Socialising

Golf Adventures
Last weekend I went to my new golf club to try out the set of golf clubs I borrowed from Roger and Fran. When I was just about finished I saw this lady on the practice putting area, and I started chatting with her. She was there to play 9 holes with a friend, and they invited me to come along, which was a very good idea indeed! One of them regularly plays with the business women on Sunday, which was the group of ladies I was going to play with the next day (that's why I was practising).

With golf you always end up in the bar afterwards, for a drink and a bite to eat, usually together with the people you just played with. The golf club has a bar downstairs and a big restaurant/bar upstairs with great views over the course. There is a fully equipped kitchen, with chefs, there is bar personnel, and there are waiters! And an extensive lunch and dinner menu too. Yummmmm.

On Sunday I played with the business women, a small group of about 12 ladies who tee off together and have their own competition. The actual day for the women to play and have their competitions is Tuesday, then there is a field of about 70 ladies - obviously those women don't work on that day, or are retired. The ladies were lovely, took care of me during our round of golf, and invited me for their Christmas get-together that same Sunday evening, which was very nice of them.

Planning Day at Work
Then at work on Tuesday we had this 'planning day', a whole day with our division to ''plan the year ahead', but it wasn't really clear to me what that meant. Looking closer at the invite, we were advised to wear comfortable clothes and shoes and bring a hat as the organisers thought it would be much nicer to spend the day with colleagues, do something active, and get to know each other better, than to sit in a meeting room and work. An excellent idea indeed :-)

The day started with a healthy breakfast and a short lecture about the pros of starting your day with a good breakfast (after all I'm working in the Division of Health Sciences), and then it was revealed that we were going to be split up in teams, walk to the Adelaide Zoo and spend the day there scavenger hunting, taking photographs for a 'best picture' contest, and completing heaps of other assignments! The zoo is about 500m away from work, it looks very modern, park-like and leafy, and it was going to be a terrific day with 31 degrees. And it has two giant pandas!

Our team won movie tickets with a contest of creating a zebra from tin foil in 10 minutes, and a yummy chocolate panda bear from Haighs Chocolates with the scavenger hunt. There were actually some really good prizes, and the team that won the overall prize for their assignments got a voucher for one day off plus a $50 voucher. The team that came second received four hours off work and a $25 voucher. Quite neat!

More Golf Adventures
On Thursday there is Twilight Golf at the golf club, meaning a 9 hole competition, where you can tee off between 4 and 6pm with a meal afterwards. We found out that it is quite a race to get away from work early, to get home, get changed, and be there before 6pm ready to tee off! Age dropped me off and he went straight to tennis, and I was just in time to play my 9 holes with two blokes who were about the last ones to tee off (teeing off after 6pm means that it gets too dark to be able to finish - even in mid summer it gets dark here around 8.30pm).

Xmas Drinks @ Work
Then on Friday we had the Christmas drinks at Age's work, to celebrate the year that was and all that has happened with the company: a new office, new employees, new clients, a new name. It was a very nice evening with a group of about 15-20 people.

Even More Golf Adventures
Yesterday I played golf again, really early, at 8.17am. You think you're the only one getting up and so, but no, you can start at 6.30am if you like! The course was packed, as Saturday is a popular day. Usually there are then 250 men in the field and about 2 or 3 women. I played with two men, again, they took care of me during my round, even raked the bunkers for me :-)) And I got into heaps of bunkers, as I don't know my borrowed golf clubs that well - what distances I shoot with them, so there was a lot of raking to do. Afterwards we had lunch in the restaurant, and they invited me for next week :-)

That morning when I looked out of the bedroom window I thought it looked rather cloudy, a bit foggy even. Well, when I drove to the golf course, which is further up in the hills, I couldn't see a thing! It was seriously foggy! The fog made our round rather interesting, as you didn't see the group in front of you, the group behind you couldn't see us, and we couldn't see where our balls were going. There was a lot of yelling going on between groups: 'anybody on the green??', 'are you past that bunker yet?', I can't find my ball, I'm coming back!'. It was really funny! One of the men I played with lost 4 balls on the first 9 holes - then the fog cleared and it became all sunny.

Out for Dinner
In the evening Age and I went out for dinner with Roger and Fran (from the golf clubs - we met them through Lois and Richard) and another couple,good friends of them. We went into town to this organic pizza place, a nice looking eatery, and very busy. I should say: very very busy. And therefore incredibly loud! The acoustics were terrible! That was quite a shame, as we couldn't hear ourselves and our conversations were going nowhere. We finished our pizzas quite quickly and decided to have our coffees somewhere else, which was a very good idea.

Looking Forward
There's only two weeks left before Christmas, and that is very noticeable; people are in a festive mood! The students at Uni left two weeks ago for their summer break, staff is busy marking work and there is a lot of 'holiday' talk. We'll be in the Barossa Valley with Christmas, followed by a trip to Perth to see Marc and Marian :-)