Blog From A Broad

i left my back at a company picnic



So I never did see a game of Slap the Rat (or giant Jenga, for that matter) but we did win the tug of war match. It was the most painful experience I've ever had and we are all still feeling it today. We won the first round and collapsed on the ground in agony. Then we were informed that we had to go again for the semi finals. WHAT? Another round, another agonising pull, we won again, and staggered over to the bar get some water. Upon returning, we were informed that we had to go another round. Immediately. Like now. I've never heard 6 people tell an HR person to feck off until that moment. Three more extremely painful rounds later, we were crowned champions. Hurrah. We won nice bottles of wine (not so nice for the one guy on our team who is allergic to alcohol, though) and Paul and I lucked out by winning two bottles for one household. It was a very fun day (except for the searing pain and not realising that three pints of wine beforehand might be a bad idea) and the weather was fabulous. Here's a pic of us in action:







And here's a pic of us with our prizes (the guy on the right with the beard was just picture-crashing; he wasn't on our team):







Many thanks to Matt and his camera (second from left in the black tshirt) for the pics!



The Lake District was, as usual, gorgeous. We could barely move on Saturday, but we managed to hobble around the grounds around my aunt and uncle's timeshare before heading to the fantastic Britannia pub for dinner. On Sunday, we went for a long lovely walk around Rydal water, a very small lake in between Windermere and Grasmere lakes (pictures coming soon). After a long drive home, we stopped at the Brampton Mill pub for dinner, owned by a chain that takes ex-Beefeater's pubs and converts them into more modern restaurants/pubs with fairly interesting menus. The food was very good, but the service was lacking. The English have perfected the art of ignoring you when you enter their places of business, and this pub was no exception. Approximately four staff members completely ignored us as we stood waiting for someone to seat us, and this pretty much set the tone for the rest of the meal. Needless to say, we didn't leave a tip.



Back at work today, still very sore, and a little sunburned. We asked each other why we didn't just drop the rope and let the other team win on Friday, but we're all just too stubborn. We're also just too old and out of shape, but there you go.