27 November 2011
Gryy Cup Party
27/11/11 13:49
Friday they held the company Christmas party. How great is this? I’m with the company for barely two weeks and they have a party. The event was at the Nanaimo Golf Club so the Office Manager suggested it be full formal. To say that this suggestion landed with a thud would be an understatement. The company is full of geeky engineers, machinists, and a few students, none of whom are much into dressing up. I tried to be supportive and told her that I could wear my dress black tennis shoes but that didn’t seem to help.
The food was great. They had speeches and awards for various people. Five year and ten year with the company and such. They also gave out “The Golden Track” which is the companies Employee of the Year award. We were very impressed with this actually because the winner wasn’t one of the engineers or someone from sales or management. They gave the award to one of the accountants. Not even the head of accounting either. They gave it to the person that handles payroll and accounts payable for “keeping things running smoothly and making sure everyone got paid in time and without any hassles”. Both Marsha and I were very pleasantly surprised by this. It’s too easy in an organization for accountants, business analysts, and other support staff to get overlooked. We were also impressed by how many people have been with the company for five, ten, fifteen or more years. These are all very good signs. I think I’m going to like this company.
Everyone got a door prize too. We all got a numbered ticket. They drew numbers randomly and we went up to choose a box or basket from the table at front. They then had the option of keeping what they picked or to trade (steal) with someone who got something they liked better. It was a fun game but it took a long time. The party wrapped up after 10:00 and we didn’t get to bed until after 11:30.
This is Grey Cup Weekend. Notice it’s Grey Cup not THE Grey Cup. Up here people tend to drop the leading ‘the’ for events. People go to Grey Cup, whereas in the US people go to THE Super Bowl. If they have a traffic accident on the way they go to hospital, not THE hospital. They will recuperate by going to cabin, not to THE cabin. It adds a fun Britishness to conversations.
This afternoon BC Lions will play Winnipeg in the championship game. Normally we’d automatically be cheering for the Lions however we have a bit of a soft spot for Winnipeg. Winnipeg is the town where we officially ‘landed’ when we moved to Canada. We also found out that Bud Grant both played for and coached Winnipeg before becoming the coach for the Minnesota Vikings. We wondered for a while which team we should cheer for. Well, to be honest we wondered for about twelve seconds. Go BC Lions!! it’s gotta be home team
Doug & Marsha
PIX: Geiger Get's Equal Time
Geiger getting ready to pounce on Momiji and just lounging in the sun.
Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving.
The food was great. They had speeches and awards for various people. Five year and ten year with the company and such. They also gave out “The Golden Track” which is the companies Employee of the Year award. We were very impressed with this actually because the winner wasn’t one of the engineers or someone from sales or management. They gave the award to one of the accountants. Not even the head of accounting either. They gave it to the person that handles payroll and accounts payable for “keeping things running smoothly and making sure everyone got paid in time and without any hassles”. Both Marsha and I were very pleasantly surprised by this. It’s too easy in an organization for accountants, business analysts, and other support staff to get overlooked. We were also impressed by how many people have been with the company for five, ten, fifteen or more years. These are all very good signs. I think I’m going to like this company.
Everyone got a door prize too. We all got a numbered ticket. They drew numbers randomly and we went up to choose a box or basket from the table at front. They then had the option of keeping what they picked or to trade (steal) with someone who got something they liked better. It was a fun game but it took a long time. The party wrapped up after 10:00 and we didn’t get to bed until after 11:30.
This is Grey Cup Weekend. Notice it’s Grey Cup not THE Grey Cup. Up here people tend to drop the leading ‘the’ for events. People go to Grey Cup, whereas in the US people go to THE Super Bowl. If they have a traffic accident on the way they go to hospital, not THE hospital. They will recuperate by going to cabin, not to THE cabin. It adds a fun Britishness to conversations.
This afternoon BC Lions will play Winnipeg in the championship game. Normally we’d automatically be cheering for the Lions however we have a bit of a soft spot for Winnipeg. Winnipeg is the town where we officially ‘landed’ when we moved to Canada. We also found out that Bud Grant both played for and coached Winnipeg before becoming the coach for the Minnesota Vikings. We wondered for a while which team we should cheer for. Well, to be honest we wondered for about twelve seconds. Go BC Lions!! it’s gotta be home team
Doug & Marsha
PIX: Geiger Get's Equal Time
Geiger getting ready to pounce on Momiji and just lounging in the sun.
Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving.