Monday, August 25, 2008

Stampin' Up! Incentive Trip Day 1

I'm back!!
I was lucky enough to be one of the 25 Aussie and Kiwi Demonstrators who earned Stampin' Up!'s Incentive Trip this year. It was an all-expenses paid holiday for two to Palm Cove (north of Cairns). I arrived home late yesterday, and I'm still on a high.
It was lovely to wander around in shorts and t-shirts and defrost my frozen limbs!
I know there are a few of you out there dying to know all about the trip, so I'll be spending the next couple of days filling you in!
Day 1 Wednesday
We packed the kids off to my Mum's on Tuesday night, and the dog off to a good friend and downline, Robyn (Thanks Rob!!), so we could leave for the airport at 7am. The airport was quite a gathering place, as all the flights from New Zealand, Adelaide, Melbourne and the US all met there to go on the one flight to Cairns. Shelli and Stirling were on our flight, as were Aaron and Karen, the Australian Manager and his wife. We were all sooo excited. It was great to see so many people that I hadn't seen since Convention. We were all seated towards the back of the plane, and there was lots of excited chatter all the way. We were met at Cairns airport and had a friendly coach trip up to Cairns, with a few local attractions pointed out along the way. We were met at the Resort with a cool towel and a glass of iced tea, and then shown to our rooms. The rooms were HUGE! Large lounges, full kitchens, 2 bathrooms, a bedroom with another lounge in it, and a balcony. The balconies were very "Melrose Place", all overlooking a central pool area. We could all hang over our balconies and chat to eachother. All our doors had an "Incentive Trip achiever" plaque on them (magnetised, so you could take it home afterwards). This is what the plaque looked like:

Marelle Taylor Stampin' Up! Australia

In our rooms were our shirts for lawn bowling, our group activity later that night. We were "Brilliant Blue". All the teams were Stampin' Up! colours (of course), and I was relieved not to be Yoyo Yellow, my least-favourite colour!
We spent the next couple of hours settling in, and then a few of us gathered for drinkies in our room before heading to the Group Dinner. Dinner was an elaborate BBQ smorgasbord at the Resort's restaurant...absolutely delicious. We sat and chatted with the lovely Ngaire and her hubby, Donald. After dinner we hopped onto a couple of coaches to the Lawn Bowls. Who knew that the oldies who play this game were having so much fun?? Well, probably not as much fun as we all had! We gathered in our teams, and were given our bowls. Here's me bowling (obviously a natural...NOT!):
Marelle Taylor Stampin' Up! AustraliaOur team was Nicki Tidbold and her hubby Dave, and Naomi Swan and her friend Julia. We came up with a very memorable team chant "we're Brilliant, we're Blue, we're better than you!", won nothing and had a blast! The owner of the bowls club thought our Stampin' Up! team names were quite unusual, and dubbed "Bravo Burgundy" "Bravo Bundy"...hilarious! When we got back to our rooms, there was a gift waiting for us. All our pressies were so gorgeously wrapped, it was a shame to open them! Here's me in my sexy bowling shirt (that has now become a pj top!) holding my gift. That's the back of the big lounge I'm sitting on. Inside was the softest white hoodie you can imagine, with the Palm Cove Stampin' Up! logo on it.
Marelle Taylor Stampin' Up! AustraliaWe watched some Olympics before heading to bed. Asleep by 10:30...now that NEVER happens at home!

7 comments:

  1. Ooh thanks for posting so quickly Marelle. All we folk hanging out to find out about the trip are MOST appreciative. Can't wait to hear the next days! Welcome back.

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  2. Welcome home! Glad you had a wonderful time in a beautiful place- you and Dave deserve it. See you soon. XO

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  3. woohoo can't wait for the next instalment

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  4. Wow Marelle, your so lucky. I'm glad you had a great time. Sounds great, can't wait to here and see more.

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  5. Marelle,

    Looks like you had an awesome time. Good break and well deserved. Talk soon.

    Liam

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  6. Sounds like you had a awesome first day, can't wait to hear about the rest of the trip.

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  7. Hi Marelle, welcome home. Glad you have had such a fun time. I have stayed in that resort and it is gorgeous. Envious of the warm weather ...look forward to hearing about your adventure ...Carolin

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