A little trip to spain

After lots of deep and considered thinking (unusual for me I know),
I finally decided to accept my place on the work sponsored MBA program.
As a result, I found myself in Spain this weekend attending the 'kick
off' session. The session itself was held in a small and very pretty
town (although didn't get to see much of it) called El Escorial, roughly
around 50km from Madrid.

I must say, I was actually pleasantly surprised by the session. I've
what can only be described as an over developed degree of blatant
disregard for management theory, and as a result am usually quite
condescending toward sessions that include it. This is perhaps
surprising given that this will be the cornerstone of my studies, but
herein lies the interest for me - the opportunity to be critical!.
Anyways, thats somethings for a another day, suffice to say I had a
informative and enjoyable time getting to know other member's of the
program. This culminated in lots of group work, with members
of my 'learning team'. Its of great pleasure to me that this consists of a
diverse European group, with Germany, Spain, Italy, Switzerland,
Portugal, Belgium and Austria all represented. So all looks good moving
forward!

So its all go from here, the 'real' work starts in earnest next week!.

ps having had some 'down time' to relax in the hotel this evening, 3
things have occurred to me:

1. Henley Management College has been ranked 27th in the world for MBA's
(not bad eh)

2. Its a little over a year since I handed in the last of my Criminology
course work - my Masters 'Dissertation'!. After which I believe I swore I
would never again do anything remotely approaching academia (the 9
months of pain this caused can never be underestimated). Yet here I am
again!!!!. Am I mad?

3. It was about this time a year ago I was fortunate enough to be a
guest as AJ and Iciar's wedding @ Sanctuary of El Henar, Cuellar here in
Spain (apologies if you read this, that I can't remember the exact
date). So here's a well over due happy anniversary (my guess is this is
late!).