The New Zealand Office Christmas party began with a detailed requirements gathering effort that culminated in the outrageous finding that parents would rather leave their children at home with the baby sitter and come drinking than go to the park on a weekend to celebrate Christmas as shown by the pie chart attached (Stephen Few forgive me).
The night kicked off with a series of table tennis tournaments and with the addition of some new “skilz” from our Australian brethren the competition was fast and furious with our French import proving an excellent addition to Margaret and Stuart’s competitiveness on the table.
Moving on from displays of physical prowess to that of mental skill and agility, the entire team moved on to The Empire Tavern for a hosted trivia night and split into two teams. With team Ping Pong knowing the identity of the Ponderous Puzzle early on for maximum points the night ended up becoming an uphill slog for team Hot Chip Merkins to catch the early leaders. With the Ponderous Puzzle of Neil Armstrong being guessed for almost minimum points late in the night it came down to the last few rounds, only to have victory snatched by 1 point by team Ping Pong.
With the Trivia over and the nibbles long departed, the clamouring for food became almost deafening, the victorious and the conquered went to Monsoon-Poon for a late night Asian fusion banquet. Lashings of fantastic food mixed with fancy drinks named Poon Tang, Ping Pong, Cheeky Asian, Tuk Tuk and Buddha Bing Buddha Boom, sealed the end of a thoroughly enjoyable night.
There were malicious rumours of table tennis being played very late into the night, but come morning there was no evidence to be seen except empty bottles strewn through the office and a single (James sized) footprint hole through the table tennis room wall.
Starship Children’s Hospital
On a more charitable note, this year at the suggestion of Margaret and Liz, we gifted a number of presents to the patients at Starship Children’s Hospital. The gifts were selected by Altis staff members, wrapped and labelled for the appropriate age group of the gift.
These gifts were then taken by Margaret and Sunita up to Starship to be handed over to children admitted during the Christmas period to help ease the pressure of a child’s stay in hospital for both child and family.
Story by Marcel
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