Friday at work

It seems that we are developing a tradition at work:The Friday challenge. Last week it was my team against our manager to name the most tube stations in London. The poor guy didn't stand a chance, 4 people writing as many stations as we could think of against one. It was physically impossible to lose.

We are playing for points on a board. The points system started as idiot points but now it's kinda going towards anything. So the loser got more points. C, my manager is in the top - getting points is bad, but no one seems to have any idea what "the punishment" is. It all comes down to having a competitive spirit. And since its 5 guys and one girl, we are not lacking competitiveness.

And despite me being the only girl, what they don't know is that I've been around boys all my life, moreso than girls and I'm used to all they say and do and surely used to competing in their league. I might not be physically as strong but I can give them a run for their money in all things to do with brains, stubbornness and stupid behaviour.

So yesterday's challenge was to down a table spoon of a chilli sauce and not have anything to drink afterwards for about 15 minutes. But not just any sauce. A sauce made with the Naga Chilli, the worlds hottest chilli in the world until feb 2012, when something even hotter was discovered. The Naga chilli has over 1 million units of hotness on the Scoville scale. Just as an indication, Tabasco pepper has about 30,000. So this shit was bloody hot.

After downing the spoonful of the chilli I experienced sensations I didn't think were possible with a legal substance. You would think the first thing you feel it's your mouth or your stomach, but its in fact your brain. Your nerve endings in your mouth fire emergency signals to your brain almost instantly and you become high, light headed, almost out of your body. I immediately started laughing because the adrenaline rush is fantastic. Your brain just goes mental.

Then comes the mouth burning. Your lips and your tongue are so inflamed and red, your eyes are injected with blood and maybe your nose starts watering. Now 2 of my colleagues that are quite used to eating very hot stuff and love their chillies, started sweating like hell and another one couldn't stop his eyes and nose from drooping.

I wasn't this bad at all, my brain loved the brain rush, the adrenaline and pure hotness. It was awesome. My stomach was burning really bad though, so I wouldn't recommend this to anyone with a stomach ulcer. In fact, I might get a stomach ulcer after this, I am perfectly aware of it.

Then one of the guys hit really sick and started drinking water, which was even worse. I would highly recommend to stay away from water and have milk, if by any chance you find yourself ins similar situation. But my manager had 5 minutes of thinking he has just lost his job since he was the one making us all do this challenge when my colleague collapsed in the bathroom.... He was fine 2 pints of milk later, but still. We were all laughing like crazy, at our manager, C. Who was shitting himself and at our own stupidity really.

My stomach was still hurting 4-5 later, even after eating and downing 1 pint of milk, the second day, today I am completely fine though. I haven't been to the toilet though, so god help me! :)

But my work place is awesome just for the sheer entertainment level.