12:15 AM, Qantab Beach

It was 15 mins past twelve in the night…and standing on the Qantab beach...I was waiting for the waves to splash my feet… All I could hear was… the noise of the waves hitting the beach...
Well it was a farewell dinner party which started at 9 PM and finally got extended to an ice-cream party on the Qantab beach…!! which is a rough 10-15 min drive from Ruwi...


For one of my colleagues in the team, It was time to pack the bags to get back home... It was time for a farewell party!!
And after a not so hectic day at office… I went back to my flat, caught up with few of my friends on the net and the phone calls…
When I was almost done, one of my colleagues just reminded that it was time we went to the restaurant to join the whole team!


So all set, we reached the venue 'Hotel Woodlands' in few mins…and the party took off!
Everyone was busy settling down…and the first round of ordering the menu for the dinner started…


The guys were busy ordering drinks for themselves :) and for the first time… I had seen two menus!!!
One for the usual dinner [veg/non-veg] and later on... my eyes caught the second one and that was for the DRINKS!!
So I realized that the waiter had given all the guys both of these menus… and only the usual dinner menu for me! :)

I slowly picked the drinks menu coz I was curious to know what are the varieties and what was everyone's pick from the menu … ;)
And I was all stars… coz I didn't know what the categories were…and had never heard of those names too !!
There was white vine/ whisky/ a whole range of beers…and there were few fruit juices as well… may be these are usually used to mix with the drinks !!


In no time, the drinks were served to everyone…and then started a round of various discussions… :D
I would say, the discussion was more like a very open PRD!!, that’s a Peer Review Discussion :D ….
We all gave and took the feed back from my colleague in the Hot Seat, who was leaving the project…


11 35 PM, we were through with the dinner… and I was just preparing myself to get back to my flat…
Then suddenly my PM gave us a surprise…!! Or rather for me it was a not- so- exciting surprise….!!
He said that we would now drive towards Qantab beach for an ice-cream party …!!!! And I was like… "This guy's calling us for an ice-cream party at Qantab beach and that too at 11 30 PM!!!!"


I turned around to see how everyone felt about this idea…
To my surprise…everyone around was damn too excited and was gearing up for that!!

With half of them around me drunk, I was a little hesitant to take this call…
And I told my colleagues that I would drop out of this, and asked them to drop me at my flat...
But I agreed to join them after they insisted that the place would be safe…and promised me that we would come back in 30 mins!


All the way in the car I was just thinking… about the kind of adventures I was having in Muscat :)… And in no time...there we were!! At the calm and breezy Qantab beach…


We all quickly sat down on the sand and started having the ice cream…the breeze was cool…and the waves were slowly hitting the beach…
And right after that was the photo session :) ….each one of them just too excited for a team snap…few of them tried to strike all kinds of poses :D…


A few mins later, I moved to the beach… to enjoy the pleasure of listening to the waves...coz I had never dreamt of going to a beach in midnight… :)
I started playing with the waves… waiting for them to touch my feet…and moving back when they came close to me.. :)


Very soon, one of them screamed out… "Swetha, it's time... let's get back"… it was 15 mins past twelve :) ….
The day had indeed come to an end now…All of us got back into the 2 cars we came in…and headed back to our flats…


Being the ONLY girl there... I must say it wasn’t a bad idea to go to the beach at midnight…with my colleagues… :)
It was a different and a memorable experience indeed!!