When I was a rookie futures trader, the owner of my company hired a luxury hotel in Barcelona for our Christmas bash. We had an incredible year trading, and so as a treat he paid for 150 of us to go on holiday for a knees up.
But before we left he issued us with one stern condition: we would not upset the locals and get too drunk. Famous last words.
It started quite civilised as we managed to see a football game at Camp Nou and I got to see the beautiful city and architecture. I even popped into the Picasso museum for a couple of hours. That is about as good as it got for being well behaved and sticking by the rules set by the boss.
During the evening things went downhill - and fast. The club led onto a beach, and after the third tequila a few of the female traders decided to steal my clothes and wear them. Running around trying to look for them was useless, so I just had to borrow a coat from a mate.
The DJ we'd hired threw a real tantrum and left because he was fed up with our “music" requests. What he didn't know is we all had a bet to see how many times he could play Prince's Kiss (he played it about five times but my memory is somewhat shaky so I'm not entirely sure).
Around 2am the ambulance got called to help an older trader who we thought was having a heart attack. Thankfully it was just really bad heartburn but we were all really worried for him at the time. What got me was he actually came back to the bar for another drink afterwards! What a legend/fool - delete as you see fit.
The last thing I remember is wearing a trilby hat trying to look cool and failing while chatting up the receptionist - then seeing two couples having sex on the beach, in full view of everyone.
When the bill came we insisted on paying for the clean-up which apparently was nearly as much as the drinks we'd guzzled. The fallout didn't come until two months later, but it was a great bonding exercise and I’ll never forget it.
I never thought you could have a hangover that lasted a whole week. Turns out you can, but I do not recommend it.
Now my life is far more relaxed and I’ll remember those days with affection.... and embarrassment.
*Patrick Reid is the co-founder of Adamis Principle and an FX trader
