Paintball

This years Operations offsite was a choice of learning about, drinking and blending your own Merlot, or spending the day playing paintball. It was a tough choice, with many people wanting to do both activities at the same time.

I chose paintball.

The rules were a bit more relaxed than I am used to, caps and coveralls were not provided. Friendly fire does not count. There was no mention of a ban on "blind firing", and there was no "surrender rule". Unlike Australia the guns were referred to as guns, not "markers". Automatic guns were provided to those who wanted to pay a little extra for rental. Basic rental and the paint balls were already paid for.

The fields we played included two capture the flag (one brushy, one fairly clear), two speedball arenas with different forms of cover and a capture the base. The teams were mixed during the day when it became clear that the team consisting of those hired late in the year (July-Dec) were superior to those hired earlier in the year.

The referees are also professional paintball players. During one capture the flag, a ref walked into the opposition base with a borrowed gun and shot all of the defenders. Needless to say after the final whistle we emptied our hoppers at him (I don't think we hit him though).

Afterwards, we all met at and had dinner at a local restaurant. The wine blenders were suprisingly sober, the paintballers were tired and bruised. The wine blenders had been introduced to four varieties of wine and been taught how to blend them. They each came home with a bottle of merlot that they blended.

Whatever beer I drunk at the restaurant seemed to trigger an amazing attack of hayfever, I was sneezing all the way home.