SPAIN: Stressed Spaniards get chance to trash hotel room in Madrid

Until now it has been the preserve of bad-boy rock stars, but on Tuesday (July 03), 40 stressed-out bankers, teachers and other workers threw televisions, smashed mirrors and generally laid waste to a up-market Madrid hotel. The 100 finalists sat a psychological exam, including bashing life-size puppet of a cigar-chopping boss and screaming out their frustrations: "Respect me you louts!," Argentinean teacher Pablo Varela shouted as he laid into the puppet. The air was thick with dust, expletives and the manic cries of the hard-hatted volunteers who had been given the chance by hotel group NH to destroy part of the Madrid hotel before refurbishment. What started as a slick media event by the company soon descended into near chaos as participants began to find their rhythm, striding from room to room, sledgehammers in hand. The percussive explosion of televisions exploding seemed a particular favourite, and few seemed worried about bringing seven years bad luck upon themselves as they rammed steel polls into mirrors. Maria, at least, didn't seem to care for superstitions. The 25-year-old fund manager strangely loves and enjoy her work -it's social obligations like meeting up with friends what causes her stress. She told Reuters that trashing the hotel room made great therapy. "Awesome - I'm hot, my hands are shacking, but the feeling is great. It's like practising bungy jumping or parachuting, a sport!", she said. Meanwhile in the room next door, amused workmen watched as a beaming and frenzied Pablo put the hammer through a solid marble basin and sent the bath's glass partition shattering to the floor. "He's an animal," said one anxious workman as he retreated from the bathroom that had been in mint condition an hour earlier. A sweaty Pablo emerged minutes later happy and exhausted, as the 30-year-old high school teacher from Buenos Aires, Argentina, put it. "This, once a month, would be awesome. Now I don't need to do this to my classroom, I'm cool now," he said breathlessly. Photographers and journalists ducked for cover. Around 1,000 people from all over Spain tried to get onto the wrecking team by writing to NH and telling of their stressful lives.

ITN Source | July 4, 2007

Tags:. .stressful. .stressed. .solid. .smashed. .waste