Last week, I went to a Christmas party. It was a combo of fun activities, followed by dinner.

The morning showed up with heavy rain and all the people that flew in from different parts of the country for this get together in this new era of remote work, were feeling anxious to have a well-planned day ruined by the rain.

Luckily enough, sun showed up just in time, smiling dazzlingly amongst the clouds with the cheerfulness of a five-year old. We all got ready and went for a bus-ride like school children going for outing. We met with an Australian drummer who got taught Afro-beats from his African teacher. He gave us our very first lesson on drumming.

Not being musical was not a show-stopper for many of us. Our CEO said that apparently his team can pick up anything that they put their mind into.

I think that there must be a genetic bend for us, humans, to tune to a rhythm. Most of us managed to chime along most of the times, except when the teacher was at his heights of challenging us with complex rhythms. More or less, we were doing okay and passers-by did not look annoyed at all.

After drumming and a lunch break, we went for kayaking. I was totally challenging myself to it, as I have never ever sat in a kayak before. With the half-century approaching me fast enough, I was wondering whether I can make it through a two-hours kayaking session.

The other worry about kayaking is that I needed someone to paddle with me – it was a two-seater. I wasn’t bold enough to ask anyone to partner with me. I thought that I’d simply let them down, so I just stood quietly next to a kayak, waiting for someone else to have the misfortune of being left without any other choice, but me.

It happened so, that I was worrying for nothing. I did not let down the person who had to come with me. We even went for a bonus-circle after the actual session was over. Sure, my arms ached like hell after the day was over, but I had lots of fun doing paddling.

At times, we were even going through some obstacles in the foreshore, then we raced a little bit with other enthusiasts, and then finally loitered leisurely in the open water while being cautioned about avoiding paths of ferries and ships by the instructor.

We live in a place where large ships carry coal out of the harbour. A kayak being close to them is nothing, but a call for trouble. When a ferry or ship went past, our instructor asked us to huddle up, hold onto each other’s kayak and paddle backwards. That increased the total mass of the system of kayaks – it was interesting to see how people ingenuously come up with the concepts of safety to beat the chances of getting toppled by the waves.

Then, came the evening. A time for dressing up and partying in a winery! Well, that was very different, let me continue on that in another post.

I was just happy by the end of the day that I was not too old to have a fun, active day in the outdoors.

P.S. Image from unsplash by Time Foster.