Whilst I’m still barred from blogging regarding my work here at Touchwork, I always enjoy mentioning the few times we get to let down our hair and enjoy ourselves, like last Friday’s first Touchwork team lunch since the sales and marketing division joined, coupled with a clever little team-building session thought up by Rory and Robyn who had been tasked with organizing the whole event.

Having navigated through the morning’s various disasters (things always seem to go wrong on days when you plan not to be in the office!), the team eventually left around 12:00 and made their way through Constantia to the renowned Groot Constantia Wine Estate, where we successfully located our target of the Jonkershuis Constantia Eatery.

We had booked out one of the entertainment/conference rooms in the old classic Cape Dutch style farm buildings, with a huge roaring fire to ensure it remained cosy and four tables arranged in a square so that we could all be seated facing one another. A seating plan had already been drawn up in order to split the divisions and the four at each table then automatically became a team for the upcoming team-build events. As it turned out, I was placed in a team with John (marketing manager), Disha (QA tester) and Theo (sales guy).

After an introductory talk from Rory, the teams leapt straight into battle over 30 Seconds, with two teams featuring Sven and Rudi quickly proving to be the top dogs in that arena, whilst Rory’s troops and our team battled not to be last! The game was interrupted by the arrivals of starters, and I must comment that my beef teriyaki was simply divine! 30 Seconds continued until mains were served, and again the food (I had the steak) was absolutely fabulous, as was the conversation from the now warmed up crowd! :)

Lunch was followed up by the next fun task, this time with Robyn and Rory surprising us all by pulling out the Lego sets and setting us an initial task of building a bridge within a given time limit that needed to be strong enough to hold Robyn’s weighty iPhone without collapsing, but with the added criteria of being the longest and tallest in order to take top honours! This task was loads of fun (I must have been a kid the last time I touched any Lego!) and despite murmurings of foul play due to prior build plans, Rory and Robyn’s team easily walked off with the win.

The second task was even more fun, with the goal being to build the highest Lego tower, which was stable enough to stand upright for a minimum of 10 seconds in front of the office fan which had been hauled along for the ride. After some last minute corporate espionage to get the winning height right, our team actually won the challenge, weighing in with an impressively tall structure which was as solid as a rock in front of the fan!

All this fun was then followed up by dessert, which was pretty funny because there was a lot of dessert swapping going on as guys conveniently forgot what they had pre-ordered during the week, though I was luckily able to secure the chocolate bread pudding which I HAD ordered off the menu, and once again, I have to admit that it was absolutely delicious. Seriously, I can’t say anything bad about their food or service whatsoever! :)

A cheese platter with coffee, combined with the prize giving rounded out the day long event, I won a beautifully plain teal coffee cup in case you were wondering, before everyone finally decided to call it a day and abandon ship. A quick stop to drop Disha off at her house, and then it was the long road back to Gordon’s Bay, with me ready for a nice quite night with Jessie and Chantelle, followed by an early bedtime – because yes, I did have a little bit too much wine and beer in the system, let’s not lie about that! ;)

So thanks once again to Rudi, Rory and Robyn for organizing and hosting such a successful Touchwork outing!