Pain is not everything

I survived paintball! Bwahahahaha.

Paintball almost didn't happen because I woke up this morning to the sound of rain merrily tip-tapping on the rooftop. But, I'd been looking forward to this day for some time now so rain or no rain, I was going to go a-paintball-ing! Luckily, everyone shared the same sentiment, and we were soon out there sloshing around on the paintball field doing battle.

The idea of joining a paintball session actually took root after I read Narrowband's post the other day. It seemed like great fun, and I was determined that I should experience this at least once in my life, so thanks to Narrowband and his friends for allowing me and my colleagues to join 'em!

Whatever you've heard about paintball, it's all that and more. First of all, I gotta say that the initial shock of being shot is... It HURTS! Then the adrenaline rush kicks in and you forget about the pain in like ten seconds. The tension of wondering when you might get shot at and killed bugs me (a lot!) though. Lawl. Since I am such a newbie at paintball, I don't do kamikaze runs. I don't do attack coz I can barely defend myself. Haha. I don't do more than peep out from the safety of my bunker and try to shoot the head/hand/foot of my opponent that I see sticking out there. (But since my aim is pretty much off-target mostly, I don't think I managed to "kill" even one person in five rounds of play.) But that strategy isn't a guarantee of safety since I nicked my first war wounds of the day in the very first round. Ta-dah!

Someone's killer aim (or lucky shot?) meant that a paintball connected with my right hand, leaving a nice crater-like impression that bled because the skin broke on impact. (So the first aid kit was needed after all.) This here hurt more than any of the other shots I took on my legs and body combined! Although I do have some nice round reddish bruises on my legs as well. Ahahaha. But this isn't as bad as some of the injuries that the guys sustained... but you would expect the requisite injuries to accompany any game of paintball la.

Oh, and I think my colleague made himself famous (or is it infamous? Teeheehee!) with his "super flying leap" that brought down a bunker on top of his unsuspecting girlfriend (who was on the opposing team). Really, really crazy stuff, man! After that he was referred to as Commando by his team leader. LOL.

Photo credit to narrowband

Since I am anony-mouse on this blog... here's a pic of the ladies all masked up for the final game of the day. When the guys bullied persuaded us into playing one more round just to finish up the bullets. They were such gentlemen that they very nicely gave up the option of playing themselves. Yeah right. I think they just wanted to hear us squeal and scream and get some free entertainment gua... J/k. (I *might* post unmasked photos on Facebook... not sure yet.)

But when all is said and done, it's surprisingly addictive. Yup, even with the pain factor and all. I would be game for a second round of paintball and if the chatter just now was anything to go by, my colleagues and I might just pitch to management the idea of paintball as team-building. Now, THAT is gonna be fun to watch. *grin*

Edit: Narrowband has updated his blog about it too... here.