Note: I meant this to be a picture post but all the pictures are at work so I’ll add them in later. Sorry.
I’ve been meaning to write this entry for a while now but something has always come up that’s stopped me from doing it. One of the main things is I still find it very difficult to sit at my computer at home without craving a cigarette. So I rarely stay on the computer for more then 15-30 minutes before signing off for the night. After then the craving for a smoke makes me very twitchy and annoying so I just remove the temptation. I’m feeling strong at the moment, however, so I think I’ll finally finish this entry about our weekend in Montreal.
First I should explain that this trip to Montreal was a company paid trip for employees and spouses/partners as a thank you for all the hard work we do. They paid for our transportation, hotel, and most of our meals. Not too shabby. The theme of the weekend was based on The Amazing Race. You know where you are given clues, run to the next destination etc. Ok now you have the background.
It started off on Thursday when we had to meet everyone at Union Station around 5:00 as we were taking the train to Montreal. Once we all boarded the train we had the task of naming our team and coming up with a team song. Yes roll your eyes if you will, it is cheesy but it was fun. The team name had to be based on our company’s core values. One of our values is Passion, so we became the Passion Pirates. Gary actually came up with the name even whipped up a coll logo on the train. What a talented beau I have. We also made pirate hats because we had to perform our chant. I came up with the tune for the song but we all worked on the words…not sure if many of you know it but it’s an old camp song that I used to sing. Hell I even recorded it so you could actually here it, but before you do, you need to here about the rest of the trip.
Once we got into Montreal we all went out for dinner at The Keg. It was late and we were tired so it was an early night. Friday we went to Mount Tremblant (I think) to the Sugar Shack. Here we participated in lumber jack/team building type exercises. We did Popsicle stick puzzles, broom ball, build a tower, snowshoes relay races and even got to use a saw on some tree logs. Of course I ended up getting bit by some massive insect that caused my neck to bleed and swell up like I had an additional head. But other then that it was fun.
Now during all this teams are wining points. Points for trivia questions, songs, team names, challenges we win etc. By the end of Friday our team is in third place out of sixth. Not bad, but we wanted to win. One of the owners was on my team, and there is a reason why he has a very successful company at the age of 32 (the other owner just turned 30 this year). He is a competitive guy by nature and there is a little bit of a fun rivalry between him and the other partner so we had the pressure on us.
That evening, because it was still raining (it rained the entire time we were there) we decided to have dinner out at a fabulous steak house in Old Montreal, walking distance from our hotel. It was also Kerri’s 30th birthday and while we would have loved to have had a quiet dinner with just her and Jamie, it turned out to be an affair of about 25 of us. Either way the steak was amazing, and I got to have creme brulee! Woho! Really, how can that be bad?
We trudged back to the hotel to collapse into bed rather early because we had a busy Saturday ahead of us. Saturday was the actual Amazing Race portion of the team building exercises. We had 13 clues, 2 hours and a tonne of Montreal to cover. A bit later I think I’m going to make a post about the actual clues and the pictures we had to take at each checkpoint. All six team started off at the same spot but around clue #3 we broke away from the pack and began to make our move. In between clues you had to do silly things like walk backwards to the next destination or show your team unity and walk as one etc. There were “undercover agents” that were watching us and granting us points based on if we did these things or not. We also had to do challenges (or roadblocks) at certain checkpoints that we completed.
After much running, some bickering, a lot of delegating and quite a bit of team work the Passion Pirates came in first. Oh yeah baby!! Our team won! I was so proud. I realized that I’m actually quite a competitive person and I also like to take a lead. This can be very difficult when most of your teammates are alpha personality types which is why we ended up delegating. Overall it was a great experience.
After the race we went and did a Jet boating ride in the Lachine Rapids. The whole idea was pretty fun and if it wasn’t for the fact that we were soaking wet from running in the rain all morning and it was still raining. Maybe if they had not made us put on two wet stinky wool sweaters plus all the rain gear and weird boot things on bare feet I would have enjoyed it more. Instead I felt sea sick, pummelled by cold, very forceful rapids that kept knocking the wind out of me. My contact rolled behind my eyeball because the blast of water to my face when I wasn’t expecting it with my eyes open. Overall I didn’t like it. I would only dream of trying it again if it was a scorching hot day and there wasn’t sleet that sliced my face as the jet boat went 60 mph on the way back.
Gary, on the other hand loved it and whenever I looked over at him he was grinning like a fool. I love that man.
Saturday night, we were tired but we had even more activities planned. The winners were announced during drinks at the hotel then we all headed over to a fabulous dinner and ended the night with a club on Crescent Street. Drinks and dinner were fabulous and maybe I’m old, but I didn’t like the crappy dance music they played. I was tired and I really just wanted to go home. So we ended up leaving around 1:00.
The train ride back to Toronto on Sunday was quiet and when I returned I got to see my sister, her friend and my puppy that I missed quite a bit while I was away.
Overall the trip was a lot of fun. I got to know people I normally wouldn’t have during regular business hours and the spouses. I’m a very lucky person to really love the company that I work for and truly respect the people that I work with.
The only shitty thing is that I now have a nasty cold from all the running around in the rain and jet boating. My throat is on fire. Oh well, small price to pay for the weekend.
And now for those of you that were waiting for my rendition of the Passion Pirates theme song. A few caveats about this song. I don’t have a microphone other then the one on my webcam so I had to sing it very soft or it made my eardrums bleed. Second, I can’t sing. Third, it changed after we won the Underground Challenge (the Amazing race portion of the trip.) Please note that we had to incorporate our core values, and we managed to cover everyone on in our song. We rock.
Passion Pirates Theme Song. Sung by me!
