Yesterday, my company held a day long event for all staff.  Being the cynical fucker that I am, I have to admit that when I heard the detailed plans for the day, I wasn’t expecting too much.  I was wrong, as is often the case.

Also, I was told that it was a tradition in the company that all of the managers contribute cash for prizes.  This is the first time I’ve ever encountered anything like this.  ”What happened to going around to local businesses and hotels and getting them to contribute prizes and coupons?”  Apparently they’d never heard of this but at my last company (admittedly much larger and more famous), they’d get dinner coupons from hotel restaurants and places like Fortress and Broadway would kick in mobile phones, cameras, video game consoles.  The company did buy two iPads to give away as prizes, everything else was cash awarded to teams for winning various events.

The day started with laser tag and other games.  The other games were necessary because there was 110 of us and the place we went to could only accommodate about 50 or 60 players at a time.  X-Game Square (the link is to their Facebook page) is located in an old rundown factory building in the industrial section of Kwun Tong.   I was driving since it made little sense for me to drive to company bus pick-up points around HK island or Kowloon, and my first laugh of the day was when I found that the closest carpark was a Wilson carpark located in a building named Candy Novelty House.  Who wouldn’t feel happy in the morning going to work knowing they’re going to the Candy Novelty House?

The huge space for the game was kind of cute – they laid it out like a city but on a very low budget.  There were signs for familiar businesses slightly modified – a “7″ shop stocked with dozens of empty plastic bottles, a “McDonnas,” various food stands, some movie posters, a Shelf petrol station, and so on.  It was cute.  I really didn’t expect to get into the whole laser tag thing, running, jumping, crouching.  But people told me that once I put on the gear – helmet, vest, plastic shotgun – I became a different person, charging into rooms and blasting away.  Well, sure, I couldn’t really get hurt or killed and once you got “killed” you could be “revived” by the “doctor” pointing a remote control at your sensors.

In the afternoon, we went up to the Sai Kung Country Park area to the Po Leung Kuk Holiday Camp.  I never knew about this place – they have a huge variety of sports and recreation facilities as well as bungalows and hostels available for over night stays.  Very good for groups or families.  The place has an interesting history.

In the late 19th Century, abduction and trafficking of women and children were serious crimes in Hong Kong. On 8th November, 1878, a group of local Chinese presented a petition to the Governor, Sir John Pope Hennessy, K.C.M.G., to set up Po Leung Kuk to rescue the kidnapped victims. The “Society for the Protection of Women and Children” was approved by the Hong Kong Governor in May, 1880, but as the petition was submitted on 8th November, 1878, that date was adopted as our founding date.

We were there, apparently, because we could rent  a large air conditioned room cheap.  We had video game competitions  (my suggestion, actually, since we are primarily a video game company) and some presentations.  They broke out the beer and wine around 3 PM.

We cleared out of there at 6 PM for dinner at Chuen Kee in Sai Kung.  Again, since I was driving, I got there way before the buses did.  So I’m sitting there outside the restaurant and I notice these two women posing for photos.  One is blonde, pretty, almost completely flat-chested and wearing a black dress open in front almost to her navel.  The other was even prettier, dark complexion, green bikini top and long white skirt, very very fit.  They’re attracting a fair bit of attention, asking passers-by to take their pictures with their iPhones.  And then one of them walks over to me, the one in the green bikini top.  ”Excuse me,” she says (British accent), “you probably weren’t looking but I’m wondering if you’ve seen where the people we were here with went?”  ”Oh, I was looking,” I replied, “but I only just got here.”  ”You’re sweet,” she said, running her hand up and down my arm, making my arm hairs tingle, before she smiled and walked away.   Her friends showed up and so did the company buses.

(Okay, maybe the above is a trivial aside, but my gf has been in the Philippines for two weeks visiting her family and doesn’t get back here till Monday, so it was nice.)  Anyway, it was a beautiful day in Sai Kung yesterday.

Some quick shots of the seafood on display.  I’ll take all of these, please.

I was told these are called bear crabs, because of their resemblance to a bear paw.  I don’t recall ever seeing these before, wonder how they taste?

Okay, this is just weird, these things are stuck into plastic drink bottles when they’re tiny and then grow in the bottles.  I assume there’s some point to this.

Given my company’s budget issues, I wasn’t expecting anywhere near as nice a dinner as we had.  Some people were joking that maybe all we could get would be roast chicken, fried rice and a sea view.  But it was a nice Sai Kung seafood banquet menu – steamed prawns, scallops with garlic and glass noodles, lobster in cheese sauce with more noodles (I know, I know, but local people seem to go for that cheese sauce), a really nicely done steamed garoupa, roast chicken, fried squid … actually I lost track because I was pretty full by the time we polished off the garoupa and stopped paying attention, going around the room and taking table photos.   Our CEO brought along several cases of wine and of course there was a lot of beer and several drinking games along with some final presentations and awards.

By 9 PM, everyone was exhausted and most people were drunk – sadly not me since I had the car.  I was expecting to do my drinking back home – I’d invited several people to come up after the dinner but by then, everyone was just beat, myself included, and I was glad when we decided to postpone for another time.

Anyway, as I said, the day was much much better than I’d expected and you might want to check out X-Game Square or Po Leung Kok.