Christmas Party. Spanish Style

Dang Christmas parties are fun! What could be more fun than free alcohol and seeing your boss and workmates make a fool of themselves. (as long as you are not the foolish workmate all is good). This trend transcends continents thats for sure. Our Christmas party was being held during the day, we have another HQ in Cádiz, 2 1/2 hours south of Seville, so our CP was held in Jerez, a town pretty much in the middle of Cádiz & Seville. They hired a coach to take us all there. We had to work in the morning until 12:30pm, but these hours were pretty much taken up with a bit of nail painting and JuanLu, the big bloke that sits next to me taking all the laptops out of the company laptop bags to fill them with bottles of beer for the trip to the party. The trip to the party was pretty rowdy and could have easily been mistaken for a year 6 trip to Canberra. There was lots of beer drinking, and screaming and some wannabee flamenco singers in the middle complete with tamborine. There was this one girl who didn´t stop singing flamenco songs that had everyone in stitches, I couldn´t understand what the fuck she was singing about it but if her porn type movements and the screams of outrage from the crowd had anything to do with it it must have been some risque flamenco. The trip was only 1 1/2 hours long but it ended up taking closer 2 1/2 cause we had to have a pee pee stop, with 60 people lining up for 1 toilet at the petrol station! So much beer consumed in such a short amount of time and the crowd had to break the seal ALREADY!

The party was held at a finca, a country house in the sherry country of Jerez de la Frontera. The grouds were quite pretty and really spanish looking.

The starters and glasses of sherry were taken in the "Patio de los Toros" unfortunately there were no real toros here, though everyone loves to see a crowd scramble when a bull is let lose. They actually do that in small villages, Stuff Pamplona, its for the weak! Get yourself to a small village during their party week and watch grandma run for her life as the a wild bull is let lose with no set track. That shiz is madness.

Everyone loves to have a bulls head looking down at you while you eat, these suckers were right behind me. Before coming to Spain I was quite against the whole bullfighting thing, don´t get me wrong I still kinda am, but now I undertsand a bit more about how big the culture is and how ingrained it is into said culture. Apart from the part where it gets killed, the bullfighting is quite beautiful, the bullfighter quite skillful & brave and who the hell doesn´t like to yell Olé when the bull almost stabs the bullfighter through the testicles?

And you just can´t say that this bullfighter isn´t an absolute hottie. Hello Fran Rivera, where do you think you´re going.....

A bullring was situated right next to our tables during the lunch, small of course, and after lunch there was a dancing horse show, complete El Caballo Blanco style, that is one clever horsey let me tell you.

And then after the horse show, a little bull fight, not with a bull, but a baby cow. There were rumours that we would be able to have a go doing it, but I was glad that it turned out to be a mere rumour when I saw that thing charge, it was small but it was an angry little bugger. Don´t worry, it didn´t get killed, they just played with it, the sword wasn´t even real, it was plastic and at one stage it snapped, the dodgy bullfighter dropped the cape and the bull rolled around in it. See no killing, fun times for little cow.

There was a prize ceremony and lots of great prizes were given out, including the one that I had my eye on, the trip to Istanbul, which was unfortunately (not for him, just for me) won by a guy that i work with Juan Carlos. Who by the way everyone cals Juanki or Juanka for short and its pronounced Wankey, or Wanka! Funny! I won a red scarf - yeah, great a red scarf... over the moon. During the prize ceremony, raunchy flamenco singer got up on stage and did an even raunchier rendition of one of her songs, including some strange moves that involved flashing her undies, this was done with the boss next to her on stage and the image of her undies and the boss´s tomato red face is forever etched in my mind.

After a few copitas (spirits at the open bar) I had a photoshoot inside the bullring, here we are, ana, reyes and me making like bulls in front one of the protected areas. Well they are making like a bull, I am actually doing the peace sign, spot the español.....

I don´t even remember taking this photo but isn´t this guys moustache cool, he was on the wall near the toilets, and they say his name is Cantinflas and he is an old mexian comedian. Cool mo Cantinflas.