Chapter 4 XI

Las Tablas, Madrid, 2009

Padel was the new trend sport in Madrid. As far as I was concerned it was just a simplification of tennis for lazy snobs. For those who are not trendy enough to know what padel is, it is indeed something like tennis, with a smaller racquet and a lot less strength shouting. I had never had any interest in tennis, but this was even less attractive to me.

At any rate, the "Team building event"   was going to be a day playing padel in a club in Las Tablas, north of Madrid.


I knew the are a little, because back in the day I had done a few job interview around there. As the crow flies, it was not far from our apartment,  but to reach it with the tube I had to cross half of the city. From Nuevos Ministerios I took the line 10 northbound, carrying my backpack. In my backpack I had my (now improved) survival kit, but today  the main point was to carry some "sport clothing" in order to not look out of place. That is shorts and a T-shirt. I had no intention to get into one of the cubicles, but anyway...


The circus was scheduled to start at 10, which I guess could be considered a little early. The fact is, the tube had nothing to do with the week traffic. Up to Nuevos Ministerios, I was thinking about all things coming my way... I had to recruit people and organize work groups. Then there was the issue of keeping it secret, the issue of changing company and no less to move to Cologne and learn some German, the future was coming towards me like a train.
In Nuevos Ministerios, María Jesús Álvarez informed me that we where at my destination and I changed into the line 10, where finding a seat was again not a problem, This time I rummaged around in my backpack until I found my book. I was now reading "Strata", from Terry Pratchett. I had to put my anxiety aside. I had done my routine of checking my 6 about 5 times by then and I knew the people around me better than my family.


At destination, a big burly bloke with black sunglasses, shaved head and his moustasche-goatee perfectly trimmed at exactly 2 mm asked me, in a grave and serious tone, about my accreditation. I had nothing more than the verbal invitation from Natalia, so when I was done with my explanation, his tone changed to a few degrees colder, which settled the tone of our coming relationship

--Then you cannot access -- He pointed at some sheets of paper he had in a pad holder which was hiding behind him. He shacked it in front of me and said -- I have been told from the boss that only those in the list can come in by showing the accreditation--

--Can we have a look whether I am on the list --

-- You must have been told at work that you had to bring your accreditation to be able to come in --

-- Yeah, you see, the thing is that I haven't started working there just yet-- I was thinking on all the things I had practiced with Jesús. On such occasions the best is not to draw attention and place a good lie and a lot of confidence. things like " I bring these flips flops back because ... " The point was that I did not want to sneak in, I had been invited! or at least Natalia had invited me

-- So, you are not even working for this company? --
--not yet--
-- Then you cannot enter, this is only for employees -- Then he started to explain me that the business was closed because of a company event.

After a few failed trials, I managed to get the bouncer to look for my name in the list, which he achieved successfully.

-- but you have no pass -- Roma was not made in a day, I guees. The conversation took a very dark road at that moment, until he decided to call someone. That someone probably decided to call some other one until a few minutes a smiling Natalia came down the staircase, out of the shadows.

After smiling left and right and with the bouncer a little more reassured, I was delighted to follow her into the brief darkness before coming out again in the big patio, where several groups of, presumably, Ingenio Ingeniergos employees where milling around, some in appropriate dressing and other with shorts similar to what I had in my pack

On our way we exchanged some pleasantries,  such as "I'm happy you came"', "I'll introduce you to this and that"', after a few laments and apologies. Very much like myself, Natalia was wearing some jeans, with the key difference that she wore hers much better than I did mine. Her tennis shoes were of radioactive white, whereas mine... well mine were comfortable. They were my old Asics that no where no longer up to the task to deal my 80 kilos bouncing while jogging. That was the end of the similarities, because she was wearing an impeccable white shirt with the logo of  InGnio InGnieros. I was wearing a linen shirt, because since moving to Madrid I had discovered linen as a survival strategy. At any rate, there I was, exchanging pleasantries with Natalia in my blue linen shirt listening to "not Fragile" in my head. If her looks were something to go by, I guessed she was not going to play lots of padel.

-- Jesús Díaz -- This Jesús was my future "boss", he was the director of InGnio InGnieros -- is coming a little later, I had arranged a small conference room upstairs -- she turned around, like that girl of the fortune wheel when she has to turn a letter, probably pointing at the building where said room might be--  Meanwhile, perhaps you would like to play a little  -- semi twirl again, this time on the other direction-- I'll introduce you to some of your future colleagues, come along.--

I got on her tail obediently, still smiling about the use and custom in Madrid to call everyone by name and first surname, which for me was a little unusual. When I was a kid I had reached the conclusion that the motive was that there was so many people in Madrid, that otherwise it would lead to confusion. We went along the path in between the courts where the introductions started.

To be honest, my ability to retain names and faces is, at  best, limited, and at the moment my interest was limited, as  I presumed I was not really going to work with this people at all. However, you have to be polite an all... and I was having no objections to follow Natalia around. On the other hand I was curious to know what was she up to. She had spent quite  a while with me already. After a few faces we reached a mobile bar under the shade of some trees. There was some salty snacks and soft drinks. there was two women and a tall bloke Before even get started, one of the women took Natalia by the arm and said.

-- Here you are ... -- and the rest I could not get. Anyway, I had an answer to my question. After introducing me to the tall guy and exchanging kisses with the first woman, Natalia introduced me to the third one, which looked a bit curious. As far as I could understand she was the secretary of Jesús Díaz. She started a barrage of direct questions, basically who I was and where I was coming from.

-- So you studied in Sweden --  The voice was not particular, but the tone was certainly irritating. I looked into something to drink, so I had some excuses to delay my answer and with my hands busy, it would be less likely that I strangled her. Apparently it was all soft drinks, no beer anywhere, so I took a bottle of Schweppes and kept nodding while I fished a piece of lemon and a handful of ice cubes.

-- I see you've read my CV-- I turned around smiling to see Natalia fuss a little and hear her try to articulate an answer that would eventually lead to some kind of apology. I was not in the mood to have any of her crap, so I pressed in

-- Yeah, I studied there the second part of my masters and I also worked there for a while, but the weather is better here --  I said signaling upwards.
Perhaps she got it or perhaps she did not, but anyway Natalia helped to keep the conversation on the weather and Sweden for the next  20 minutes or so.

We were on it, curtains and Ikea until Natalia took a huge nokia out of her poket and she turned around to talk into it.

It did not last long until she turned around and looking at me she let me know we had to get moving. Since she did not tell Lola where or why we were leaving, told me that Lola was already well informed.

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