June 19, 2005
day out with colleagues
yesterday was interactive day, which meant a day out with my colleagues from the interactive design department.
it started around lunchtime at marja and theo's farm, but robert and i turned up slightly late anyway. we'd been out late the night before, attending ian's goodbye drinky-doo as he and kate were returning to england for good on monday, and then we'd all continued to a late night dinner after the farewell drinks.
to add to our tardiness, robert and i got lost on the way to marja's farm, hehe, but it was so beautiful yesterday that it was just nice to drive around. marja and theo live in a beautiful cozy farmhouse with a lot of garden space around, a fish pond, greenhouse.
after drinks and snacks, we went off canoeing in the afternoon. you can see the program and route here. i was in a canoe with john, who transformed into a hyperactive child during the trip, and wanted to splash everyone on the other boats. it was really fun, i was soaked after all that splashing, but it was so so warm and sunny that we dried up in no time.
we didn't paddle all the time, sometimes we just floated along with the river's current and enjoyed the view. at one time, a beautiful mahogany horse was running on the field parallel to the river, and as it came to the water's edge, two other horses came up behind it, probably its family, a pony, and a mare in the same mahogany hue. as our canoe went round the bend, the horse gave the pony a gentle nuzzle, a motherly kiss. awwww...
we stopped for beers and a short break at a riverside pub. most of the guys at this time had stripped off their shirts; robert said he was pleased because a lot of our colleagues were paler than him. hahaha, this must be a bule thing.
sometimes i'd get sneaky and latch the T-end of my paddle onto the rope in the back of other people's canoes, and john and i would just relax and giggle to ourselves.
after the canoe trip, we had to split into teams and walk back to marja's. we were given paper with sequential images that would lead us to marja's. we also had a sheet of paper with images of objects along our walk. the object images were scrambled so we had to put them in order as we walked and discovered them.
i was in a team with jessica, ramon and robert. we were tired and hungry and our wet underpants clung to our butt cracks and our wet sneakers went squish-squish-squish when we walked. :( but we managed to be the first team to get to marja's and we saw all of the objects except one. hooray! :)
dinner was BBQ at marja and theo's. they had an electric grill so the food was done very quickly; which was good because everyone was starving! yumm yumm, i had a hamburger, chicken sate, and sausage with salad and garlic bread, nacho chips with salsa and slices of watermelon for dessert. yummmm...
it was a really good day out and i'd definitely do it again. thanks so much to the colleagues who organised everything: wilco, sebnem, judith and jeroen. :)
p.s. john, do you have muscle pain from all that rowing? i have saddle pain from sitting on that hard plastic canoe bench for hours.
*photos by wilco and jessica, thank you*
Posted by Yasmina at June 19, 2005 09:28 AM
Comments
This sounds like so, so much fun! Except the bit about saddle pain! :O
Posted by: Kathya at June 20, 2005 03:45 PM
Nice photos! Especially the one with you rowing! ;)
Posted by: Kathya at June 21, 2005 10:33 AM
wow looks like a lot of fun! I've never rowed a boat in my life and seeing you rowing makes me want to row row row my own boat. However, I'm sure I'd be incompetent and end up drowning and eaten by an alligator.. or uh.. something like that.
have a great weekend, yasmina! =)
Posted by: Irene at June 24, 2005 01:23 AM
kathya: well, thankfully the saddle pain did not last long, and it was a really fun time canoeing with colleagues. :)
btw, the guy in blue tshirt behind me in the first picture, top left, that's robert... look at the proportions, hehe...
Posted by: yasmina at June 26, 2005 10:40 AM
irene: go for it! i thought canada was canoe-and-kayak country... no alligators like the ones in indo, hehe... have a great wkend too!
Posted by: yasmina at June 26, 2005 10:42 AM
