel in...or to put it more bluntly, that I suck at.

Example 1: Golf

I know that golf is a sport all business people should learn. I now realize that, Dad, you in fact were not trying to torture me by making me take those Sunday morning golf lessons (when it was about as hot as the fifth circle of hell and I was sweating out Milwaukee's Best from the night before) but were instead trying to arm me with the skills I would need to engage in this social aspect of doing business. Perhaps I should have paid more attention during those lessons. Maybe I should have just not drank so much cheap beer the evenings before. Regardless of why, the lessons didn't stick. We have now gone golfing twice with clients. My excitement the first time going out was quickly eclipse by my realization that not only was this not going to be an easy game to pick up but also my hand-eye coordination in terms of hitting the ball was on par with that of a pot smoking chimp. When I did occasionally manage to hit the ball, it usually ended up in some sweet spot like this...



Seriously...how is anyone supposed to hit that???

And that is only when I was so lucky to be able to locate it after I hit it. I was actually able to defy the laws of physics multiple times on that course by somehow hitting the ball with a forward motion and making it take off on a trajectory backwards. Sadly, I feel these talents would be much more well received in a class room than they were on the golf course.


Example 2: Cooking

This week, we took our clients to an italian bread making class where you make bread and drink wine while socializing. I know what you're probably thinking. I'm italian. I like bread. I love wine. This should be a good experience. Well, on a scale of 1 to golf, I will say this wasn't quite at golf level, but I won't be trying out for Master Chef anytime soon either.

They made the whole experience relatively painless by pre-measuring all of the ingredients for us, walking us through every step, providing us with wine and pretty much only leaving us responsible for the kneading and shaping of the dough. I guess that makes your job a little easier in guessing where things went wrong for me. While everyone else's dough looked smooth and round like a cantaloupe, mine more closely resembled jaba the hut. Below are a few pictures I snapped with my camera during the class.




Though we baked some of the dough in class, they had us wrap up the rest of ours so that we could take it home and bake it. During the class, even wrapped up the dough continued to expand. By the time the class was over, my little jaba the hut had grown legs. I was pretty sure I could walk him home.

Last night I remembered my sad little pile of dough in the fridge, and with the help of my flat mate, I attempted to bake. The result? Surprisingly good. See for yourself below. That is an 'E' I etched on the top of it. I must say, when given premeasured ingredients and almost fool proof instructions to bake it while being closely supervised, I'm not half bad at baking!



I hope our next client event we can do something more up my alley...like beer olympics. I would totally rock at that.