Berlin Day 3

Not a lot happened today...we got up and went to breakfast this morning and came back to the room.  Its kinda dark and dreary, we haven't had great weather in Berlin.  So I did some work, watched some Outlander while Jay watched Outlander on his iPad as well (he bought the second season on iTunes).  Its supposed to rain all afternoon (so says my app) and so after doing some research on different tours and things to do in Berlin this afternoon by myself I went down to the spa and made an appointment to have a massage at 2:40pm while Jay is at his business session from 12:30-5:00pm this afternoon.

At noon we went back up to the meeting room to have lunch, I'm not even hungry, it feels like we just had breakfast.  Then Jay has to head down to the business session to catch the bus to the venue and I head back upstairs for a shower and to shave my legs (for the massage!) and wait for 2:40pm.

As soon as I get back to the room Jay calls and says he's just going to check in to the business session and then leave, it turned out its a nice afternoon and wondered if I could change or cancel my massage.  About a minute later he texted "Marianne (the CEO) came up to me and apologized, she was totally wrong the other night and the awards ARE being handed out at the business session and not at the Gala dinner".  I had said to her when we were having dinner on the first night that I might go to the business session this year (its not mandatory for the companions but is expected of the advisors to attend) because the awards were being handed out.  Jay's getting an award, he doesn't know what yet but thinks 5th overall in insurance. (Turns out it was 4th overall).  But she had said she thought they were being handed out at the Gala dinner, same as every other year and that there was just one being handed out at the business session.  Good thing she mentioned that to him and he didn't skip out!  But also the business session is business casual, but the other award winners were all in suits for their photos while Jay was in golf pants and a golf shirt because he didn't know..but he probably would have worn that anyway.  Marianne later apologized to me as well because I skipped the business session and missed the award...she's very nice and down to earth.

My massage.  I texted my Mom after my massage and she asked how it was.  I said, it's a lot more intimate than at home!  (At one point I'm pretty sure I just had a face cloth covering my nipples while my stomach and chest were massaged)  I'm not sure if I was more tense before the massage or afterwards.  She asked if I had a male or female masseuse..male.  She said - well it is Germany...yeah I guess. lol.

When Jay got back from the business session we decided to go across the square to get a snack and a drink before the dinner tonight.  So we went to a little outdoor cafe and ordered a German local delicacy Currywurst, german sausage with curried ketchup - and it came with champagne for 15euros.  Good news for me because I got both champagne and Jay had a beer.

Jay and I were chatting on the way back over to the hotel and talking about the business session and the speaker who was there, who was a German actor and storyteller and Jay said "I really enjoyed listening to him... while you got violated..."  - - I didn't say it was an entirely bad experience, just unexpected.

Another bear for Sophie in front of our hotel.

We have the dine-around tonight - where the group is split into 6 or 7 groups of 70 or 80 people and go to different restaurants for dinner.  We're at Austernbank, an old converted bank vault within walking distance of the hotel.   Mark and Brandon are at the same restaurant, so we head there for dinner.  It was nice, this is the first dine-around restaurant we have actually gone to in the 3 conferences we've been to - we usually skip out and do our own thing.  Its a set menu, a green salad with tomatoes and buffalo mozzarella then a chicken dish with a few potatoes, which was very nice, and then creme brulee for dessert and an espresso.

Then there is a reception afterwards (there's always 'nightcaps' and its called AfterGlow - who comes up with these names? every night so really you can drink for free from about 6pm until midnight) back at the hotel in the lobby.  I stopped to chat with Kim, who is the Manulife person in charge of organizing the conference because we were the first people back from the dine-around (go figure) - she asked how my day was..I told her I had had a very handsy massage - she said the same thing happened to her in Russia after a conference there!  Haha.  Jay stayed down in the reception area for a bit with Mark and Brandon, they had a big screen up with soccer on and a nice, comfy couch to sit in and free booze.  I went back up to the room.  Hopefully the weather is nicer tomorrow...

Oh, we also found out that the next conference (which will be the LAST regular conference, in 2018, because of government regulations requiring the insurance companies to stop with the reward conferences) will be in Malta!  The girls will be 10...we can maybe bring them with us.  Jay's already qualified for this one so we'll go for sure..I'm excited, hoping that we can travel through Italy first for a week.  We won't find out where the next Pinnacle conference is until we're at this year's in November in Buenos Aires..its very hush hush.  The advisors actually do a betting pool and if anyone guesses the location then they win the pool.  Any bets?  It will be the last ever reward conference for the best of the best advisors (only 40 from Life, Living Benefits and Investments)...Jay hasn't qualified yet so its something to work towards.