Rostrum Hampshire Retreat

Swapping the manic buzz of Covent Garden for the fresh country air of Hampshire in the next of the Rostrum series of office outings, the team departed last Thursday evening to Winchester to see how Rostrum would survive in the countryside for a day.

Hugo and Holly (keen to get that ‘authentic’ country look) had made sure they packed their tweed coats and wellington boots while Tatty popped to the corner shop to purchase a plentiful supply of ‘refreshments’ to stem any potential dehydration that could ensue on the journey.

Arriving in two groups, Nick chose to take half the team with him and make the trek across Waterloo Bridge, whilst Mark decided to test whether walking or taxi really was faster in London and take the other half of the team- who promptly made a start on the refreshments. Once reunited (the taxi won), Nick used his expertise to weave the team across Waterloo station and the commuter invasion to secure seats for all of us on the carriage to Winchester.

Settled on the train, we resumed our usual office banter, with Hugo profoundly deciding after one conversation that he refused to be stereotyped and as such was “neither man nor woman”. I have to say the biggest revelation however was from the newest member of the team, Tori, who claimed she once swallowed someone’s goldfish alive!

Winchester veteran Nick gave a rather speedy guided tour of Winchester upon arrival before directing the team later in the evening to the Black Rat restaurant. While the team tucked into the culinary delights of eel, pigeon and boudin noir with green tea cheesecake or cheese to follow, Mark and Nick opened the floor to discuss company news. With much wine having been consumed, the evening was rounded off by some hilarious team games of charades and articulate, where Hugo and Tori put in a sorry performance and Holly managed to confuse the fictional 80s TV character She-Ra with the goalkeeper Alan Shearer!

The following day, a rather weary team descended, once again to a pub garden for some ‘team talk’ and wonderful presentations thanks to Holly, Mark, Chris, Hugo and Tori. Topics ranged from the financial world over the past ten years to journalist interactions and networking. Lunch completed a hard morning’s work before the team set off to try their hand at clay pigeon-shooting. Considering that Nick had never attempted clay pigeon shooting before, he ‘shot’ past the rest of the team with a sound score of 21 points. Not to be outshone, Mark and Chris both followed with a respectable 20 points swiftly followed by hunting connoisseur Tatty and the rest of the girls.