Madrid adventure

Everything is an adventure these days! I've had a few kind of magic days here in Madrid attending the EAGE conference.  First, I met the musician who would be performing at the conference in line to get a taxi at the Madrid airport - that was funny!  Then I saw my old long lost friend Leendert at the Icebreaker event, and then during the course of the conference I saw several other old buddies plus made some new friends as well.  The highlight though was traveling with my new boss Ann - she is so fun and friendly to everyone she meets. She was chatting away in broken Spanish to random people on the sardine-like metro as we traveled from the hotel to the conference in the morning, and she befriended the security guard. I think I used to be more like this but over the years have kind of fallen out of the habit of being this amount of friendly. I hope this exposure rubs off on me because it is so fun and funny to have these little exchanges with people in the wide world.

Ann is also a legend and an inspiration in her professional life. She was on this panel alongside big names at BP, Total, and Repsol, and she said things out loud that made my eyes widen (like, did she really just say that?!). She is so passionate about geothermal energy, and renewable energy in general, and she is so knowledgeable about all aspects of the topic. I love how she can say brave things in a friendly way.  I feel so lucky to have her as my boss!

Another highlight was seeing my old colleague Jorge, who lives in Madrid and just showed up to see familiar faces. I got to ride on the back of his motorcycle from the conference to my hotel (rather than taking the sardine-squished metro!). 

Here is me and Anantza the security guard, who I got to become friends with too. She is hilarious. I've never met such a smiley, friendly security guard!

One night we had this big event at a large property with 3 bands, some flamenco dancers, and loads of food. 

And then when it finished on Thursday, I went up and spent the evening with dear Laura. Finally I got to meet her daughter and husband after all these years of hearing about them.

She kindly took me to the airport this morning and I flew back to Gatwick, where Michel was waiting for me to arrive so we could enjoy the weekend together!