Every summer, we take a Friday afternoon off to get all our teams together for an afternoon of fun. This year, we visited Leisure Pursuits in East Grinstead followed by a trip to the pub for dinner and drinks.
Only a handful of us knew what the day had in store, and we simply told the rest of the team that it will involve cars and the outdoors. Luckily, the feedback has been fantastic, with many labelling it as the best summer event so far! Leisure Pursuits is an activity centre for all ages and we had three activities to get through. Everyone was split into three teams and sent on their way to each activity.
Activity number one – Blindfold Driving
Yes, you read that right. Blindfold driving. Believe us when we say it’s a lot more difficult than you might imagine! A pair of us jumped into an old Defender, one in the driver’s seat and one in the back. Ahead was a short coned circuit to get around with just two obstacles to get by. One, the driver was wearing a blindfold and two, the other person had to direct the driver without using the words ‘left’ or ‘right’. Some of the sensible ones in the group chose practical replacements words such as lima and Romeo, others choose much ruder versions.
The aim was to get around the course as quickly as possible but every cone that was hit gave you a time penalty. Queue lots of laughter, panic and running away from a Defender coming towards you!
Activity Number Two – Making Bacon
Sadly, this wasn’t a bacon buttie eating competition but it was still great fun. Walking over to the next activity we were greeted by a fabulously pink Robin Reliant, but it was stripped down. The engine here, body there, steering rack, seats and a bucket of bolts scattered around. Now as a garage group, this should have been super easy for us to get through but it wasn’t just a build it as quick as you can job. Each piece needed to go back in a specific order, and we had a round of riddles to get through first to discover the order.
Each part was numbered so once we had solved all the riddles it was a game of getting it together ASAP and racing around the track. Unfortunately for one team, the steering rack was put in the wrong way round so left and right were flipped. Whoops 👀
Activity Number Three – Power Turns
Now, this was definitely the most adrenaline-fuelled activity of the day. This buggy concoction is powered by two separate engines, one with slightly more power than the other just to make things a little trickier. Give too much power and you’ll pop a wheelie. If you don’t get the power balance right between the engines, then you’ll end up in a spin. Believe us when we say it’s really difficult to get the balance just right!
We got a fair few clips of the Power Turns in action, with some of the most entertaining laps being provided by Hannah. She gave it all the welly she could and screamed for the whole 3 laps. We’re working on getting the video uploaded… Just be warned that she is a potty-mouthed northerner so it’s not a video you want to be watching with the kids!
The Summer Team-Building Awards Ceremony
No team-building summer event is complete without an awards ceremony. The overall winner with a completely clean sheet of no time penalities was Simon the manager of our Cranleigh branch. This was no surprise as Simon seems to win every competition we do together. The next prize was for the less talented in the group and went to Del our driver at Gatwick. Del’s unusual take on the courses impressed the guides so much that he won the booby prize.
After all this excitement it was time to relax with a trip to a local pub for food and drinks in the summer sun. We say relax, but things quickly got messy as two team members were going on their stag and hen do’s the next day. Queue lots of sambuca shots and a never-ending supply of drinks to the table!