It’s the morning after (alright, to be honest it’s almost evening but since I only just managed to roll myself out of bed, to me it’s morning!) our Christmas dinner and…we survived!

I promised to write a recap of the festivities for the website and I will try my utmost to recall everything that happened, but I must confess that some of the details of the sequence of events are kind of sketchy after 11:30 pm!

It all started with the final preparations for the big event. I was up and jumping at 8 am and together with Jerry, Norman and Michael we finished putting everything in place.

By 5:00 pm we were all set and ready to go!

 

The invitation was for 6:30 pm at Rif Fort and as is usual for us yu di Korsow we made it just in the nick of time only to find all of our Dutch members already there! Lesson number 1 for next time: Set the time half an hour earlier for all our yu-Korsow members (especially the board!). We were a little worried about the weather since it had been pouring buckets the entire week, but thankfully the weather seemed to be holding up nicely except for a few drops early on in the evening.

 

We had our meet and greet at the entrance to Rif Fort and as the guests started arriving they were escorted up to the fourth floor at Kasbanini for a glass of wine and a snack. It was nice to see our members all dressed up for a change instead of wearing those horrible bike pants! (Although some of the guys do look pretty good in those pants…but we’ll leave it at that!)

 

Just like last year, we didn’t divulge the plans for the evening so nobody had a clue of what was to come. Once everyone had arrived and had enjoyed their wine, Michael, our vice-president, gave the opening speech as our president Germaine had been delayed. The guests were all requested to go back downstairs to the Rif Fort entrance to continue on to the next stop and they were also informed that they did not need to take their car. To everyone’s delight there was a trolley waiting for them outside and so began a tour through “e OTRO- banda”, the theme of the evening. At Kura Hulanda we had to exit the trolley for a walk through the hotel. The trolley picked us back up at the other side and the tour of the city continued.

Our next stop was Netto Bar, famous not only for being one of the oldest bars in Curacao that had been honored with visits from the Queen herself as well as Price Willem Alexander but more importantly for being the first stop during our yearly end-of-the-year bar-hopping events! All guests received a sample of the famous “Netto bar-Rum” (to be used only in emergencies!). After enjoying a few more drinks we all hopped back on the trolley (some of us were literally hopping by that time!) for our next and final stop at Hotel Otrobanda.

 

The dinner set up was on the pool deck at the back of the hotel’s restaurant with a picture perfect view of the harbor. Once everyone was seated Germaine welcomed everyone once more. It was a buffet dinner and from the looks of the plates the food was pretty darn good! I can tell you from my recollection that the food was pretty darn good! After dinner Germaine announced the most improved racer of the year. The nominees were: Adje, Walter, Woutertje and Boeli and Walter came out the winner. Then she announced the female Sorsaka Biker of the year. Lies de Baere got the honors, not only for her performance as a biker but for her overall positive attitude towards the group. She’s only been with us a year but already she’s managed to become one of us, as put in her own words: “ta yu’i Korsow mi ta!”

The male Sorsaka Biker of the year award went to Cheng (Lucien) and was announced by Norman. It was an emotional moment and I think everyone agreed that Cheng more then deserved the prize as he was the one who carried Sorsaka through its most difficult times. The highlight of the evening was a phone-call from Jonathon all the way from Holland. He wished us all happy holidays and promised us that he would promote the Sorsaka name in Holland. He told us to keep an eye out in the press as his name was sure to appear in biking competitions!

After all the speeches and prizes the board was pleasantly surprised by Annette who sang the Sorsaka theme song “Dushi mi ta stimabo hopi” in our honor…Thanks again Annette, I think I can speak for the entire board when I say that we really appreciated it and it touched us all to the core. And just like you so eloquently put it…den 2008 bo tinku kiessssszzzs!

The evening was closed of with an invitation to have a drink at Valentino’s where I must admit is where everything gets a little fuzzy! I know for sure we had a great time and we are extremely grateful to Nader who not only welcomed us with open arms but also gave us all the drinks on the house! Thank you Nader for a wonderful evening!

As a final word I would like to say that I hoped all of you enjoyed the evening as much as we enjoyed organizing it for you. It was wonderful to have you all with us and we look forward to seeing you all back on your bikes in 2008!

 

Happy Holidays Sorsaka Bikers!

Tams

 

More pictures can be seen in the Photo albums.

 

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