Ongoing Thing

My man Shree and his girlfriend Nikisha, dressed up for graduation ball. I took a couple of photos of them and the boys on the piazza in between things. Ended up being the only photos I took today! I didn’t go to grad ball, but a whole bunch of friends did and they were chilling on the piazza waiting for the bus.

Let’s get it out of the way: today was one of those few days where I felt the culmination of university and what it’s meant to me overall. Take it how you want, but I enjoyed the hell out of today.
There’s only one song which represents tonight and the last week at uni: Ongoing Thing.

Petr had asked the BDR team if some of us could meet with him, Lockerby and a member of Akzo Nobel, to present our project today. Mahfood and me stepped up and we met them on campus by the ever legendary BDR rig. How that thing hasn’t been destroyed yet, I don’t know, but it sure is “dutty”. Akzo are potentially interested in sponsoring an offshoot of our project, so it was interesting to rep and convey our first-hand views to the representative. Meanwhile, Lockerby and Denissenko took us on a tour of the fluids facilities. We got to see the “Fluids Bunker”, an underground structure right in the middle of the uni, with a huge tank the type you could imagine seeing in a James Bond villain’s house. Apparently the rotating disk would rip the whole place up if it somehow got loose. So that was interesting. We then went for a buffet lunch at Radcliffe House, in a restaurant I didn’t know existed, where I think Mahfood and me felt like we were the first undergraduates to ever enter. Overall, I think the Akzo guy left with a pretty good impression of where the project could go, so the four of us went to the Duck for pints. First and second rounds on our lecturers! How did it take me four years to finally have a pint with my lecturers? Well except for Colin of course. That was really cool, and we stayed for a good couple of hours. Retrospectively, I'm very happy I ended up with the BDR project. Would I have had a better time on another project? Hard to say, I think there's very few which would have been better. Petr has been a sick supervisor and we had some hilarious ups and downs with the bros #sudeep. The project itself also worked out really well #first.

Finally, I made my way home for the 8pm match. Eve arrived today. She starts work on Monday, so there’s the weekend to make the most of while Chandos House is in its final incarnation! And this was definitely the biggest night (BIG NIGHT) of the week. We set some ground rules for the France – Switzerland game, which we watched in my room as usual. Something along the lines of:
- Pick a player. Whenever he appears on screen or his name is mentioned, drink!
- Pick a team. Whenever they concede a goal, take a shot.
- If your team gets a yellow card, take a shot.
- If your player gets a yellow card, take two.
- If your player gets a red card, go home.
- And so on…
I’d saved a bottle of the old classic for the occasion, our dear Fireball. It disappeared shortly after the first half. Who knew it would end up being such an intense game? With an amazing result of 5-2 (we were 5-0 up at one point!), this was by far one of the best games of the cup, hands down! It also means we ended up hooned off our faces by the end of it though. I’d happened to have chosen Cabaye, who for some reason the commentators took a particular liking to and wouldn’t stop referring to, even though he was barely contributing to the game…
Somehow, we had the idea of going to Evolve. Out of Emma, Mahfood, Anu, Eve and me, I have no idea who could have possibly thought of that idea… So after reaching the door, skipping the queue (OBVS) and almost entering… we decided to go to Kelseys instead, which was bumping to the usual throb of eliminator being swallowed and cue balls being potted. We picked up three random freshers there, who joined us for the rest of the night. Big dogs we think we are, graduating and all, we were under the impression we could teach them something about having a good night.
We went to Moo Bar after that. For once, it was the perfect mix of packed and not having to pay for entry! So we had a great time dancing until closing time. Which then ended with us having an afterparty at ours. A bunch of people joined, including the guys from upstairs and the whole bros crew who were coming back from grad ball suited up: Tom, Giles, Nyle, Ali, Bhav. We had a rowdy night which lasted until 5am, well past sunrise. The fruit store was even opening down the road. Bhav did his day’s shopping and apparently ate a six pack of eggs before bed. Us? We kept on going, I’m not sure how I got to sleep in the end, so much energy. Apologies to Warwick Street for the noise tonight, but they’d have understood if they’d had the same night as us.

Those freshers went home with one of two things to say to their flatmates, either 1) they had the sickest night ever and they can’t wait to be cool like us or 2) they just had the weirdest night ever with a bunch of graduands who thought they were the s**t, acting all knowledgeable and arrogant. Either way, kudos to them for sticking it out all night.

And that’s what it is. At the end of it all, no matter what anyone else thinks, we’ve had the time of our lives. It’s hard to say you’ve made the most of it and there are no regrets, but hell, I’ve made the most of it.

peace