Yesterday, or more accurately last Saturday - was Labor Day.
It usually is a chance for all of us middle income earners to take a seat back and relax and maybe enjoy the holiday, reading up on a good book or two.
In my case - none of that happened of course. The day came on a saturday - on worse of all it's not gonna be replaced on your mon - fri office days - which really sucks IMO. But I guess that's just typical of non-managers like me I suppose - to always want less work - and earn as much money as I could by the end of the month.
In any case, that's not really where I am actually going here. This post is more about this event which (ehem ehemm..) yours truly have arranged for his office mates.
Organizing events can be a hard thing to do. More so when it involves a lot of people. Luckily - the guys I work with makes it look really easy. Just needed a few phone calls and emails and we were all set. At first I thought that this event wouldn't catch fire among the Comptelians - luckily though, it did. In the end, 18 people decided to play, and were later divided into 2 teams - Red VS Blue. Me, I'm a Red.
We got there at Rimba Harmonis separately. The plan was for the briefing to start at 10 am. The map on their website is quite confusing I have to say - even for the people who actually lives up there in the Wangsa Maju area. Luckily there was Google Earth. Had that map studied the night before just so that I wouldn't get lost the day after.
After we all got there, the manager of place started off with a briefing of the rules and regulations of the sport. Gears, safety precautions, basically all the do's and don't's.
After that, we took a tour of the playing fields and discussed on the format of the game that we are "suggested" to play. In this case - it was "Raise the Flag".
We actually played around three rounds of those. 2 in the simulated jungle (I call it Jungle 1), and 1 in an actual jungle (well actually it's more like semak-samun je sebenarnye. But it's the realism that matters here. Let's call it Jungle 2).
Match Result
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1. Raise the Flag (Jungle 1) = Draw
2. Raise the Flag (Jungle 1) = Draw
3. Raise the Flag (Jungle 2) = Draw
4. Chicken Run (Jungle 1) = Blue won.
5. Chicken Run (Jungle 1) = Blue won.
6. Chicken Run (Jungle 1) = Blue won.
Red Team lost all 3 of the Chicken Run matches. Not sure what happened there. Maybe the team was not divided equally. Haha - dah kalah mmg la argue macam2.
At the end of the day, it was a very tiring event. Memang tak cukup nafas. I was running all over the place. Haha - when I can't run, I rolled. Literally was bak kate Shin-chan - "guling-guling macam tenggiling". In some instances I would just throw away my gun and would simply just run. Maybe I was unconsciously trying to re-enact some scenes from all those action movies. Maybe it was the adrenaline. Maybe it was just the sense of wanting to get things done. Whatever it is - it was surely fun.
Now - I can hardly walk straight. I even have trouble walking, sitting and even while lying down. Body aches all over. The bruises look bad - but actually the muscle pull is the real bitch here. Hurts like hello good morning America.
My original intention of the event (besides fulfilling that urge to simply shoot your friends once in awhile) was to bring people together. To build that bridge. To create that bonding experience where teamwork can be developed out of the office. The way I see it - events like these can beat all those corporate team building exercises by tenfold.
Well, that's just how I think of things lah. :)
Here's a bunch of stuff that I've thought of writing into this blog whilst walking the streets of NZ.
1. Remember to bring you polarizer lense should you be an avid photographer. The skyline here is gorgeous, and failure to bring that particular lense would in an over-exposed pics the while time you're there.
2. Don't feed the Kea (some species of parrot there). They're an endangered species, and they certainly don't need your junk food as their diet.
3. Bring along your windbreaker should you visit Wellington. It's windy almost all of the time. So not only do you have the cold weather to look after, now you have the wind added to the equation as well. It sums up to a pretty chilling experience.
4. If you want to buy an All-Blacks jersey, go buy them at the Auckland Airport. They're much cheaper there.
5. When someone tell you that stuff in Queenstown are expensive, do take it with a grain of salt. I mean i'm not saying that they're wrong - but there's some shops there that have prices better than all of New Zealand (excluding the airport). You really got to walk around to compare the prices.
6. Try DF Souvenir outlets in either Christchurch or Queenstown to get a good bargain on souvenirs. Don't buy at Aotea of Queenstown - as my wife later found out (damn expensive).
7. If you like books - you might wanna have a go at Arty Bees Second Hand Book Shop in Wellington. They're like the best second hand book shop you're ever gonna see in NZ (heck, it's the best i've seen in my life so far). They're not your typical second hand book shop - more like a library when I come to think of it. They've got wide ranges of books to choose from; all sorts of fiction, facts, history, arts, self-help - even dictionaries. Check out http://www.artybees.co.nz/ for more info.
8. For a relaxing visit of NZ, you might wanna stay at Lake Taupo. Basically a crater filled with water, the scenic view of Lake Taupo is simply breathtaking.
9. You can't really compare the prices of things in NZ with its counterpart in Malaysia. They're friggin expensive. Even more so should you decide you want to try out the outdoor activities that they've got to offer. There's bungy jumping, horse riding, sheep shearing, heli ride (for LOTR fans out there), jetboating, kayaking, etc etc. Nice to see, but they're a bit pricey for me. So if you want to experience NZ to the fullest - bring with you a whole lot of moolah.
10. For the ladies, do bring along a container of some sort. This will help you so much when nature does a calling. I even dare say that it's the 2nd most important thing (the 1st being the passport) that you can have with you while your in NZ.
11. If you enjoy having coffees or its variants, NZ is your place. The country has a whole lot of them. Nothing beats having a hot coffee in a cool weather while under the blue blue sky. :)
12. If you ever get the chance to go salmon-tasting at it's farm in Mount Cook, don't miss it. The smoked salmon in particular is awesome!
13. For halal food, you can either get some turkish kebabs or try some indian cuisine. Most of the time the meat used are halal (always ask first).
14. If you intend to stay for quite awhile, stay at room with a kitchen (if possible, get a washing machine + dryer too). And if you're following a tour, make sure at your last stop, you get to stay at a hotel with a washing machine + dryer (because we hate having to think off the stuff we need to wash once we get back home).
15. For the adventurous type - make sure you come with your good walking shoes (and that shoes doesn't have holes on them like Crocs sandals). You got a lot of distance to cover, and the wind might be coming down hard on you (hence the no-holes-in-your-shoes thing).
16. People back home mentioned that I've got a good tan now. For those who aren't going for a tan, bring along your sunblock. (and no, I didn't expect that I would get a tan. It just turned out that way)
I guess that pretty much covers everything. If I remember anything else though, I'll sure be adding back to the list.
...i miss NZ already :)
Today I got to play wedding photographer for my sis-in-law wedding.
Gotta admit, I was having fun out there. Though tiring - it was an interesting experience I must say.
Hence following that, I guess I'll be returning back the D90 that abah lend me. It was good while it lasted. Learned quite a bit on how to use a DSLR, about the type of lenses available etc etc. Might encourage me to get one of my own later too perhaps. But that will have to wait I guess. Wait till I can get other important things sorted out first.
For those who has my facebook, more pics is available there.
Selamat pengantin baru A'tiq n Batul :)
{Updated: 30/6/09} Here the link to some edited pics that I managed to conjure up so far
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| Maryam's Wedding - Part 1 |
And here's the latest addition to our house - the sewing machine.
But this is no ordinary sewing machine I can tell you that.
Pictures are taken with the D90 my other abah lent me. Close-up is made available using the old SLR lense I took the other day from abah. Huhuhu. It's quite a challenge actually to use this old lenses I took. As can be seen, the pictures do seem a bit dark - but nothing I couldn't fix with Photoshop (just hadn't installed it yet).
A couple of weeks left till my lil sis' wedding - and I hadn't chose what to wear yet. Hohoho..
At last, we're finally tied the knot.
Currently we're busy preparing for a lot of stuff. Cleaning the house and all that.
For now though, here are some pics from our photographer Shasmanizam.
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| Perkahwinan Hafidz dan Amatullah |
