CNY Gathering 2016

Members of SMSI from all over the country came together in Dublin to celebrate Chinese New Year with good fun and good food.

We started the day by going Paintballing in Bray. We took a coach from Dublin to Bray, Wicklow County and a wagon to the paintball arena, which was set in the forest. Despite the drizzle, we changed our outfits and snapped a picture before the pain(t) started.
We played a total of 3 games:
In the first game, the objective was to protect your own flag, while removing the opposing’s team flag. In the first half of the game, the Red Team was winning. But the Blue Team came back strong in the second half and won the game.
In the second game, the mission team was suppose to raise the flag while the defending team was suppose to prevent them from doing so. But the catch is that the mission team has unlimited lives while the defending team only has 1. However, both Red and Blue Teams defended the fort so strongly that within the time allocated, the mission team did not manage to raise the flag and the game ended as a draw.
In the third game, the objective was to get as many of your team members into the designated area within the time limit. Knowing that this was the last game, no thought for the paintballs were spared. Both teams were neck to neck, and with just 2 minutes left, each team had 3 members in the designated area. However, Blue Team members began to enter the designated area, and within those last 2 minutes, 4 Blue members managed to enter.
And so the Blue Team won.

We made our way back to the holding arena, and it was indeed a colourful event, with paint on our face mask, hair, shoes, and the gradient shade of bruises. After cleaning off the paint and changing out, we took the coach back to Dublin to rest before dinner.
As no CNY gathering will be complete without food, we enjoyed an 11-course Chinese dinner in King 7 Asian Cuisine & Karaoke. As the name suggests, this was followed by some karaoke, of course ;)
We had a good variety of dishes such as roast meat platter, steamed fish, sweet and sour pork and more before ending off with bubur cha-cha.
After eating our fill, Cheryl (the out-going President) announced the new SMSI Committee.
We then made our way to the karaoke rooms. It was a relaxing way to end the night by singing.