(no subject)

[eponymousarchon]

Well, things have been busy around here, while the university is wound-down and currently between semesters, it would seem that the conferences office has been working its hardest to sell the use of our facilities during the vacation.

As this mostly involves the lecture theatres on the other half of the ground floor of our building, this means a steady stream of confused conference delegates who mistake our happy litte helpdesk for a building reception (there isn't one) and make unreasonable demands of us. (Well, mostly.)

So far this year we've had: 

1. Guildford area Sixth-form Universities day.
   
   Egad. Lots of different universities from around the country hawking their pitch to billions of bloody local school kids and sixth-formers. We gained the worst of  the schoolyard noise and carping, all the bravado and delinquent behaviour that currently passes for 'cool' and a top-up of the level of unoriginal, unwitty graffiti in the toilets. And to  top it all, none of the little shits had the grace to drown in the pond either!
    
   
   
2. The Grand Launch of Coca-Cola ZERO, (apparently the all-new Diet Coke)
   
   Attended by 100s of bloody Coke employees, all in matching red polo shirts, and all trying to crib the answers to 'scavenger hunt' quizzes from us as well as playing football over lunch and consquently making our toilets smell like a tropical rainforest (albeit one that is very, very, unwell.)
   
   The scavenger hunters who knew what they wanted and just needed certain obscure details googling for (and asked nicely) -- and who gave us some freebie drinks after as a thankyou, now that I think of it --  were reasonably well received.  The numpty who seemed to expect us to give him the answer to the 'local' questions, without any effort on his part seemed a bit miffed when we (Oh alright, I) pointed out that  the answers to the questions he was asking were all within a hundred metre radius of this office, that we'd pointed him in the right directions and that he was expected to 'go forth' and actually put in some legwork.
   
   
   
3. The Guildford Dioces - 'Growing with God'
   
   Now admittedly they were generally polite and less raucus than the previous lots, a few hundred folks with a high-than average number of people wearing dog collars really cluttered the place up, and tended to eat the nearest cafe out of the usual yummy lunchtime fare.
   
   However, that's without mentioning my being taken for a delegate by one of the speakers (I assume) in the toilet of all places -- Now, I'm at work, so I'm dressed-down a little, but I'm still all in black with short spiky hair, nary a dog collar in evidence and wearing *really* big stompy rock boots. Perhaps I need to try a little harder...
   
   
   And currently:
   
   
   
4. The Autodesk Users' Group International's CAD CAMP (No, really!)
   
   Well, thank heavens for geeks! They've been the best to date. Quiet, polite, not asking stupid questions, cluttering the place up least of all so far... But it's an AutoCAD gathering. Now, I know I do geeky things myself, but AutoCAD? *shudder*
   
   

Of course, in the middle of all this, we've had one or two graduations, with millions of clueless parents parking in the wrong places, blocking the building entrance *completely* and asking clueless questions repeatedly, but the graduations are kind of what it's all about, so strangely it's easier to put up with. 

And of course the graduating students shine and bounce and bubble with energy and happiness. If there was such a thing as 'Positive vibes' you really could bottle it and sell it at such times. 

And after all that, it's still only June...

Comments

Coca-cola day - etc..

[villagecretin.livejournal.com]

It was funny seeing 450 people all wearing black tops and black trousers on a blazing hot day outside. No spare tops though odd that.

But give them credit, where credit is due, some of us got a few free bottles of drink, basically if coca-cola bottled the stuff they had it, still water, fruit juice, in addition to various soft drinks. They duly brought their own vending machines, 2 off them, filled them up, but gave away free bottles and took the vending machines away at the end of the day. Yep stupid? I couldn't work that one out either?

Oddly the zero diet coke they were promoting big style was rationed to at most one bottle per delegate, as by 10 a.m. there was no bottles of the stuff left.

This was duly followed, at about 11 a.m., by a mad scramble for the toilets after the first training session they had that morning. Whether this was because of everyone sampling the new diet coke during the session is anyone's guess. We had first - queues outside the gents toilets stretching out the door as well as the ladies - followed by a stampede up the stairs when we told them there were toilets on the upper floors.

We got about 6 or was it 8 bottles of various drinks at the helpdesk for helping them to a few answers on the quiz. Not that we are open to being bribed or anything but it does help when we are not particulary over strained at the helpdesk :-)

They had rowing machines, personal trainers in fully army gear (I actually thought they were hired from the BA but no, although a high number had been in the Army core)

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We also had 14 year olds doing a tressure hunt where some of the clues had gone walkies.
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The 'Growing with God' group a few had bright green (you've got 'first prize' type with the trimmings) rosettes with the word 'Steward' on them, most odd. We also had one person wondering across campus with a arc under her arm - poor Noah!

Mind you I've been accosted numerous times for people thinking I work in Sainsbury, Tesco's, Cinema, WHSmiths etc.. etc.. - I'm wearing a UNIS top and walking boots for crying out loud, I've finished for the day and decide to buy something on my way home from work Arg!!!! So don't feel it's you George.

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As for the CAD camp group, their screens were dusty with finger marks before the day had actually started - no-one had brought screen wipes with them, Doh! Ok I helped them out with liquid and wipes - that reminds me did that bottle come back?

Graduation

[villagecretin.livejournal.com]

Having computing students and the network go down due to a critical bit of hardware failing, which took out AP meaning no one could log in proper until 10 a.m., "but I want to print off the email stating I've hired my robes dam you!" - very embarrassing I can tell you, I was doing the lab checks with no-one else around with a lot of grumpy students.

It was a case of hide in the back office and do something else for a while, until more information came through as to what had happened.