3rd Annual Ladies Fishing Day
Some companies provide their employees with monthly in-office massages or vouchers to a beauty salon as recognition of a job well done but we reckon that’s just a token gesture in comparison to what the Real Estate Central Directors give their lucky staff. We get to go fishing!
Last Friday was the much anticipated 3rd Annual Real Estate Central Ladies Fishing Day. 27 lovely ladies from the Property Management, Admin and Sales teams converged on Corroboree Billabong with their 6 brave skippers to try their luck for a big Barra (or enjoy each other’s company out of the office environment with the aid of a quiet cordial).
This year Big Boss Braden had a stroke of genius by also hiring a “party boat” so that the girls could hop on and off their fishing vessels to take advantage of the amenities and avail themselves of the BBQ and drinks (many a lady was heard to exclaim that this was “bliss” and just made their time away from the everyday stresses of kids, partners and home life even better). Next year though a 7.30am pick up instead of the pre-dawn 5.30am pick up would be appreciated.
Our office skippers gave up their day so that the girls would have an amazing outing: Braden Menzies, Michael Van der Graaf, Roxley Pearce, Keith Huddleston, Andrew Lamberton and Stuart Peace provided the goods with well-equipped boats complete with pre-rigged fishing rods adorned with attractive lures (some girls felt that getting to see the wide array of lures was almost as good as shopping for shoes and handbags….there was even some sparkly ones).
And so by the rays of the rising sun across the billabong the first crews left the boat ramp hell bent on landing some fish and first bragging rights. Alas perhaps the incessant chatter scared away the fish as only a few were landed the whole day.
Office newcomer Belinda Tonkin (known to all and sundry as BT and all the way from Alice Springs to add insult to injury) landed a Barra under the experienced tutelage of the “Fish Whisperer” Braden Menzies. Her crew mate & another newcomer (all the way from Queensland) Neysa Flanagan caught a Barra just a touch smaller than BT’s and there was also some Tarpon caught by a few of the girls – Kerry, Anne (breaking her NT fishing drought), Corinne and Sue.
Another newcomer to the office, saleswoman extraordinaire Melanie Samsonenko kept her skipper Stuart busy with her enthusiastic casting into the trees but Stuart happily unsnagged her line whenever possible and brushed off her frequent and heartfelt apologies. Melanie was buoyed by the fact that she lost a couple of Tarpon as it proved the fish were there and willing to bite. Then despondency set in when the local population of “Shags” kept catching fish right in front of her. Your writer was amazed to see a couple of birds of prey swoop down and attempt to snatch the Shags’ breakfast right out of their mouths.
On Roxley’s vessel the lovely Sarah landed a dirty Catfish with a Real Estate Central lure – she definitely deserves a prize for that effort at our next monthly meeting.
On Keith’s boat, one petite Property Manager managed to catch the admiring glances of a boatload of blokes when she was caught out using a bucket so that she didn’t have to return to the Mother Ship to avail herself of the onboard facilities. Alas – Keith’s boat came up short in the fish department.
Lambo (aka Andrew Lamberton) was such a skilled skipper that he lulled crew member Fatima to sleep but she was rudely awakened by a Saratoga jumping on her line (much to the disgust of her fellow fisherwomen who caught naught).
On the Mother Ship the party was definitely in full swing for most of the day with a portable pool onboard to cool down all those “hot” Real Estate Central bodies (this is where Sascha spent most of her day), some good tunes, great fishing food including some Barra fillets cooked up by Braden and a respectable number of cordials consumed by one and all.
We were off the water and heading home by about 3pm (with just a pit stop at the Corroboree Tavern – much to the delight of all the locals).
What a fantastic day – your writer is already looking forward to next year’s outing.
