We hope you have all had a fantastic Christmas and new year!!
After a lovely long break for Christmas I thought it would be a bit of a struggle getting back into the routine of work but I feel it is great to be back and has actually been great fun returning to work thanks to the action packed day we had on Monday 6th January!
To explain, before Christmas I had done a bit of researching for things we could do for a Christmas party, we didn’t want to do the normal dinner and drinks or the same old office party. We wanted something different that everybody would enjoy! I had found a few good options but I started to found it stressful due to the fact Christmas was edging nearer and availability was lessening every second!!, I was running out of ideas (and time!) and I got to a point when I realised we wouldn’t get to do anything decent before Christmas!
It then hit me that we could have our Christmas party when we return to work in January! Everybody seemed more than happy to do that!! I thought it would allow us more availability as well as it was something to look forward to when returning to work! The 6th January was the best day we had decided, everybody was back to work then and Fabrizio was able to make that day as he was here in the office instead of being in Italy!
Now I had the date decided I looked further into what we could do and after more research I had a fantastic day planned!! I consulted with the rest of the team, everybody was happy so I confirmed and booked the date and time and then we all looked forward to a fun and adventurous day of Indoor Go- karting and Bowling!
The weeks leading up to Christmas following the booking, fighting talk was in conversation around the office, people were pretty confident they could win the go karting or bowling but Todd was the most confident, especially when it came to bowling!!
Below is the exact quote Todd told me when he discovered Awards and trophies will be available in both Go-Karting and Bowling:
“I'm going to wear my bowling crown every day, and drink coffee from my trophy!”
I think he was joking and being sarcastic however ironically he did win Bowling as the best bowler with an impressive score of 185 and now has a trophy on his desk to prove his achievement!
So well done to Todd and I hope the coffee tastes good in your winners’ cup!
Before I get ahead of myself we started the day at the office, we all spent the morning getting back into the swing of working. I should also mention I organised a secret Santa before Christmas. For those who do not know what that is, it is where everybody puts their name into a pot and everybody takes a name (providing it is not their own!) and whoever it is they have to buy them a gift but don’t tell anybody who they choose, (which is where the “secret” Santa comes from!)
I set the rule that the gift had a budget of £15 and was to be given on our Christmas party day. In the office I had decorated a Christmas tree so we used that as the place to put everybody’s gifts and when it had reached the afternoon we had lunch and then opened our presents.
Derek received a game of Skittles
Fabrizio- a phone case and lighter
Fiona received a Cocktail Kit.
I got a lovely bag in my favourite colour, purple.
Ajay got a bottle of Cava.
Todd was given chocolates and a doodle book.
Stefano got a rather fetching Dinosaur Onesie
Alex was given Star Wars figurines and a Recipe book
I think everybody was pleased with their gifts, I certainly love mine!!
After present opening we made our way to Crawley where our first event was held at an amazing indoor karting track. We arrived a little early so we had enough time to register and relax and then we were instructed to put on the karting outfits and head back down to reception to be briefed on the safety instructions and information of the races.
We had booked for two 15 minute race sessions, the first was a qualifying round and mainly practise and the 2nd was a grid start “race to the death” sort of race!
I will be honest I was awful in my first race, It is so fast on the track! Although the karts are fairly small they build up speed so quick and I would bottle it when I got too fast by pressing hard on the brake, therefore my lap times were pretty awful in comparison to the others.
The first 15 minutes went really quickly, when we all came off the track we looked at our lap times and rankings on the screen, for most of us it was the first experience Go karting and bearing that in mind I think everyone did well, including Fabrizio who took last place!
Our second race session started at Grid position, it is different from the first as everyone starts the race at the same time! the rankings from the first session were used to decide who starts where on the grid!. Damian, Our new sales member Ben and Stef were the top three so on the grid they took the first 3 positions, whereas the last two spots were taken up by me (9th place) and Fabrizio (10th).
I really enjoyed the second session I decided to give it some welly and speed up and that worked in my favour as I boosted myself up to 7th place, which I was really pleased with.
Once we had completed the session we were eagerly waiting the final results, in front of us was the winner’s podium and 3 trophies for 1st, 2nd and 3rd, I was already 100% sure I wasn’t in that category however it was still exciting to hear the results!
The winners were:
In 3rd place was Stefano
In 2nd was Damian
In 1st was Ben!
Well done to you guys!
Everybody did so well, the three winners were excellent but I have to say there was one dark horse of the races and that was Fiona! She had never done it before and during the first session she had become 8th but during the 2nd session she really turned it around, she had managed to change her position from 8th to 4th with only a 0.5 second gap stopping her from becoming 3rd! She did it for the girls and 4th is a fantastic position to finish with!
After the races, we changed out of our outfits and made our way to Bowling. I had organised two games and food. We collected our bowling shoes and made our way to the two lanes we had reserved, included in the price we paid, we all had one free drink each and then we started the Games!
1st game went full steam ahead, there was many strikes and spares being achieved as well as many gutter balls! We had split into 2 teams of 5 there was 5 players on each lane and each lane were competing for highest score overall.
Team 1 on lane 17 was:
Ajay
Alex
Fiona
Derek
Stef
Todd
Damian
Katie
Fabrizio
Ben
The last few bowls of the 1st game were tense, our overall numbers were really close to each other and unbelievably the end of the 1st game was a tie! Both lanes achieved 435!
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| Score at the end of the first game!!! |
(This is a good time to note- Ajay came first in the 1st game with 125 and I came second overall with a respectable score of 102 which I was really pleased with!)
Between the two games we ate food, our lane host bought over our food, it was all the unhealthy stuff like hot dogs, onion rings, chicken wings and fries but it was tasty!
After food and more drinks we played our second game and everybody knew this game would determine the overall winners so everybody tried their best, again it was tense and so close but thanks to the amazing play by Todd in the second game, as by no exaggeration he had literally scored a strike on most of his bowls and won the game for us!
We already knew Awards and Trophies were going to be given out, the best and worst bowler was based on scores however I had to decide who got Funniest bowler and who the most stylish Bowler was!
I consulted with Fiona and we both agreed that Ajay should definitely get the Funniest Bowler, Ajay was really good however his pre- bowl preparation was comical as he practically dance with the ball! He gave a little wiggle then bowled! I have to say that although it was funny it did work for him.
After a little thought we decided Damian would get most stylish, because although he got many gutter balls and didn’t get the highest score he put a quirky wrist spin on his throw which looked interesting!
Finally it was announced Todd was the Best bowler and like I said earlier he has the trophy on his desk to prove it and Poor Fabrizio got the award for the Bowler who needs more improvement!
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| Bowling Champ!!! |
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| Better luck next time Fabri!! |
After all the action we headed back, It was a fantastic evening which I would love to do again, who knows maybe in a few years’ time we will be go karting and bowling like the pro’s!!
A few photos from the event*
*(Pictures provided by Damian and his amazing camera)
Thank you for reading
The Objektum team
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