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This was our 'Celebration and Assessment Day', for the engineering project that has been chasing after me with nasty sharp things for quite a while and is continuing to haunt me even now.
I set my alarm for 05:15, because I couldn't actually remember my parents setting theirs. So, at 05:15, I was confronted by aliens landing in my bedroom (or a series of weird bleepy noises assailing me, anyway), at the same moment precisely as a parental unit knocked on my door to wake me up! Probably a good thing, however, as bleepy noises wake me up, and people knocking on doors just doesn't do the trick sometimes.
Anyway, we got to school at the requisite horrific hour of 06:00 (these times really oughtn't exist, they don't have any excuse for it), and I joined LaToya in Kara's Mini (one of the souped-up new versions with a centrally-mounted, white-with-flourescant-orange-markings speedometer which we decided was designed for backseat drivers). Soon Miss Gooch arrived, and we put more in the Mini's boot than ought to have been possible and left for Canterbury.
We shot down the roads to Canterbury, doing an *average* of 60mph (it was motorways most of the way), and got there at 07:30, an hour and a half earlier than we should have been! We wandered aimfully but pointlessly around campus for a while (Kara took us all in search of coffee, but none was forthcoming), then headed up to where we were meant to be setting up our display stand. Thankfully it was open, and the organisers were already about, so we found our table and began cutting and pasting our board together.
A fair while and the colonisation of several more tables with our junk later, we finally had the display board in some kind of working order, which was just as well because other groups were beginning to arrive, one of which was assigned one of the tables we'd taken over. We stashed all our bags and random junk behind the display board and began to arrange the table. At this point, we discovered that although we had a full set of transparancies and a full Powerpoint presentation for our Group Presentation, I was the only one who'd actually written any speeches (actually, that might be unfair to Celeste, I think she'd done some work on hers).
This having been discovered, we hastily attempted to practice what we had, which was an unmitigated disaster. After being interrupted by a briefing telling us what rooms we were going to (and being very thankful that we'd been assigned the last slot to do our presentation in case of trouble getting to the Uni, and that we'd been so early), we set about frantic last-minute speechwriting, and had several more run-throughs. Eventually we managed to get one where no-one degenerated into swearing profusely due to forgetting their lines (I wasn't the one doing the swearing, I hasten to add - I had cue cards :-) ), and although it was still half a minute short, we decided to just go with it.
We then had a mini-interview for this Crest Award thing we were meant to have applied for. However, as we were also meant to do a truckload more work for it which we just plain haven't, I think we're giving up on that idea. Had a quick look around at everyone else's displays - quite a few of their projects were massively more complete than ours, but then again they tended to have more clearly specified aims (and, it appeared from later comments, *way* more support from the companies they were involved with). Their display boards, however, were pitiful compared to ours, on the whole - either unreadable, or uninformative, or covered in company advertising.
Finally, it was our turn to trek over to the seminar rooms to do our presentation. We lugged the computer-projector that Kathryn had brought, the laptop with our presentation on, our notes, our acetates in case it all went horribly wrong, and all the attendant cables, and Kathryn was convinced we'd forgotten something. On the way over she also admitted that she didn't know how to set the projector up, even though her parents had told her to pay attention when they demonstrated how to at the start of the proceedings. Thankfully I *had* been paying attention, so I knew how to set it up (although it took the entire 10mins allowed).
When we got to the rooms, all three of the others decided to go to the loo, leaving me guarding the equipment. Suddenly I realised what was missing - our prototypes! We'd meant to get them out and demonstrate them during our talk... and when the last set of groups came out of the rooms, they were all carrying their prototypes! I couldn't leave all the equipment just lying there, so I had to wait until the others came out; they all ran back over to get them while I stayed with the equipment, ready to explain where the rest of the team was if we were called in. They did get back before that happened, though. Apart from cutting it rather fine on the setup time, the presentation went absolutely smoothly and without a hitch, which was rather amazing really. (I guess I'd better thank God, and the church youthgroup for their prayer.) When we got back to the main hall, it was lunchtime.
My first round of lunch consisted of a few sandwiches culled from the small herd of those without tomato in them (these people were *obsessed* with putting tomato in sandwiches!), some things I thought were sausage rolls, and a sausage on a stick. The things that I thought were sausage rolls were actually some weird kind of cheese and onion roll, but they weren't bad. I went back up, and started eating the decorations.
Yes, the decorations. For instance, there was a swan carved out of ice - not that I ate any of that, couldn't break any bits off. There was also this watermelon sculpture, which was mostly what I ate (the bits that were just lying around beside it that had been cut out, to start with, then a few more loose bits, then finally I disassembled it a bit more to eat the glace cherries that were impaled on cocktail sticks near the top of the ediface). There was all manner of odd salad items (and oranges) sitting around the sandwiches, cut into intricate patterns. I ate the watermelon mostly for water content, since they weren't offering anything I could drink. (I'd brought one bottle of water with me, and after having 80p eaten by a vending machine I got a 40p bottle of water later, but was then out of small change.)
After lunch, there was an awful lot of sitting around waiting for something to happen. This was all fine and good by me, because by this time The Mother Of All Headaches, which was the day's main event, was starting to dig her claws in and make herself very much the central feature of my perceptual system. She'd been hanging around in the background pretty much all day (I blame her on the draught caused by Kara having her window in the Mini open, as she was along the side of my head affected by that draught and nowhere else), but after lunch she set in with avengance. So I sat and nursed my headache for a while, and then the assessors came round to question us at the stand.
The first words they said were "We'll start with the bossy one," and I must admit I instantly thought 'LaToya', but no, their next word was, "Michelle." I guess I did richly deserve the title, however, having been a complete tyrant due to my growing headachyness and the complete and utter lack of preperation on the part of everyone else - I think the particular event they were referring to was me ordering everyone around while setting up the projector. Anyway, they were mostly concerned about whether we were going to do Engineering (definate 'no's from LaToya (no Maths) and me (no way!), random burbling from Celeste, and a 'yes' from Kathryn) and not about our project, which was fine by me. I told them I'd just been doing the project to have something to put on my UCAS form, because I had a headache, which tends to make me more blunt. Miss Gooch winced at that statement. Heh.
We then had to stand up while endless random VIP or parent types came over to our table and asked us the same questions over and over again. I don't think I was dreadfully uncivil to anyone, despite part of my skull attempting to detach itself from my head. I'd made sure I sat down for as much time as I possibly could, which meant I didn't get into too much trouble from my feet. Eventually it was over and we could go sit down to listen to more interminable pontification about engineering and everyone's projects (many groups had more than one engineer and certainly all of them had been to the company more than once). I spent most of the time looking like I'd dozed off, because the headache ensured that I kept my eyes closed for as much time as I thought I could get away with.
After trooping across the stage and getting our certificates, and listening to the last little bit of patter, I helped take the display board down in a kind of desperate automatic pilot mode, and as soon as I could manage I suggested that my dad was getting a little impatient and could I go now please, then grabbed my bag (scattering a bottle - I was asked if it was mine, and I knew it was, but I said that I didn't know, because I wanted to escape so much) and we left carwards. At the first garage we came to we stopped and my dad bought me paracetamol and a bottle of water. These didn't seem to help massively, and by this time I felt really sick as well.
When I got home and flopped on the sofa for a while, the headache disappeared, however, and I managed to tuck into a tea of Kentucky Fried Chicken (it's not *really* fast food, because it contains real meat, and hence isn't bad).
Anyway, that's more than you wanted to know about the day.
I set my alarm for 05:15, because I couldn't actually remember my parents setting theirs. So, at 05:15, I was confronted by aliens landing in my bedroom (or a series of weird bleepy noises assailing me, anyway), at the same moment precisely as a parental unit knocked on my door to wake me up! Probably a good thing, however, as bleepy noises wake me up, and people knocking on doors just doesn't do the trick sometimes.
Anyway, we got to school at the requisite horrific hour of 06:00 (these times really oughtn't exist, they don't have any excuse for it), and I joined LaToya in Kara's Mini (one of the souped-up new versions with a centrally-mounted, white-with-flourescant-orange-markings speedometer which we decided was designed for backseat drivers). Soon Miss Gooch arrived, and we put more in the Mini's boot than ought to have been possible and left for Canterbury.
We shot down the roads to Canterbury, doing an *average* of 60mph (it was motorways most of the way), and got there at 07:30, an hour and a half earlier than we should have been! We wandered aimfully but pointlessly around campus for a while (Kara took us all in search of coffee, but none was forthcoming), then headed up to where we were meant to be setting up our display stand. Thankfully it was open, and the organisers were already about, so we found our table and began cutting and pasting our board together.
A fair while and the colonisation of several more tables with our junk later, we finally had the display board in some kind of working order, which was just as well because other groups were beginning to arrive, one of which was assigned one of the tables we'd taken over. We stashed all our bags and random junk behind the display board and began to arrange the table. At this point, we discovered that although we had a full set of transparancies and a full Powerpoint presentation for our Group Presentation, I was the only one who'd actually written any speeches (actually, that might be unfair to Celeste, I think she'd done some work on hers).
This having been discovered, we hastily attempted to practice what we had, which was an unmitigated disaster. After being interrupted by a briefing telling us what rooms we were going to (and being very thankful that we'd been assigned the last slot to do our presentation in case of trouble getting to the Uni, and that we'd been so early), we set about frantic last-minute speechwriting, and had several more run-throughs. Eventually we managed to get one where no-one degenerated into swearing profusely due to forgetting their lines (I wasn't the one doing the swearing, I hasten to add - I had cue cards :-) ), and although it was still half a minute short, we decided to just go with it.
We then had a mini-interview for this Crest Award thing we were meant to have applied for. However, as we were also meant to do a truckload more work for it which we just plain haven't, I think we're giving up on that idea. Had a quick look around at everyone else's displays - quite a few of their projects were massively more complete than ours, but then again they tended to have more clearly specified aims (and, it appeared from later comments, *way* more support from the companies they were involved with). Their display boards, however, were pitiful compared to ours, on the whole - either unreadable, or uninformative, or covered in company advertising.
Finally, it was our turn to trek over to the seminar rooms to do our presentation. We lugged the computer-projector that Kathryn had brought, the laptop with our presentation on, our notes, our acetates in case it all went horribly wrong, and all the attendant cables, and Kathryn was convinced we'd forgotten something. On the way over she also admitted that she didn't know how to set the projector up, even though her parents had told her to pay attention when they demonstrated how to at the start of the proceedings. Thankfully I *had* been paying attention, so I knew how to set it up (although it took the entire 10mins allowed).
When we got to the rooms, all three of the others decided to go to the loo, leaving me guarding the equipment. Suddenly I realised what was missing - our prototypes! We'd meant to get them out and demonstrate them during our talk... and when the last set of groups came out of the rooms, they were all carrying their prototypes! I couldn't leave all the equipment just lying there, so I had to wait until the others came out; they all ran back over to get them while I stayed with the equipment, ready to explain where the rest of the team was if we were called in. They did get back before that happened, though. Apart from cutting it rather fine on the setup time, the presentation went absolutely smoothly and without a hitch, which was rather amazing really. (I guess I'd better thank God, and the church youthgroup for their prayer.) When we got back to the main hall, it was lunchtime.
My first round of lunch consisted of a few sandwiches culled from the small herd of those without tomato in them (these people were *obsessed* with putting tomato in sandwiches!), some things I thought were sausage rolls, and a sausage on a stick. The things that I thought were sausage rolls were actually some weird kind of cheese and onion roll, but they weren't bad. I went back up, and started eating the decorations.
Yes, the decorations. For instance, there was a swan carved out of ice - not that I ate any of that, couldn't break any bits off. There was also this watermelon sculpture, which was mostly what I ate (the bits that were just lying around beside it that had been cut out, to start with, then a few more loose bits, then finally I disassembled it a bit more to eat the glace cherries that were impaled on cocktail sticks near the top of the ediface). There was all manner of odd salad items (and oranges) sitting around the sandwiches, cut into intricate patterns. I ate the watermelon mostly for water content, since they weren't offering anything I could drink. (I'd brought one bottle of water with me, and after having 80p eaten by a vending machine I got a 40p bottle of water later, but was then out of small change.)
After lunch, there was an awful lot of sitting around waiting for something to happen. This was all fine and good by me, because by this time The Mother Of All Headaches, which was the day's main event, was starting to dig her claws in and make herself very much the central feature of my perceptual system. She'd been hanging around in the background pretty much all day (I blame her on the draught caused by Kara having her window in the Mini open, as she was along the side of my head affected by that draught and nowhere else), but after lunch she set in with avengance. So I sat and nursed my headache for a while, and then the assessors came round to question us at the stand.
The first words they said were "We'll start with the bossy one," and I must admit I instantly thought 'LaToya', but no, their next word was, "Michelle." I guess I did richly deserve the title, however, having been a complete tyrant due to my growing headachyness and the complete and utter lack of preperation on the part of everyone else - I think the particular event they were referring to was me ordering everyone around while setting up the projector. Anyway, they were mostly concerned about whether we were going to do Engineering (definate 'no's from LaToya (no Maths) and me (no way!), random burbling from Celeste, and a 'yes' from Kathryn) and not about our project, which was fine by me. I told them I'd just been doing the project to have something to put on my UCAS form, because I had a headache, which tends to make me more blunt. Miss Gooch winced at that statement. Heh.
We then had to stand up while endless random VIP or parent types came over to our table and asked us the same questions over and over again. I don't think I was dreadfully uncivil to anyone, despite part of my skull attempting to detach itself from my head. I'd made sure I sat down for as much time as I possibly could, which meant I didn't get into too much trouble from my feet. Eventually it was over and we could go sit down to listen to more interminable pontification about engineering and everyone's projects (many groups had more than one engineer and certainly all of them had been to the company more than once). I spent most of the time looking like I'd dozed off, because the headache ensured that I kept my eyes closed for as much time as I thought I could get away with.
After trooping across the stage and getting our certificates, and listening to the last little bit of patter, I helped take the display board down in a kind of desperate automatic pilot mode, and as soon as I could manage I suggested that my dad was getting a little impatient and could I go now please, then grabbed my bag (scattering a bottle - I was asked if it was mine, and I knew it was, but I said that I didn't know, because I wanted to escape so much) and we left carwards. At the first garage we came to we stopped and my dad bought me paracetamol and a bottle of water. These didn't seem to help massively, and by this time I felt really sick as well.
When I got home and flopped on the sofa for a while, the headache disappeared, however, and I managed to tuck into a tea of Kentucky Fried Chicken (it's not *really* fast food, because it contains real meat, and hence isn't bad).
Anyway, that's more than you wanted to know about the day.
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Date: 2002-04-20 11:42 am (UTC)From:(no subject)
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Date: 2002-04-20 03:39 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2002-04-20 04:05 pm (UTC)From:...Canterbury...
Ooooh! I live there! You should have ocme and visited me (or not, as the case may be... :-))
...university...
Ooooh! I went there! For a term, until I dropped out. Best places for food and/or coffee there are probably either the Missing Link upstairs in Darwin College, or the little bistro type thingy at the Gulbenkian theatre. Just what you always wanted to know, huh? Especially with such good timing...
Oh yes, and I agree: tomato in sandwiches = Evil, Bad and Wrong.
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