Week 15- An Unexpected Party

It came to pass that in the middle of the Information Age Higgins was again its president, being the ninth of that name. The power of May, servant of Brexit, was then again growing in the world, though the Shadow in the Channel that looked towards Brussels was not yet known for what it was. All evil things were stirring. The students delved deep at that time, seeking beneath scrawled notes for knowledge, the thing beyond price that was becoming yearly ever harder to win.

I do of course mean that my first semester at the University of Auckland has come to an end. This was my final week of class and I now join all the other students in trying to understand all the notes I’ve taken all semester and commit them to memory. Michael D. Higgins came to visit and as I am writing this after my trip to Mt Doom (The place where the one ring was forged in The Lord of the Rings) I decided to edit a little of Tolkien’s work for my intro (The original piece is included at the bottom). You can read more about Mt Doom in my next post.

The final week was a shortened week to begin with following a three-day weekend. The free day fell afoul of the temperamental Auckland weather which made it difficult to get much done. I worked away quietly in my room and watched the film ‘Catch me if you Can’ featuring Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hanks and Christopher Walken. The film’s star spends his time pretending to be a pilot, a doctor and a lawyer, funding his exploits with forged cheques. Although he was ultimately caught it brought me the lesson of the week. It’s amazing how far having some self-confidence can take you.

Things were winding down in class, some lecturers opting to cancel the last few while others desperately tried to convince you that what was half covered on the very last day could still come up on the exam. I was due to have two presentations, one for the breathalyser project and the other for the wind rotor project, so I was making sure they were ready to go. We were due to present the wind rotor on Wednesday, with slides due at 11am. Unfortunately, one group member announced at 10:30am that he had only just woken up and he hadn’t prepped any slides. I quickly put some images together to put on his slides and we submitted. Fortunately, they didn’t get to our group so he had 24 hours to think of what he was going to say with the thrown together slides. In the mean-time, I went to frisbee training and then had a goal and expectations meeting with the team for the upcoming Mixed Nationals tournament.

I had decided that it was time for a haircut so after the meeting I got one of the guys to bring his clippers and give me a trim. As it had been about 20 weeks since my last hair cut his clippers struggled to get through the thick curls. To speed up the process we used a scissors first to thin it out and cut out a few clumps before finishing with the clippers. I’m pretty happy with it, though Marija (who was a little upset I’d cut off the curls) told me that I looked like a serial killer. Thank goodness she didn’t see me with no hair two years ago!

Both presentations ended up taking place on Thursday. The first was for the breathalyser and as the group was well prepared it went well. We were first up because I had to leave to do my other presentation. We were due to have our wind rotor presentations from 11am again and we were supposed to be second up. At 11:05, the same group member had yet to arrive. The other group finished presenting and the lecturer had put our slides up ready to go by 11:15. He read out all our names but only saw three out of four faces. After an awkward 30 seconds, the lecturer started to take down our slides when suddenly the door opened and the fourth member arrived. We got through the presentation without too much trouble and actually received pretty good comments. After that ordeal, it was time for the final of the intrafaculty indoor frisbee league. Sadly, it was not to be as ENGSCI 3 fell to BME 3 by two points.

By Friday I was finished. I went into college in the morning to listen to the rest of the wind rotor presentations before going to the Biomedical engineering and engineering science barbeque. At the end of the semester the faculty organised a free bbq for the students though I did end up helping to cut onions and clean the bbqs afterwards. After the clean-up, I went to listen to Michael D. Higgins give his keynote address to the University, with my wind rotor blades in hand. He spoke very well, about the relationship between Ireland and New Zealand, our similarities through culture, language, oppression and moving forward with global responsibilities. He has a wonderful mind and this was demonstrated when he was asked questions at the end and was able to respond to relatively simple questions for about 10 minutes with great poise, supporting facts and gentle anecdotes. I had great fun trying to cycle home with two wind rotor blades in hand but I was unsuccessful in my attempts to fly.

Saturday was again a frisbee day and then I spent Sunday morning preparing my provisions for my journey into Mordor. I just about had time left to iron my shirt and borrowed trousers before I left for a reception with President Higgins. This was his last engagement of his state visits to Australia and New Zealand. It took place in a reception room on the fourth floor of the War Memorial Museum with about 80 other invitees. This included my friend Clare Doherty. I may have received some funny looks from my friends who had never seen me in anything other than sports gear but Clare and I looked the part at the reception.

The reception began with an open bar and four Irish musicians playing some traditional Irish music. I thought this was a dangerous combination in a room predominately filled with Irish people. President Higgins spoke again before Clare and I were lucky enough to get our picture taken with him, his wife and Minister Flanagan. Unfortunately, they were standing in front of a window so it didn’t come out too well. There were a few nibbles served before I rushed home to leave on my next adventure.

You can watch some of the video that I took here.

Passage from J.R.R Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, The Fellowship of the Ring:

‘It came to pass that in the middle of the Third Age Durin was again its king, being the sixth of that name. The power of Sauron, servant of Morgoth, was then again growing in the world, though the Shadow in the Forest that looked towards Moria was not yet known for what it was. All evil things were stirring. The Dwarves delved deep at that time, seeking beneath Barazinbar for mithril, the thing beyond price that was becoming yearly ever harder to win.’