Team bonding

Today we had our first Singapore team bonding session (other than the standard welcome lunches that we have for people as they join the team).  We started off trying to pack all of our Friday responsibilities into the first few hours of the day, which was understandably interesting, before having a five hour training session on everything and nothing all at the same time.

            None of us really learnt anything much (the training didn’t really introduce anything new at all) but it was supposed to be more of a bonding thing than anything else, so we played the game and joined in as much as possible, counting down the hours until 3:30 when we left the office for an afternoon of fun!

            Since moving to Singapore I have been checking GroupOn every single morning to see what fun and exciting things we might need to sign up for (at half the normal price). So far there have been golf lessons, lunches and even holidays, so when I stumbled across something called “Art Jamming” early one morning, I knew it was something that I was going to have to check out in more detail.

What I didn’t realise is that half the team would also want to play, and that it would end up being our first quarterly team outing. If I had known that was going to happen, I would have picked a session doing something that I am at least a little bit talented at. Art has never really been my strong point, as our Friday afternoon proved.

The Art Jam sessions are held in bars, cafes and restaurants around Singapore, when they set up easels, provide you with a canvas, paint and new paintbrushes, and set you free for three hours of play time.

            The six of us each took a turn trying to create something that looked a bit like the images we had in our heads, with some of the team doing a lot better than others.

            I’m just glad there was wine while we were painting, and pizza to follow. The only thing that could dull the pain of just how bad I am at art is wine and carbs. It also helped that mine was definitely not the very worst attempt!) 

What makes it worse is that the picture that I really would have thrown straight into the bin the following morning is now on the wall in our flat. As if it wasn’t bad enough that everyone at work saw my childish attempts at creativity, now every guest to our flat is going to witness it too. Bad, really bad!