An Awayday in a Punt

Quayside at last!

Japanese tourists find us very amusing!

Some friendly swans.

A beautiful bridge on the 'backs'.

Hiring a punt.

I really like my boss.

He's brilliant fun.

So, when we had to decide on a venue for our team awayday, he decided it should be on a punt.

That's one of the joys of working in Cambridge, there's always a punt to hand!

Last year we did the same thing, but we didn't have a chauffeur as Paul punted.

It was a 'man' thing.

He had to show us all how good he was at punting and we had to admire his talent, which we duly did.

And he was good - until he'd had several glasses of Pimms and then his punting skills became decidedly less impressive. However, he did manage to stay in the punt and not end up in the water - and that took some doing.

So this year we had a chauffeur, or should that be a chauffeuse?

She was young, blond and pretty and it was her first day. Paul, being a caring, sharing sort of person took it upon himself to 'help' her.

She was too polite to say 'no' (especially as it was obvious he'd been drinking Pimms - again) and she actually looked quite relieved when he took over.

He did quite well until he had to 'park' the boat at Quayside and that's when everything went squiggly, much to the amusement of all the tourists and other various onlookers.

We were all quite happy as we were drinking Pimms and doing a bit of team bonding, as well as trying (and failing) to have serious discussions about work.

By the time we 'parked' at Quayside, we gave it up as a bad job and concentrated on the serious issue of quaffing cocktails.

Except that I'd already had enough alcohol for the day, being sorely out of practice, and had to settle for an elderflower water.

My head thanked me for it the next day when the hangovers kicked in and everyone came into the office looking a lesser shade of green.

Gently gliding down the river on a punt taking in the views of the beautiful city of Cambridge is definitely not my idea of work.

But I'm glad it's my boss's!