May social blog

Emma Goodwin

Meandering May

Hello and welcome back to the monthly social blog! We’ve had a couple of different activities across the regions this month as part of the mental health awareness week as well as other events. Also our first entry to this quarter’s challenge: Laser Tag, Check it out!

Regional Dinners

Earlier in the month we had a couple of dinner meet ups across the pond! In Toronto the team met up for dinner and chats, with guests from KX making an appearance!

And in New York, New York~ Jonny and Steven stopped in to have dinner with the team there. I’ve been informed that the food was good and the conversation was even better!

If America and Canada are across the pond, our closer neighbours across the puddle in London also had a lovely dinner out with the London teams!

Watch the lasers!

Is this our first entry into this quarter’s challenge?! That challenge being laser tag!

While these two London teams battled it out laser style at the end of April, they are still currently at the top of the leader board. Who will next rise up to the challenge to battle it out for the top spot.

Gather your teams and roll out, this is one challenge where the more people make it so much better. The more people, the more ~~targets~~ points….

May Marathon and Walkathon

This month the whole company took part in our annual May Walkathon! Everyone was split into groups and we all kept track of our miles over the course of the month, the goal of this was for everyone in the company to collectively walk across our community – i.e. walking from Vancouver to Singapore. To do this, every individual in the company had an aim to walk 60miles in May!

We had a couple of teams make use of the bonus points for going on walks with other team members. The London team headed out during mental health week to get some bonus steps in, and our runners taking part in the Belfast Marathon at the beginning of the month! Very convenient that the Marathon took place during the month where we were measuring our steps…

The first person to make it to 60 miles almost in the first week was Ryan Cheale, Congratulations!

The results of the May Walkathon will be released next month when all the miles have been totalled…

Mental Health Awareness

Mental Health Awareness Week took place this month and we kicked off our events with celebrating the little things that lifted our mood day to day. The photo thread that ensued were, as expected and welcomed, mostly pictures of pets and animals!

Some other events we had over the week were breakfast of pastries and smoothies Tuesday morning and beautiful sandwiches for lunch in the Belfast office on Wednesday. We also had physical massage therapy scheduled in the Belfast office on the Tuesday which was very welcomed due to the walking challenge that was happening concurrently!

We saw the London team heading out during the week to make some new friends amongst the green of nature and making use of the double points for the walking challenge when walking with team members! Unfortunately we couldn’t count any steps taken by any new friends. 🐑

Thursday saw some people heading out to play padel, a sport similar to tennis but with a shorter racquet which meant whenever I went to smash the ball I whiffed it, the racquet whistling as the ball flew behind me… Even with this it was a fun evening of running around! (And getting double points on the walking challenge 😏)

Thanks for everyone who organised all the events!

The cake is NOT a lie

We had a bake sale this month in aid of the Welcome Organisation who supports people experiencing homelessness across Northern Ireland! Thank you to everyone who baked goods and to the people who donated for the cause as we raised 100 pounds for the Welcome Organisation!

The bake sales in work are always a nice excuse to step away from the desk for a few minutes to have a chat with colleagues with a tasty treat. And as Lucy said, “As always, baking is encouraged but indulging is inevitable” and after the Month of the walking challenge, do we not deserve a sweet treat?