Bowled over

Went bowling with the customer tonight. A "team building" exercise. In the end it was a fun evening, with no-one taking it too seriously. Well, apart from me maybe. Not seriously, exactly, but I did have to take my own ball, didn't I? Why did I do that? I didn't really think it through. I could've predicted that the effect of me declaring that I'd brought my own ball would be a bunch of people saying:
Hey, he's got his own ball.
Did you know he had a ball?
He's a ringer.
You must be good then.

...etc, etc, and on and on. I should explain that I was never *really* good at ten-pin bowling. I just used to enjoy it a lot, went regularly (once a week) and was given a ball as a present. It was a boon, at the time. I have reasonably small hands for a bloke so it was often quite hard to find a ball that was the right weight AND had the right span between the holes. The first time I bowled with my own ball was sheer magic. But back then I bowled a 155 average. Now, well, I haven't bowled regularly for over five years.

So the sensible thing would've been to leave the ball at home, and not set any unreasonable expectations. Because not only have I not bowled in over five years, I haven't taken part in *any* form of exercise beyond gentle swimming on holiday for more than double that time. So it was entirely predictable that (a) I'd achieve a pretty lame score (97 on the first game; 115 on the second) but also (b) I'd come in for some stick for having a ball and not knowing how to use it.

Ah well, it was all in good fun. After the game we all trooped next door to Old Orleans and the 42 of us (evenly split between my colleagues on the project and customer staff) were joined by a few latecomers who weren't interested in bowling but definitely *were* interested in food. And more to the point, drink.

Here's where you would have had your first clue that we were an assembly of computer geeks and their managers. One of the latecomers stopped by our group to greet us all. Then, about to make his way to the bar to get himself a drink, he asked if there was a tab behind the bar. "Yes," said a friend of mine, "and I think there's two newlines and a carriage return as well."

The meal was excellent. Even though I'd spent many Sunday afternoons entertaining my daughers at this complex (Centertainment just outside Sheffield city centre) in the years when we had nowhere else to go, we'd never eaten at Old Orleans. It was always Frankie & Benny's for us after bowling, or after a movie. We didn't know what we were missing. The starters were pre-ordered, so we waded through several plates of wings, dips, wedges, ribs, etc and then I tucked in to a sizzling skillet of chilli lime chicken fajitas. Six fajitas in all, and I polished off the lot. Delicious. And served with dozens of sliced chillies with the seeds still in. Tasty! The only minor drawback was having to drive home afterward (something else I would've been able to avoid had I not taken the ball with me) and hence being unable to take full advantage of the free bar. Perhaps a good thing, on reflection!