This one time..at Nandos..

Warning: This blogpost will probably take up the entire page, but we deserve it - after today!

Today was EB meeting. We decided (through a neverending series of Gmail conversations) that we should give Taha a surprise today too (since his birthday was on Sunday) and do department allocation. So we thought we'd go to Nandos (even though some of us didn't want to)..

Haris, Rabia and Naveen were dispatched to get orange and blue balloons (we're branded, baby!) and head to the restaurant to grab a table. Sharmeen and I decided to 'distract' Taha, by first taking him to the MC office to drop off a letter, and then getting Emad to call him so he would be delayed at the entrance and wouldn't see the balloons.

Obviously, everything doesn't go according to plan..and Nandos had no idea what lay in store for them..

First, Emad didn't seem to be calling, and right when I said 'Taha, wait! I need to talk to you for a second', as we walked up the stairs to Nandos, his phone began ringing.

And he didn't come back.

And we waited, with the branded balloons.




Finally, a rather perplexed Taha (apparently Emad asked him about every possible thing to 'delay' his arrival at the scene) reached the table - and we all yelled SURPRISE!



That was just the beginning...

A stressful yet very productive EB meeting later, we decided to start with allocation. I distinctly remember it being around 6:45 PM.

And then the debates began. The endless scrutiny of members' priorities, discussions of LC members, capacity, plans, team diversity, past team experiences..

..and while Naveen, Haris and Sharmeen managed to finish off quickly...

...our lovely ICX VPs couldn't seem to decide..

..and time went on and on..punctuated by laughing fits, roll calls, the table next to us getting pissed because we got cake and they didn't, the waiters laughing their heads off when we made them sing happy birthday to Taha, and insisted his name was TeeDee...



...and our ICX VPs still kept talking and discussing..



Meanwhile, Naveen drew, Haris calculated the bill, I yelled at Taha and Rabia to shut up so I could 'hear myself talk', Sharmeen wondered why she was sitting there with a horrible flu..






..and by the time we finished, we realized we'd been in a meeting for 5 hours. We clapped, and believe it or not, two people sitting at the farthest end of the floor applauded too.

Nandos had no idea what hit them today!! :P