Team Party
26 Jan 2007 — So funny, just the other day was talking to Shihui, who’s trying to visit for her birthday, and she said, “Eh, remember to update your blog.” Haha! Of course I’m very flattered that some of you are such devout readers, but people, I am living on an island you know… An island which takes only 20 minutes to circle on foot! Like, there really isn’t that much to do or talk about. You guys who live on substantial land masses should be the ones blogging so that people like me have something to occupy ourselves with! But okai… I’ll try to come up with something… hey, and speaking of which, it was GREAT to chat to someone from “home”. Thanks for calling Shihui! And I’m sorry I couldn’t get you the rooms. Man… I was SO SURE we had a few in hiding that we could definitely squeeze out, but geez, apparently we are COMPLETELY booked out till March. You know what that means, us staff will be kept on our toes till then. In a way it’s good, time passes a lot quicker.
So what’s been happening here in Rangali? Well, just last Saturday, we had our annual Team Party. Cause as expected, some staff had to work on New Year’s Day and hence couldn’t partake in the celebrations, to make up for that, the company actually organises a separate party at a later date, so that at least everyone gets a turn to par-teh! As it turns out, most of us staff agree this Team Party is waaay more fun than the NYE one anyway, so no big loss to those guys really.
To begin with, this was an all-staff party. Guests, while allowed to attend, aren’t really invited. So on the whole, the atmosphere is a lot more relaxed. And besides, the party is neither on Rangali nor Rangalifinolhu, the two resort islands, so it is a bit of a hassle for them to get there. Yep! As it turns out, Hilton has acquired a third island. And apparently, it is almost entirely reclaimed.
Zafer who’s been here almost 2.5 years says previously it was like a really small plot of land with just a handful of coconut trees, but now it’s actually a sizeable island, it’s also acquired quite a few more palms. We can actually see it from the resort, and honestly, it’s just a 10 minutes dhoni ride away. But still, it was nice to “get away”, if you could call it that.
Oh, and in addition to the non-stop live entertainment by the island band and the Maldivian night dancers, the main ingredient that made this party an overwhelming success must be… you’ve guessed it, free flow of drinks! Yup, I AM talking about alcoholic ones — beers, red wine, white wine, and even that Pol Roger champagne once again.
See, I wasn’t lying!
The “bar”
And for a change, it was management who bartended, serving drinks to the team members. Yukiko and I lent a hand as well since we’re still missing an assistant spa manager. It was good fun! Brought back memories of that time when my laoba and a few of his brothers ran a prawn noodle stall at the Chinatown Chinese New Year pasar malam — the festivity, the crowds, or maybe it was the makeshift stall and the tent. I dunno, anyway I had fun dishing out drinks! And no worries mes parents, I wasn’t dead-drunk by the time I finished my shift. Other than half a glass of bubbly if even that, I was quite satisfied with my peach green tea and Milos — yummers…
Needless to say, ther