Forever Young

Being so busy at work keeps me from updating this blog on a regular basis, plus being on leave and courses adds to the drama. But all work and no play is just not on, so yesterday afternoon we got treated to our annual Spring party here at work. This year's theme was "Forever Young" (Im sure you could imagine Ferdi's laughter at hearing this). So we were all encouraged to dress up using our wildest imagination.

Normally I shy away from dressing up, later regretting it as I see all the clever ideas people come up with. So this time, my evil partner in crime, Liesel, and I decided to be a little more creative. We spent quite some time getting dressed up at her house while her adorable little kids watched, so we were quite late for the party, though just in time for speeches. After changing our minds several times while getting dressed, we eventually decided on shorts, bright tights underneath (Liesel in pink, me in purple), top, pigtails, ribbons, hairclips and drawn on freckles. We looked like two overgrown kids trying on their mothers' clothes, heheheh. As soon as I get some pics, I will post them here.

As props we used the big lollypops we got at work that morning, and I carried Mumble my penguin that was given to me by Monkey, quite tightly, refusing to let anyone touch him. As we arrived, to our horror we realised that no one else had bothered to dress up!!!! WTF??!!! Normally quite a handful of people go out, but this time, either people were still in their work clothes, or donned in more comfortable shorts, tshirts and slops. Nothing more wacky than that. Well, I quickly turned our horror into something positive - we definitely stood out, and received a lot of compliments for our outfits and making an effort!

After the speeches were over, we got some drinks and mingled, looking at all the fun activities that we could participate in. The organisers definitely went all out for this one! We had trampolines, jumping castles, air robot duelling (this was cool, more on this later!), a tattoo parlour (henna only, duh), a foam party section, karaoke, a cocktail bar, a coffee bar, and much more! I didnt know how I was going to fit in everything in one evening!

We soon ditched the regular drinks and started to sample the yummy inventive cocktails created by "Thirst". We soon made friends with one of the barmen, Daniel, who started us off with a strange but extremely delicious cocktail that contained tequila (quite a bit, I might add), caramel, pineapple juice and ginger ale. Hmmmm hmmmm hmmmm. I think I must have downed several that evening as I came back running for more regularly. It was quite a change from our regular Strawberry Daiquiris and Mojitos.

Next, we were suckered into doing a team karaoke effort. We had 3 mics between 10 of us, and somehow one of them got shoved in front of my face as soon as the rest heard me sing the first few lines of "Summer of 69". Feck, I didnt know I was that good. Or was I THAT bad? lol. It was fun nonetheless, so much fun that we stuck around and helped the next group sing "I will survice" (again, me with mic).

I really wanted to try out some tattoos (since Im seriously considering getting another real one), so I had one done on my left boob (heheh) - a spider with a skull face, and a string of starts on my ankle. The ankle is a winner, methinks. Well, having a tat on my boob is just tacky. I just did it cause I couldnt be outdone by my boss who had one put there as well. Liesel got one on her back and wrist.

So then more cocktails, dancing, eating, chatting, watching Denim perform on stage, and suddenly the evening was flying by. I was eyeing the foam party section, and promised to enter it before I left. But it was so windy and cold, I was already shivering while dry, and got hit by several foam clouds that got fiercely blown by the wind in our direction.

Eventually I managed to persuade one of the guys to challenge me to a duel on the air robot platform, since Liesel refused. The platform was like a round jumping castle, and both fighters were each helped up by two assistants, and kitted out in a blow-up gigantic robot suit and headgear. As soon as I was in (what a mission!), the suit was inflated and then we were both ready to clobber each other. I felt and looked like a Transformer. Just walking to the middle to meet my opponent was quite a task as I tried to maintain my balance and not fall over (now try doing that after a few cocktails!). First try the guy got me good, and landed on top of me. We were hoisted up and then I got him twice (the last time he said he was going to let me fall on him and let me win, haha what a gentleman). So I won, with a little help and was then helped out of the suit and brought back down to earth. I was dizzy for several seconds before I gulped another cocktail. That was so much fun! Wouldnt mind having one of those in my back garden!

Time was running out, and I really wanted to go into the foam. So after a bit of dancing and prodding, Liesel and I went in there, and danced to the beat of the music. It really felt like we were in a washing machine as only our heads were visible. And thats when the shit hit the fan. As Liesel was doing one of her manoeuvres, her ring slipped out and went flying into oblivion, never to be seen again. We tried in vain to look for it, but gave up after a few minutes. We still havent found it. What a pity.

I was now shivering to death, wet from neck to toe, so I begged Ferdi to fetch me. I was in bed by 11, freezing my butt off even though I was dry and covered by my warm duvet. Its a miracle Im not sick today. But in spite of that, this was one of the best parties I have attended in a very long time. Makes me think how much I miss being a kid!!!