04/12/05

Yesterday, I went to a reunion at my university. It was a bit sad really, because one of the reasons it was being held was the course that I took is ending. It's been going for a number of years now, but it was always a bit of an oddity and only available at my university. Loads of people turned up who'd attended over the years, along with the lecturers that had pretty much made it all happen. Managed to meet up with a few people who I've been keeping in touch with via phone / email, but haven't actually met in the flesh for quite a long while now. Ended up having a really good time, which was cool (there's always a chance with these big events that you'll just end up watching everyone else have a good time - or there is with me anyway, 'cause I can be a bit of an antisocial bitch). Was knackered for a lot of it, and must admit to the occasional toddler style 'I'm tiiiiiired' outburst, but it was good fun.

We all did an 'activity' in the afternoon - to make a Christmas character travel from one end of the room to the other without human propulsion (yeah, we're engineers. We use words like 'propulsion' when we're having fun). I have to say that ours was great! We had Rudolph the Bearded Reindeer (why bearded? People who know about my uni. course should be able to work that one out) going on a little cart, which moved by wrapping one of those spring loaded tape measures round the axle and so it turned the wheels when the tape pulled in - idea provided by the most excellent Gerard. Okay, so it wasn't the fastest, and there was the obligatory heart-stopping moment at the start line when we let go of it and it didn't go. But then it did - and it got all the way across the room! And it was made of paper cups, paper plates, sticky tape and candles! (Seriously. It had tea-lights for wheels). And we won by clap-o-meter. And because ours was clearly the best.
Oh, and to prove that engineers breed engineers, Gerard got freaked out by a very serious four-year old who asked 'Is it a friction drive?'.