Blue Iris Landscapes hosted our first ever team building day on Thursday 22nd of June and it was unforgettably incredible! The day entailed of tree tops, balancing, tears and a super-sized carvery – an unusual concoction, but still nonetheless one that will provide memories for us to laugh about for years to come!
We all met at the office at 8:00 am and we had a group discussion in regards to the company development and how much we have achieved in the last 12 months – a sobering moment for the onsite team who got to witness how much work actually went into producing a quote and CAD! All of the team got involved and discussed what ways we can improve and what areas we are good at; Jason really enjoyed getting to know everyone’s perspectives on the company and it helped us to focus on what needed to be achieved in the following 12 month
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After our team meeting, we then ventured out to Aerial Extreme on the Trentham Estate. We all got there for around quarter to 10 and we had a lovely hike up a hill to get to the cabin – it was a beautiful change compared to the normal computer screens! Once we had all reached the cabin, we met the Aerial Extreme team who buckled up our safety harnesses and made sure that we were correctly outfitted. We then made our way up to the practice course where nerves were heightening. One by one we all got attached to the obstacle course and started off on the balancing pole. “This isn’t so bad!” I thought to myself – that was until I fell on a swing in mid-air, with the only thing keeping me up being one leg clinging on to a platform! None of the team really struggled on the practice course as it wasn’t too high up and we were getting a feel for what we had landed ourselves in for the ACTUAL course…
By the time we had made our way up to the bigger course, we were all out of breath from climbing the massive hill it was situated upon, not to mention cold because we didn’t bring a jumper because we thought it would be too warm (we definitely were wrong). We were then attached to this obstacle course and whilst the onsite teams zoomed ahead, the office team wanted to take it slow and steady so that we didn’t have a high altitude meltdown. But then, much to our dismay, the sickness started. Firstly, Jade was crumbling under the pressure of letting her body dangle down from a harness and jump over nothing but a single bit of rope (which is understandable, wouldn’t you agree?) and after much deliberation between Jade and Becky (our supervisor for the course), an emergency rescue was performed. This led to various jokes being made at Jade’s expense, but all in good nature. Being so consumed in Jade’s situation meant that I was not paying as much attention as I should have been in what I was doing, and therefore caught my leg in the rope pathway and I was stuck. After grimaces from the team, I rose victorious, (jokes on them) due to it being a very comfortable seat for me to sit on. Jason, then being the heroic man he is, ended up rescuing me by helping me up to finish the obstacle. Needless to say, it is now Tuesday 27th of June and my arm is still in pain from the tug of my life!
But my ordeal was far from over, a sudden blanket of sickness overcame my body and I found myself unable to move! I was stood on a wooden pallet raised in the air and all I could think about was how many times I had taken the floor for granted. Becky was more than helpful and then also rescued me taking me down to where I was greeted by my friends Jade and Jess (who by the time it had taken me to get down, had gone to the car and retrieved me my jacket). Needless to say, it was an experience I will not be forgetting for a long time!
We then waited for the rest of the team to finish the course and then made our way to Toby Carvery, we all scrambled for the best seats in the house and waited for Sam Grand to get there (our senior administrator who is on maternity leave). Once she arrived, we all got in the queue to get our food, and courtesy of Jason who paid for all our meals and drinks, we all got a supersized plate. As you can imagine, we were very grateful at this point and were just glad to have made it to the other side of Aerial Extreme alive.
It was undeniably one of the best days I have had in my working life, and everyone has jabbed at Jason to get the next one booked in! We not only learned what the opposite team does day in day out, but also learnt that there is an actual person on the other side of the phone, and even though we may not see each other every day, we all work for the same company and we all have the shared view of wanting to be our best, to provide the best possible result for our clients.
