Spanish Humour From Germany

Socialising through work can be a royal pain in the rear. I'm talking about when you take a client to dinner after a busy day at a trade show and your colleagues tease you about your free meal at a fancy restaurant when all you want to do is take your game face off and have a little personal time before you have to go to bed and do it all over again.

But Nuremberg Toy Fair is an exception for the British and French sections of our company, who both just proved their worth at a major show in their own country. Last week the pressure was on the Dutch and German teams while the rest of us - MZ, JH, ES, MD, CP, SM and LH in particular - laughed.



I had time to look out some new trend items at the show, like Gelli Baff and the Ugly Dolls (of which my favourite is Ice Bat.) We hosted a party with a live band and dancers. I fell in love for about fifteen minutes until I discovered someone else had had the same idea and married her already. I asserted myself a little in my relationship with one of my superiors and it didn't backfire. I danced like a bastard.

The best joke I heard all week was told to me slowly by a Spanish colleague. I dream of being this funny in a second language:

"A man hates his girlfriend's dog so, one day, he puts it in the back of his car, drives 100 miles from where they live and leaves it by the side of the road. But when he arrives home and opens the front door the dog is there, looking up at him in the usual way.

"The following day the man drives 200 miles and again leaves the dog by the side of the road. But again, when he gets home, he finds the dog already there! He can hardly believe it.

"On the third and final day, the man drives 300 miles of the most contorted and convoluted route he can think of: up hills, around mountains, through forests, left, right and all over the place. He throws the dog out and begins the journey home. Shortly, he decides to call home and his girlfriend answers. 'Hi, honey. Is the dog there?' She replies that it is.

"'Could you put him on the line? I'm completely lost out here...'"