For
sacrifice comes the reward. Early this week the New Factory took us to a SPA
resort for a two-day rest (officially to discuss execution of strategy for 2015
and talk over strategy for 2016; a purpose justified by tax reasons), so
instead of minding the shop, my colleagues and I enjoyed ourselves in a resort
somewhere 200 kilometres from Warsaw.
This was my
first trip to SPA in my life and given cost of such pleasure, the next one will
also be paid by someone else ;-). The very massages and other relaxing
treatments were for me, as a male, tedious. Lying back for more than an hour
does not square with my notion of perfect leisure, which should involve some
physical exercise. Anyway, apart from boring doing-nothing we could enjoy other
facilities: outdoor cycling (debatable how much pleasure it gives when the
temperature is near freezing), swimming pool, jacuzzi, etc.
The biggest
drawback of the trip is that I could not cut myself off work as I would have
loved to, but had to turn on computer four times during two days to push some
stuff forward. Besides, a stay in SPA is good for a weekend rest, but not for a
week or two.
Plus even
for a well-off banker the price of such enjoyment is steep. A week-long stay
for a couple would set you back five thousand zlotys, money which could buy you
decent holidaying several thousand kilometres from Poland, not in a four-star
resort at the back of beyond. Nevertheless, the facility seems to be targeted
at corporations with generous integration budgets and private individuals with
lots of dough to throw about. To my surprise, the only guests apart from us,
corpo-folks, were some Russians (I’d thought economic misery out there would
lead to dramatic drop in Russian tourists visiting Poland). The next day folks
from a renowned pharmaceutical company were due to show up. One could argue,
whether spending on average 800 PLN per person for such trip is the most
reasonable way of managing a company’s profit and loss account, yet since if the integration
budget is not used in one year, next year it is be reduced, temptation to spend
someone else’s money is strong…
On our way
back we popped over to a museum of Mazovian countryside in Sierpc.
Well-maintained, yet on late-November weekday desolated. A guide showed us
around large and well-groomed sites. This is the essence of Mazovian landscape.
One would love to submerge in this stillness, yet Warsaw inescapably beckons…
1 comment:
I'm puzzled by the Polish usage of SPA as three capital letters. It is not an acronym; it is a word like 'Zdrój' in Polish or 'Bad' in German, signifying a town or village to which people come to get better (in old days, by taking the waters). See the Origin of 'Spa'.
England has several towns which are designated Spas - Bath Spa (the first), Harrogate Spa, Royal Leamington Spa to name three.
Seeing the word used as three capital letters in a row grates :-)
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