The 'meeting'

On the last Friday of every Christmas term, we hold a 'meeting' in the Physics building. It's really a party, but we have to call it a meeting for political reasons.

At this 'meeting', there's ample food, drink, music and silliness. One of the long-standing traditions is called the 'tower run'. This involves competitors taking turns at sprinting as fast as possible from the basement up 9 flights of stairs to the top floor. The photograph here is of Petre as he neared the finish line - he did very well but unfortunately was not the winner this year.

Because this event takes place after much merriment (it never starts before 9 p.m. on the night) many competitors end up vomiting after the effort! Last year I had to clean up some of this mess, but thankfully nobody aimed for the floor this year. Other competitions this year included getting into and out of paper clean-room suits as fast as possible (I won that event, with a time of 15.1 seconds - what can I say, I just like getting out of clothes quick!)

Anyway, I am the 'head elf'. I have been organising these events for many, many years now. It's a crazy effort, dashing to the supermarket on the day to buy about £600 worth of food and booze, dashing back to the Physics building to set up the music and buffet, then staying overnight in my office (I went to sleep at 4 a.m. this morning) in order to clean up the next morning. It took 3 hours to clean up today!

Man. This is my last one - I have said this before, but this time it's true. It's too knackering! It's brilliant fun but I need to pass the torch on...