Wednesday 13 May 2009

Q is for...

Quad

I've been organising the staff outings for a few years now and a couple of years ago I asked my colleagues what they would like to do instead of me thinking of something. One of my colleagues would like to do some driving (as if we don't do enough of it during our day-jobs!). Anyway, I looked for and found a venue where we could drive a jeep across some awful terrain, had a ultra-short anti-skid training and where we could go quad-biking. We split up into three groups and each group would do one of the three things for about 20 minutes.

The skidding was fantastic: I was in a car with two other women and we had the best time! The jeep was great as well: going up a near vertical slope (or so it seemed), going down another very muddy slope and again having the best time. And then the quad-biking.

I felt that using the brakes on that quad was for sissies, weaklings and idiots. However, after not being able to take a turn properly because I had too much speed, I realised not using the brakes on the quad was for the most stupid of idiots, ie me! The turn I hadn't been able to take properly because of high speed had proven to me that brakes are there to be used. If not, you loose control of the vehicle, drive into the tyres and fall off. Which I did!

That evening as we were having dinner at the local Chinese restaurant, I could hardly use my arm, my right thigh had a bruise the size of a dinnerplate and my back was killing me! It taught me a valuable lesson: don't be pigheaded, just listen to the teachers!

For more Q words, please check out: ABC Wednesday

16 comments:

  1. Mara, what a fun Q post...sounds like it was a great time.. definitely different driving than the day job!

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  2. Oh, this looks so fun! I know that four wheeling is always a fun time filled with lots of laughter and much happiness : ).

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  3. What fun! Except for the injuries!

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  4. I hope that your bruises disappear quicky! Brake man Brakkkke! :) Great post!

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  5. There is time that we need to slow down a little bit. It must be a great fun.

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  6. Jeeps are amazing. We took a tour in Arizona on one and did go up slopes that seemed almost vertical.

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  7. I quite fancy quad biking. One of my students raves about it. May try and go one day.

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  8. Sounds like quite the experience! Glad it was just a bruise and not something more serious!

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  9. Quadding! I never would have thought about it. Thanks for the description. It sounds like you all had a lot of fun (and will feel better when the bruises heal)!

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  10. thanks for sharing, hope the pain's gone now. :)

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  11. Oh no! I'm glad you weren't seriously hurt.. I guess that's why the tires are there ;P

    I have never heard it called quad biking before - here we usually call it four-wheeling. This sounds like such a fun day!

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  12. Ha! Yes, sounds like a lot of fun, except the accident!

    I never realised how dangerous quad bikes were until Rik Mayall nearly killed himself on one and it was all over the papers here. It landed upside down on him, apparently, and he lost consciousness. It was only because someone went looking for him that he got treatment in time and survived.

    I'm glad all you had was a sore arm and leg!

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  13. Mara, you are so adventurous! The brakes would be the first thing I would check out:) I hope you are okay. Enjoy your days in sunny France!

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  14. awesome pic:)

    if anyone wants to join these two blogs, feel free to do(a color meme and a sunday meme) Fargefull hverdag og søndagsutfordringen

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Any weighty (and not so weighty) comments are welcome!