Lawn bowls and dinner
We had our team Christmas do on Tuesday last week. Yes, a work Christmas function, more than a month before Christmas! We wanted to have it in early to mid December, but people will be on leave then, and this was the only time the team could all be together. For something different, we went to a lawn bowls club and had a mini bowls tournament and then dinner. It was a fantastic night, and I had a really great time. It was a shame Jac was away in Brissie. She’s spoken many a time about her ambition to switch to lawn bowls when she can no longer play hockey (yes, really, she’s said that!). Oh well, I guess there’s next year. ;-)
Chad was the main organiser, and L and I helped. We got a couple of platters from Woolworths Catering (yep, Woolworths the supermarket) for nibblies – first, an antipasto platter. The highlight for me on this platter was the juicy semi-sundried tomatoes. I couldn’t stop eating them.
Second, a platter of cheese and crackers, with dried fruit and quince paste.
We also got a platter of assorted sushi from Nippon Fare (yep, Nippon Fare that we get lunches from). In the centre of the platter is soy sauce (of course!), pickled ginger (which looks very like salmon, doesn’t it?) and a great big ball of wasabi.
There was teriyaki chicken and cucumber sushi, cooked tuna with avocado sushi, crabstick, omelette and avocado sushi, and carrot, cucumber and avocado sushi. The sushi was very popular and enthusiastically consumed.
We had drinks (at bowls club prices!) and the antipasto, cheese and sushi to begin with. Then we drew for the bowls teams, were given a quick bowls lesson (believe me, some of us really needed it!) and the tournament commenced. Three rounds of competition followed. The grand final required a tiebreaker and was very exciting, with the result coming down to the very last bowl. The champions were presented with a trophy, and it was time to eat once more! We got mild peri-peri chicken pieces and lemon & herb chicken pieces, corn on the cob, garden salad and coleslaw from Nandos, and dinner rolls from Bakers Delight. Unfortunately, the photos of the chicken and corn didn’t turn out very well – I didn’t get a chance to take their photo until they were served up for dinner, and by then it was much too dark for me to take decent pictures. But here are the salads. The dressing was on the side in sachets for those who wanted it. I ate a dinner roll, three pieces of chicken, two mild and one lemon & herb, corn, coleslaw and a little garden salad. Tasty tasty!
My team made it through to the second round, but were slaughtered by the eventual champions of the night. Lawn bowls are good fun (a great idea for a work do!), but I’ve discovered I’m really crap at it. :)
In addition to current team members and their partners, we also invited people who’d worked with us in the past year. One of them, A, brought along a big jar of lollies as a present to the team. One of my workmates kindly held it up so I could take a photo. Lots of lolly teeth, pineapples and strawberries and cream in there, as you can see! That jar now sits in my boss’ office, and lollies have been mysteriously disappearing since Wednesday morning. :)
The silly festive season is definitely revving up from next week. I’ve got three work-related Christmas functions coming up in the next week and a half. And I’m now trying to decide what Christmas goodies I will bake for friends and workmates this year.
Yep, that’s my sneakered foot in the first photo. Note the upturned jeans cuff. Damn these short legs.