Christmas spirit at the working place - The 18th of December 2014

I have never really participated in any Christmas event at the working place and the fact that this year I seem to have been not in just one but several goes to say that I am either getting more open to this sort of gatherings or put aside some of the transpiring feelings throughout the year that are in no way in accordance with the so called "Christmas spirit".

I have been the "photographer" on duty and have therefore not eaten much, though I must confess that everything I tasted was rather delicious. There's no doubt some of our colleagues are excellent at "sweetening" our tooth ...

What mostly touched me though was the getting together with former colleagues, who are now retired, whom I miss and above all loved to work with, as well as the gathering of resident, non-resident trainers, trainees, administrative staff, former colleagues and colleagues to be.

 

 

I may be getting old(er) ... but in spite of the overall convivial atmosphere, what surfaced was the feeling that "some time ago" ... (in what feels like such a long time ago) things were very (very) different ... and despite the years I haven't "overcome" that loss yet ...

The exchange of "secret" presents led to some hilarious moments of sudden "inspiring" poetry reading that had us all laugh ... young and old ...

 

Santa Maria island, Azores - The Refresher Courses and the Christmas dinner party - The 9th to the 12th of December 2014

 

The unexpected weather change didn't affect the "spirit" of those in the Refresher courses and by the end of the week we could say that "all is well that ends well" ...

 

By the time the last four tightly scheduled working days were over we could say that we had done what was in our "hands" to be done in the the utmost convivial spirit that is often put behind in this type of training courses, as if it could have a negative impact on the final outcome (this not being the case).

I stayed overnight so as to participate in NAV's Christmas dinner held at the hotel I was staying at and again I was given the chance of being surrounded by former colleagues I hadn't seen for a while, as well as those I meet on a fairly regular basis, but what impressed me most was the welcoming spirit, the happiness and jovial approach to what might have just been a mere dinner otherwise. 

The "after dinner" party started with a tentative approach of having people sing traditional Portuguese songs and despite its shy beginning ended up (by the time I left, which was in no way the end of the party) with a "solid" singing choir which even included "howling" ...