Sunday, February 19, 2006

Friday night Bowling

Finding a date that suits most everybody is always difficult. A group of colleagues at work have been trying to arrange an evening out for quite some time now and we could finally agree on a date. Friday, February 17th was set. Not all could make it, but we gathered a nice bunch of 8 people and decided to go bowling and then play a game of pool.

Both OrangeX and I hadn't bowled since 2003 and the time before that must have been something like 1997 (in my case anyway)! So, Doni reserved 2 lanes for that evening and we all met at the Sprisse in Pratteln (about 15 minutes drive from Basel) at 8.30 pm.

Orange and I were the first to arrive, followed by Nelli (our receptionist), then came Eckhard (one of our sales reps for Switzerland and European product trainer) and little after that, Doni and Jasmine from Customer Service, Doug from R&D and Hasan from procurement joined us. We made our way to the bowling lanes and played a few games. It was Doug's first try at bowling. It was difficult to stabilize the wheelchair and keep the energy of movement in the ball until it was released.

Doni ordered a few pizzas to go with the beers. We had a good laugh because of the picts we took. We wanted to catch the different styles -many of which were ummm... unusual. And you don't want to stand in front of people when they throw, so we have quite a few "back views". But we all had lots of fun. The two teams consisted of: Nelli, Eckhard,Hasan & Doni and Jasmine, Doug, OrangeX and myself.

OrangeX and Doni (like the shoes?)



Nelli, Eckhard (sitting), Doni and yours truly


Jasmine and I


After playing two rounds of bowling, we decided to move over to the pool tables and brought back our bowling shoes. After a 20 minute wait, we could go to our assigned tables. Nelli and I decided not to play, but to take photos and support the players. Doug proved to play a mean game of pool although he said he was having a bad day. Doni, who had played with him before confimed that he'd usually clean up the table pretty quickly.


Doug's very concentrated, isn't he?

And Eckhard said he played only once before. Yeah, right.

Difficult shot, Hasan?

Going for the side pocket.

Jasmine also did quite well.


I had had a busy week, the air was quite thick in there and my contact lenses were drying out, so after the second game, we decided to leave. It was short after 11.00 pm and I was sure that, once at home, I'd be wide awake again, but this time, I was wrong. After 10 minutes of TV, I couldn't keep my eyes open anymore and hit the sack.

Getting up on Saturday - even after a good night's sleep - was tough. But although our muscles felt wrecked, we definitely had a good time and will join in next time again.

12 comments:

Unknown said...

Does sound like it was pretty fun. At least work was over so that was a relief, well at least for the next day!

Rob7534 said...

I love Doug's hair!

Pizza, beer, and bowling! What a combo :)

CanadianSwiss said...

Expat- Pitty we were so tired, though. But we had a nice lazy weekend to make up for it. :-)

Rob - I'll let him know. And yes, I like the combination too.

Ms Mac said...

I love bowling, we don't do it nearly often enough! And I love pool too. I'm terrible at it until I've had a couple of drinks and then get quite good at it and then after a couple more, get really, really bad at it again!

Looks like an excellent evening!

CanadianSwiss said...

Hehe- I'm bad at pool and drinks seem to make me get even worse at it! So now, I just cheer and make the payers nervous by taking picts of them :-)

Ginnie Hart said...

What a fun evening together, CS. Donica and I met through bowling on the same team. I still have those fond memories of high-fiving each other as I'd walk off the lane after a spare or strike. Ahhhhh. Memories!

I love pool, too--the perfect shot that works! But we don't do either any more. Sigh. Too much other stuff going on. Think we may need to do something about that! You whetted my appetite :) They say you should always continue doing those things that attracted you to each other in the first place. Hmm.

CanadianSwiss said...

You're right Ginnie. Take an evening off and go bowling/play a game of pool with friends. Just for the fun of it. We'll wait for you to post iton blog ;-)

Ginnie Hart said...

Don't hold your breath yet! Donica just left for Hannover, followed by Amsterdam and then Tokyo--a 3-week trip that I can't take with her this time because I only go when it's just Hannover. When she gets back, we'll both be ready to beat the tar outta the bowling pins somewhere. Actually, they just built a bowling alley here in our little northern suburb of Atlanta. Calling our names....

CanadianSwiss said...

Haha. I'm sure you'll have lot's of fun.

Michael Lehet said...

Sounds like you had a good time....we do the same thing at work for "team building" we've got shirts and everything.

The best part is we do it during the business day so we only have to work 1/2 of the day.

Here's a little VIDEO I made of our last outing at work.

Rob7534 said...

I love that video Michael! I love all your vids!

CanadianSwiss said...

Michael- The basic idea is also team building, but bowling is just a pass time here. It's not as big as in the US. AND the Swiss - well many of them - are money makers: it takes them a lot to spend money on their employees for team building. Like: Do that in your spare time with your own pocket money.

Loved your clip. I think next time, I'll set new rules about how they're allowed to throw. ;-) And we'll make sure to take picts!