I just had the most wonderful day!! Company's summer outing. It maybe sounds weird, but I really do love the place where I work: there are some quite cool people there, and some of them are old friends, and some are new or friends-in-the-making, and I like to talk with them either about work or about our private lives (sometimes ;-).
These outings are traditionally lots of fun: this is the 10th time I'm doing it, and we did all kinds of things: from skinny-dipping, to skating, squad-dune-surfing, kiting, skiing on artificial snow, free-climbing, learned various dances (kapoera, salsa, mambo...), team sports, juggling, karaoke-singing... you name it! The least of all we had nice weather ;-) But there is always good food, loads of (free) drinks, 80's music, and good company.
Today we went to the beach (again), and it was bad weather (again) - cold-ish, gray, even a bit of rain. That didn't stop some of us to put the wet-suits on and jump into the sea :-)) I did all the possible water sports: canoeing, rafting and surfing! And swimming/floating on the waves with the life-west on in the meantime. I've spent two hours in the water!! I didn't feel cold, but my lips were blue when I finished ;-) I warmed up with the help of blankets, "zoete wijn", and angels ;-) Later I also had tea next to the open fire -- perfect!
Before the water-pleasureswe had tai-chi warm-up; and we had to build catapults in little teams, and to compete with catching the catapulted balls. My team won!! Bravo, guys and girls - you know who you are!! Afterwards we had food, and lots of it; drinks, and many of them, and then
the chocolate fountains!! Three different kinds of liquid chocolate, with strawberries (etc) to dip in... MMmmmMMMmm....
Dancing to the 80's music is a recurring theme for our parties, either because it's from the youth of most of us, or because it's quite gay, or pretty sexy - either way, it's always lots of fun. But then the sun came out!! It was at least 7PM, but it was warming us up nicely. It was such a joy to relax in the brightness and the warmth of the setting sun. But from time to time the DJ would play the irresistible song, and I had to leave cozy conversation or the sunny chair and go inside to dance! All these impressions together were overwhelming, and I had to feel the sand again, and the water too, but then the water was so inviting that I just had to have another dip! And Tineke joined me, and it was perfect - almost, because we could not stay long enough in the water, we had to go back to the bus which took us back to Amsterdam...
It was just like the school excursions - intensive, fun, emotional, exhausting. With the addition of
"nostalgic", because I am not young and naive schoolgirl any more, and I know the school excursions must end. But there is always the next one - that's the good lesson that years and experience do teach ;-)
Oh, I've learned a lot from the canoeing today: when the wave is coming at you, look straight at it, and hit the big motherfu**er
head on; when you fall out - it's not that bad: do not panic, climb back in, and try again; it may take a lot of effort, but it also brings a lot of joy and pleasure.
Links to more photos:
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